Collaborative Research: Constituents and heads in prosody perception: A comparative study

这个项目研究韵律在口语中是如何被用来表示单词是如何被组合成短语的，以及每个单词和短语是如何为语篇提供信息的。在文本中，这些功能通过标点符号和文本增强来表示（例如，黑体字），但是在口语中，音调、定时、响度、语音质量和语音的其它属性传达这样的信息。语言学家认为，所有语言的韵律都有一个普遍的结构，即中心成分（Headed Constituent，HC），它将音节和单词组合在一起，每个成分都有一个突出的成分被称为中心成分。这些成分决定了语音如何协调（在物理层面），以及语音如何映射到决定话语意义的句法和语义结构。韵律成分在英语，西班牙语和法语中进行了检查，这三种语言不仅在韵律上有所不同（例如，语调和节奏模式），但也在关联韵律句法和语义。在伊利诺伊州，巴塞罗那和里昂进行的实验将显示如何听众感知的韵律措辞和突出模式的话语时，不同的语音特性（音高和时间），在句法和语义特征的语音样本。一种新的方法，实时，听觉转录与非专家听众和会话语音样本的目的是最好的近似条件下正常的语言使用。英语，西班牙语和法语的平行实验将提供关键证据的普遍性的标题成分的结构，韵律形式的基础，也将揭示语言之间的差异，在语言意义的韵律的作用。项目的研究结果将有助于有价值的基准数据如何韵律功能在会话语音，未来的应用程序在临床环境中，以确定语音障碍涉及韵律，在第二语言教学，并在语音技术的发展，人机界面。

This project investigates how prosody is used in spoken language to signal how words are grouped into phrases and how each word and phrase contributes information to the discourse. In text these functions are signaled through punctuation and text enhancement (eg., boldface), but in spoken language pitch, timing, loudness, voice quality, and other properties of speech convey such information. Linguists propose that underlying the prosody of all languages is a universal structure, the Headed Constituent (HC), which groups syllables and words together, with one prominent element per constituent designated the Head element. These constituents determine how speech sounds are coordinated (at a physical level), and how speech is mapped onto syntactic and semantic structures that determine utterance meaning. Prosodic constituents are examined in English, Spanish, and French, three languages that are known to differ not only in their prosody (eg., intonation and rhythmic patterns), but also in the associations linking prosody to syntax and semantics. Experiments conducted in Illinois, Barcelona and Lyon will show how how listeners perceive the prosodic phrasing and prominence patterns of an utterance when presented with speech samples that differ in their phonetic properties (pitch and timing), and in syntactic and semantic features. A novel method of real-time, auditory transcription with non-expert listeners and conversational speech samples is intended to best approximate conditions of normal language use. Parallel experiments on English, Spanish, and French will provide critical evidence regarding the universality of the Headed Constituent as the structure that underlies prosodic form, and will also shed light on differences among languages in the role of prosody in communicating linguistic meaning. Project findings will contribute valuable benchmark data on how prosody functions in conversational speech, with future applications in clinical settings to identify speech disorders involving prosody, in second language teaching, and in development of speech technologies for human-computer interfaces.