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

该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）提出的理论，言语产生的运动执行部分的输入由整体的、音节大小的程序的线性串组成，但只有很少的经验支持这一假设。在我们的项目中，我们追求一种神经语言学的方法，这是基于这样一种假设，即语音产生的语音编码组件的表示被称为言语失用症的临床条件损坏。由于失读言语错误的发生系统地受到单词的语音/语音构成的影响，因此可以假设单词对失读错误的敏感性反映了其潜在语音表征的复杂性。在我们的方法中，我们估计错误的概率为一个具有代表性的样本，具有不同的语音结构的单词和模型这些数据的变量描述的目标词的形式属性。错误概率的估计将获得从一个大的人口的apraactionspeakers的语音样本，并将使用一种新的方法来预测这些数据的非线性计量模型的音韵形式。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。这一结果对于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提供给该领域的其他研究人员。

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.