A kinematic study of phonetic reduction in American Sign Language

描述(申请人提供)：这项拟议的研究试图检验美国手语(ASL)中常规的和自发的手势降低，这是流利手势中出现的语音减少的形式。虽然手势在身体上的位置是区别于其他手势的语音参数，但在语音层面上，位置可能会非常不同。例如，在前额或太阳穴以引文形式产生的特定手势通常以流畅的手势下降到语音上不同的位置(例如，下巴)。当手势速度加快或协同发音压力增大时，额头或太阳穴的其他体征也会自发地出现下沉。本研究的目的是比较常规的和自发的手势降低这两种现象，并分析它们的出现频率以及它们的物理程度和形状随语速和语音语境的影响。运动学数据将从本地ASL签名者那里收集，因为他们以引用的形式产生位于额头或太阳穴的手势。手势速度和手势语境将被操纵，以增加常规手势降低和自发手势降低的发生率和程度。我们认为，语音降低的发生和程度都受到手势发音结构的影响，这就是为什么一个手势可以被降低，但仍然可以像相同的手势一样被理解。特别是，根据已经记录的常规手势降低的具体情况，我们预测，简单路径移动到头部的手势将移动到头部较低的位置，而包括额外的手势内部移动的手势将从头部分离并产生在身体前面的手势空间中。本研究在发音音系学的框架内考察手语，旨在了解手语中发音目标和手势的性质。 项目简介：这项研究与美国国立卫生研究院的公共卫生使命相关，因为它有助于开发基于生理的手势产生和感知的测量方法，这反过来将有助于区分聋人手势产生的正常语音变异和由于语言或运动障碍引起的变异。此外，它为分析有针对性的肢体运动提供了独特的背景，这与理解人类运动障碍有关。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed study seeks to examine conventionalized and spontaneous sign lowering in American Sign Language (ASL), which are forms of phonetic reduction that occur in fluent signing. Although a sign's location on the body is a phonological parameter that differentiates it from other signs, location can be extremely variable at a phonetic level. For instance, particular signs that are produced at the forehead or temple in citation form are conventionally lowered in fluent signing to phonologically-distinct locations (e.g., the jaw). Lowering also occurs spontaneously in other signs located at the forehead or temple, when there is increased signing speed or coarticulatory pressure. The goal of this study is to compare these two phenomena, conventionalized and spontaneous sign lowering, and analyze the frequency of their occurrence and their physical extent and shape as an effect of speed and phonetic context. Kinematic data will be collected from native ASL signers as they produce signs that are located at the forehead or temple in citation form. Signing speed and sign context will be manipulated in order to increase the occurrence and extent of both conventionalized and spontaneous sign lowering. We propose that both the occurrence and extent of phonetic lowering are influenced by a sign's articulatory structure, and this is what allows a sign to be lowered and yet remain intelligible as the same sign. In particular, based on the specific cases of conventionalized sign lowering that have been documented, we predict that signs with a simple path movement to the head will move to lower locations on the head, whereas signs that include an additional sign-internal movement will become dissociated from the head and be produced in the signing space in front of the body. This study examines signed language within the framework of articulatory phonology, with the aim of understanding the nature of articulatory targets and gestures in the sign modality. Project Narrative: This study is relevant to NIH's public health mission, because it contributes to the development of physiologically-based measures of sign production and perception, which in turn will help differentiate normal phonetic variation in sign production from variation due to language or motor disorders in Deaf signers. Further, it provides a unique context for analyzing targeted limb movements, which is relevant to the understanding of human motor disorders.