Internal structure of phonetic representations: Non-linear analyses of error data from patients with apraxia of speech.

这项建议旨在揭示语音计划或言语运动程序的内部结构。根据Levelt，Roelofs&Meyer(1999)的理论，言语产生的运动执行成分的输入是由整体性、音节大小的线性程序串组成的，但这一假设几乎没有经验支持。在我们的项目中，我们追求一种神经语言学的方法，该方法基于这样的假设，即语音产生的语音编码成分的表示被称为言语失用的临床疾病破坏。由于失用言语错误的发生受到语音/语音组合的系统影响，S一词对失用失误的敏感性可以被认为反映了其潜在语音表征的复杂性。在我们的方法中，我们估计具有不同音系结构的具有代表性的单词样本的错误概率，并通过描述目标单词的形式属性的变量来建模这些数据。错误概率的估计将从大量失用说话者的语音样本中获得，并将使用一种新的方法通过音系形式的非线性度量模型来预测这些数据。所得到的模型的形状可以被解释为反映语音表示的内部结构。这一结果对语音编码阶段的特异性将通过纳入语音障碍患者的对照样本来证明。在这个项目中收集的语音样本和感知数据将在一个大型数据库中供该领域的其他研究人员使用。

This proposal is aimed at disclosing the internal structure of phonetic plans or speech motor programs. According to a theory developed by Levelt, Roelofs & Meyer (1999), the input to the motor execution component of speech production consists of linear strings of holistic, syllable-sized programs, but there is only little empirical support to this hypothesis. In our project we pursue a neurolinguistic approach which is based on the assumption that the representations of the phonetic encoding component of speech production are corrupted by a clinical condition termed apraxia of speech. Since the occurrence of apraxic speech errors is systematically influenced by the phonological / phonetic make-up of words, a word¿s sensitivity to apraxic failure can be assumed to mirror the complexity of its underlying phonetic representation. In our approach we estimate error-probabilities for a representative sample of words with different phonological structures and model these data by variables describing the formal properties of the target words. Estimates of error probabilities will be obtained from the speech samples of a large population of apraxic speakers, and a novel method will be used to predict these data by a non-linear metrical model of phonological form. The shape of the resulting model can be interpreted to reflect the internal structure of phonetic representations. The specificity of this result for the phonetic encoding stage will be demonstrated by inclusion of a control sample of patients with phonological impairments. The speech samples and perceptual data collected in this project will be made accessible, in a large database, to other researchers in this field.