Speech Reduction across Languages and Dialects

人类每天在随意交谈中产生的语言变化非常大，有些声音和整个音节发生了变化或缺失。美国英语的听众在上下文中听到这种“略读”时，并没有注意到什么不寻常之处；然而，说第二语言的人，甚至是来自其他英语国家的听众，经常发现美式英语的缩减语很难理解。目前的研究集中在说话者和听者如何在不同的语言和方言中使用减少的、自发的语言，以及这种语言如何阻碍甚至促进不同背景的说话者之间的交流。该项目将测试说荷兰语、西班牙语、日语和三种英语方言的人，以确定1)在多大程度上，缩减是语言特有的，是语法的一部分，而不是随机的或物理决定的变化；2)母语的声音模式是否会影响第二语言自发语音水平上的语音变化；3)方言对理解缩减语音的影响有多大；民族/国家认同的强弱等影响生产和对减少的理解。最重要的理论问题是，什么是习得语法的一部分，什么是低水平的可变性。此外，该项目将提供关于言语感知范例模型、说话者第一语言和第二语言之间的相互影响以及发音规划等理论问题的数据。通过全球化、移民和电信，现代世界的人们经常跨越语言背景进行互动。以英语为母语的人与非以英语为母语的人互动，不同英语方言的人相互交流。目前的项目研究的是人类如何在交际情况下处理会话语言的可变性。通过该项目获得的关于自然语音的详细知识，将影响语音技术以及人类如何通过语音与计算机交互，有利于语音合成和自发语音的自动识别。由于该项目包括对实验参与者的英语熟练程度和语言背景的广泛调查，它还将揭示哪些因素使非母语听众更容易或更难以理解他们的第二语言会话。这个项目形成了一个协同的国际协作小组来回答这些问题。

The speech humans produce every day in casual conversation is incredibly varied, with sounds and whole syllables changed or missing. American English listeners notice nothing unusual when hearing such "reduced speech" in context; however, second-language speakers and even listeners from other English-speaking countries often find American English reduced speech difficult to understand. The current research centers on how speakers and listeners use reduced, spontaneous speech across languages and dialects, and on how such speech may hinder or even facilitate communication among speakers of different backgrounds. The project will test speakers of Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and three dialects of English to determine 1) to what extent reduction is language-specific and part of the grammar rather than random or physically-determined variability, 2) whether the sound patterns of the native language influence phonetic variability at the level of spontaneous speech in the second language, 3) how strongly dialect affects understanding of reduced speech, and 4) how degree of proficiency, years of experience, strength of ethnic/national identity, etc. affect production and understanding of reduction. The overarching theoretical question is, what is part of the learned grammar and what is low-level variability. Furthermore, the project will provide data on theoretical questions about exemplar models of speech perception, mutual effects between speakers' first and second languages, and articulatory planning. Through globalization, immigration, and telecommunications, humans in the modern world often interact across language backgrounds. Native English speakers interact with non-native speakers and speakers of different English dialects interact with each other. The current project addresses how humans handle the variability of conversational speech in communicative situations. Detailed knowledge of natural, reduced speech, gained through this project, will impact speech technology and how humans interact with computers by voice, benefiting speech synthesis and automatic recognition of spontaneous speech. Because the project includes extensive investigation of English proficiency and language background for the experiment participants, it will also shed light on what factors make it easier or harder for non-native listeners to understand conversational speech in their second language. This project forms a synergistic international collaborative group to answer these questions.