Collaborative Research: Prosodic structure: An integrated empirical and modeling investigation

合作研究：韵律结构：综合实证和建模研究

• 批准号: 1551513
• 负责人: Jelena Krivokapic
• 金额: $ 5.44万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2022-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1551513&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Prosodic; structure; integrated

This project examines how the prosodic structure of language shapes the articulation of spoken utterances. Speaking is a complex, uniquely human ability that relies on precisely coordinated movements of the speech organs (tongue, lips, jaw, soft palate, and larynx) and respiratory system. These movements produce sounds that listeners perceive and that convey not only the 'dictionary' content of the utterance, but also its prosodic content. Prosody organizes phonological forms into successively larger units or phrases, and renders certain syllables, words and phrases more 'prominent' (perceptually or rhythmically important) to the listener. Understanding the processes that shape prosodic structure and how these processes act to transmit this structure through coordination of the speech organs has profound implications for advancing our understanding of language processing and communication disorders, for improving speech technology, and for providing insights regarding the more general relationship between linguistic and cognitive operations.The central hypothesis examined in this collaborative project is that the control processes governing temporal and tonal structure are intimately linked with one another. This linkage is viewed as emerging from the underlying motor control dynamics that coordinate the motions of the speech organs and guide speech production. In order to investigate this hypothesis, two additional open questions are addressed concerning the nature of the units that exist at different prosodic and prominence levels, and the relationships among syllables, prosodic feet, words and phrases: "What are the structural and articulatory-acoustic properties of prosodic feet?"; and "How can the relationships among the levels be best understood?" These questions are investigated through a series of articulatory studies--using electromagnetic articulography--and acoustic measurements that will examine: 1) how temporal and tonal properties interact at phrasal boundaries, 2) how temporal and tonal properties interact within and across all levels of prominence, and 3) how motor control dynamics shape the details of articulatory-acoustic structure at the foot level. These studies will be complemented by a series of computational simulations, which will serve the dual purpose of testing the project's hypotheses and guiding further developments of the prosodic component of the group's Task-Dynamics model of speech production.

该项目研究了语言的韵律结构如何塑造口语的表达。说话是一种复杂的，独特的人类能力，依赖于语音器官（舌头，嘴唇，下巴，软pa和喉）和呼吸系统的精确协调运动。这些动作产生了听众所感知的声音，不仅传达了话语中的“字典”内容，还传达了其韵律内容。韵律将语音形式组织成较大的单元或短语，并使某些音节，单词和短语更加“突出”（在感知或有节奏上重要的是）。了解塑造韵律结构的过程以及这些过程如何通过协调言语器官的协调来传播这种结构，这对我们对语言处理和沟通障碍的理解，改善语音技术以及提供有关语言和认知操作之间更一般关系的见解具有深远的影响。这种联系被视为从协调语音器官和指导语音生产的基础运动控制动力学中出现。为了调查这一假设，有关在不同的韵律和突出水平上存在的单位的性质以及音节，韵律脚，单词和短语之间的关系的其他两个开放性问题：和“如何最好地理解层次之间的关系？”这些问题通过一系列的关节研究（使用电磁功能学）进行了研究，以及将检查的声学测量值：1）时间和色调在短语边界上如何相互作用，2）时间和色调在突出的所有级别内和各个级别的内部和音调如何相互作用，以及如何在所有级别的突出级别上及3）如何在详细信息上塑造出详细信息的详细信息。这些研究将得到一系列计算模拟的补充，这些仿真将达到测试项目假设的双重目的，并指导该小组的言语任务 - 动力学模型的韵律组成部分的进一步发展。