Doctoral dissertation research: Factors influencing generalization and maintenance of cross-category imitation of Mandarin regional variants

博士论文研究：影响普通话方言跨类别模仿泛化和维持的因素

• 批准号: 1624509
• 负责人: Cynthia Clopper
• 金额: $ 1.1万
• 依托单位: Ohio State University
• 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 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1624509&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; dissertation; research; Factors; influencing

People change their own language production when hearing others' speech that differs from their own, a process known as phonetic imitation. Imitation of others' speech has been observed between speakers who speak the same dialect and also between speakers who speak different dialects. Previous studies have found that adult speakers who move to a new speech community can partially acquire the accent of the new community. What is less understood, however, is the mechanisms that facilitate or constrain long-term imitation of second-dialect properties. The goal of the current project is to explore the linguistic, situational, and cognitive factors that influence the degree to which imitation of linguistic properties of another dialect is maintained beyond exposure and generalizes to novel words. This project will focus on the imitation of dialect-specific properties across two Mandarin regional varieties spoken in Jianshi and Laifeng counties, China. The first experiment will investigate how imitation generalizes to novel monosyllabic words, to reveal the mental representations underlying word processing in Mandarin, i.e., syllables, tones, consonants, vowels, or subsegmental features. The second experiment will examine how the number of token repetitions and lexical contexts containing the variant affect the degree of imitation maintenance and generalization, to reveal the relative contributions of exposure amount and variability to long-term phonetic imitation. The third experiment will use different instructions during post-exposure reading as a way of influencing participants' conscious effort, to investigate the role of automaticity in mediating imitation maintenance and generalization. The results of this project will reveal the mechanisms underlying cross-dialect imitation that enable or constrain speakers to maintain and generalize imitation after various exposure environments and in response to different requirements. The results will also provide new insights into the automatic and controlled aspects of imitation, and the representational units connecting speech perception and production. This project has broader implications for the role of phonetic imitation in long-term sound change, and for methods to facilitate second dialect acquisition by improving individuals' ability to imitate, maintain, and generalize new dialect features.

人们在听到他人的言语与自己的语言不同时改变自己的语言制作，这是一种称为语音模仿的过程。在说同样的方言的说话者之间以及讲不同方言的说话者之间观察到了对他人的言语的模仿。先前的研究发现，搬到新演讲社区的成年演讲者可以部分获得新社区的口音。然而，不了解的是促进或约束长期模仿次数特性的机制。当前项目的目的是探索影响另一个方言的语言特性的程度的语言，情境和认知因素，这是在曝光之外的，并概括为新颖的单词。该项目将重点介绍中国贾安希（Jianshi）和莱芬县（Laifeng Counties）所说的两个普通话区域品种中的方言特定属性。第一个实验将研究如何模仿新的单音节词，以揭示以普通话（即音节，音调，辅音，元音或亚段特征）为基础的文字处理的心理表示。第二个实验将研究包含变体的代币重复和词汇上下文的数量如何影响模仿程度，以揭示暴露量和可变性对长期语音模仿的相对贡献。第三个实验将在暴露后阅读过程中使用不同的指示，以影响参与者有意识的努力，以研究自动化在中介模仿维持和概括中的作用。该项目的结果将揭示交叉偏语模仿的基础机制，这些机制使或限制扬声器在各种暴露环境后维护和概括模仿并响应不同的要求。结果还将为模仿的自动和受控方面以及连接语音感知和生产的代表性单位提供新的见解。该项目对语音模仿在长期声音变化中的作用以及通过提高个人模仿，维护和推广新方言功能的能力来促进第二方言获取的方法具有更大的影响。