Collaborative Research: Integrating shape, scaling, and alignment in a global approach to F0 events in intonation systems

协作研究：将形状、缩放和对齐整合到语调系统中 F0 事件的全局方法中

• 批准号: 1023954
• 负责人: Nanette Veilleux
• 金额: $ 3.36万
• 依托单位: Simmons University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-10-01 至 2015-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1023954&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Integrating; shape; scaling

Human languages use pitch to convey meaning in a bewildering variety of ways. In all languages, pitch (as one aspect of speech prosody) can express attitude or emotion. In some languages, like English, pitch patterns, usually called intonation contours, also express distinctions such as that between a question and a statement. In languages like Mandarin Chinese, pitch patterns usually called tones go still further to signal differences between words that are otherwise identical. Despite significant advances in recent decades, a unified theoretical account of such linguistic phenomena remains elusive. What is missing is a common acoustic or articulatory vocabulary for expressing the relevant distinctions---a single measurable dimension within which spoken pitch contours (rises and falls) can be reliably distinguished regardless of the language under investigation. In recent work, the research team developed a new mathematical approach to tone and intonation, based on the notion of Tonal Center of Gravity. TCoG is a gestalt or global approach to tone perception and production that reconciles seemingly contradictory results from different strands of the experimental literature, moving toward a model that incorporates the best aspects of past theories, while avoiding their characteristic weaknesses. That earlier work has established that the TCoG approach accounts well for production and perception data involving two contrasting English intonation contours. This project aims to expand the empirical range of the approach in three crucial ways: First it extends the model to additional English intonation patterns. Second, it moves beyond English to look at other intonation languages (e.g., German), as well as so-called "tone languages" (e.g., Serbian). Lastly, whereas the previous work concentrated primarily on the timing of tonal events in speech, this project goes further, to investigate the interaction of tonal timing patterns with the scaling of tonal events in the pitch domain. The experimental work will be of two primary kinds: automatic classification of pitch contours recorded from native speakers in an experimental setting, and direct manipulation (through speech synthesis) of pitch contours in perception studies designed to determine which aspects of the acoustic signal have the greatest effect on listeners' judgments of utterance meaning.Given the central role of intonation patterns in speech communication, one major contribution of the Tonal Center of Gravity approach is its potential to transform methods for speech synthesis and speech understanding. Synthetic speech is typically described as repetitive, detached, and often unhelpfully neutral; listeners recognize that they are talking with a machine that ?doesn?t get it?. By providing a more detailed understanding of how intonational patterns help to convey a message, TCoG could be used to devise algorithms for the synthesis of more natural and appropriate-sounding speech. Likewise, for automatic understanding of the aspects of meaning that depend on intonational patterns, TCoG could allow an automatic system to detect levels of nuance beyond simply whether a word is emphasized or not, or whether an utterance is a statement or a question. A final application of this work could be in the development of software tools for second language learning, in which automated instruction and feedback on the subtleties of second language intonation patterns could help learners master important aspects of communication that are typically ignored in current approaches to language pedagogy.

人类语言使用音调以令人困惑的多种方式传达意义。在所有语言中，音调（作为语音韵律的一个方面）都可以表达态度或情感。在某些语言中，例如英语，音调模式，通常称为语调轮廓，也表达了诸如问题和语句之间的区分。在诸如普通话之类的语言中，通常称为音调的音调模式进一步提高，以表明单词之间相同的单词之间的差异。尽管最近几十年的进步取得了重大进展，但这种语言现象的统一理论描述仍然难以捉摸。缺少的是一种通用的声学或发音词汇，用于表达相关区分 - 一个可衡量的尺寸，无论该语言如何，都可以可靠地区分口语音调轮廓（上升和下降）。在最近的工作中，研究小组根据重力中心的概念开发了一种新的数学方法来进行音调和语调。 TCOG是一种格式塔或全球语调感知和生产的方法，它是由实验文献的不同链来调和似乎矛盾的，它朝着融合了过去理论的最佳方面的模型，同时避免了它们的特征性弱点。较早的工作已经确定，TCOG方法在生产和感知数据中很好地说明了涉及两个对比的英语语调轮廓。 该项目旨在以三种关键的方式扩展该方法的经验范围：首先，它将模型扩展到其他英语语调模式。其次，它超越了英语，以查看其他语调语言（例如德语）以及所谓的“音调语言”（例如塞尔维亚语）。最后，尽管以前的工作主要集中在语音中的音调时机上，但该项目进一步研究了调节定时模式与音调域中音调事件的缩放的相互作用。实验工作将是两种主要种类：在实验环境中从母语中记录的音调轮廓的自动分类，以及在感知研究中直接操纵（通过语音综合）对声学信号的哪个方面确定听众判断的范围的范围，范围的综合量是构成了倾向的范围，其构成了概念，该概念的构成了概念，该概念是构成倾斜度的into contocution inter的范围，其构成了一种构成的概念，该概念是构成了概念，该概念是构成了概念，该概念是构成了概念，该概念是构成了概念，该概念是构成了概念，该概念是构成了一定的信息，该构成了概念，这是一定程度的传播。语音综合和语音理解的方法。综合语音通常被描述为重复，分离且通常无情中性。听众认识到他们正在与一台机器说话？没有吗？通过对独立模式如何有助于传达信息的更详细的理解，可以使用TCOG来设计算法，以综合更自然和适当的语音。同样，为了自动理解取决于独立模式的含义的各个方面，TCOG可以允许自动系统检测到不仅仅强调单词，或者说话是否是陈述还是问题，而不是简单地检测出细微差别的水平。这项工作的最终应用可能是开发用于第二语言学习的软件工具，其中自动说明和对第二语言语调模式的微妙之处的反馈可以帮助学习者掌握当前语言教学方法中通常被忽略的交流的重要方面。