Doctoral Dissertation Research: Incomplete Neutralization: The Loss and Maintenance of Contrast

博士论文研究：不完全中和：对比度的损失与维持

• 批准号: 1918306
• 负责人: Elizabeth Zsiga
• 金额: $ 1.56万
• 依托单位: Georgetown University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-07-15 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1918306&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Incomplete; Neutralization

Languages are not always pronounced the way they are written. Over time, the pronunciation of a language changes, but its orthography remains fixed. This poses problems for standardized spelling, language teaching and learning, and even speech recognition technologies, which need to process and convert spoken language into orthographic representations and vice versa. This dissertation addresses the problem of pronunciation change over time, looking specifically at cases where a distinction between two sounds that was previously present and represented orthographically begins to be lost. Changes like this happen gradually, where differences in the acoustics ("acoustic cues") slowly disappear, sometimes without speakers even realizing it. For example, "t" and "d" are different sounds in Dutch, but over time, the difference between "t" and "d" was lost at the ends of words; "bot" (bone) and "bod" (offer) are both pronounced like the English word "bought". This type of sound change, called "neutralization", is not always complete; small but measurable acoustic differences may remain between the two sounds, despite sounding identical to the naked ear. Studies have shown that listeners are able to perceive these differences subconsciously, as they can tell two seemingly-identical words apart (e.g. Dutch "bot" and "bod") at a rate better than chance, even without additional context. It is unknown what causes this incompleteness, how this process unfolds over time, and what social characteristics affect it. Additionally, it is unclear how speakers can tell these sounds apart, and what the necessary acoustics are for distinguishing between them. This dissertation will examine two cases of apparently incomplete neutralization in Dutch and Afrikaans. Both languages are losing the distinction between "t" and "d" and between "p" and "b", both word-initially and word-finally, though they are at different stages of the neutralization process. In four experiments, participants will read words and stories that have these consonants, and then listen to the sounds with manipulated acoustics and see if they can tell them apart. As we discover what differences listeners can hear, we are able to understand more about our cognitive capabilities and how social characteristics can affect our speech and hearing. This knowledge can be used to inform speech recognition technologies to better understand variability in speech production. Additionally, we will have a better understanding of language pronunciation change over time, which can help us develop curricula for teaching foreign languages, especially focusing on the link between reading and pronunciation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

语言并不总是按照其书写方式发音。随着时间的推移，语言的发音会发生变化，但其拼字法保持不变。这给标准化拼写、语言教学、甚至语音识别技术带来了问题，这些技术需要将口语语言处理并转换为正字法表示，反之亦然。本论文解决了发音随时间变化的问题，特别关注先前存在并以拼字法表示的两个声音之间的区别开始丢失的情况。这样的变化是逐渐发生的，声学差异（“声学线索”）慢慢消失，有时说话者甚至没有意识到这一点。例如，“t”和“d”在荷兰语中是不同的发音，但随着时间的推移，“t”和“d”之间的区别在词尾消失了； “bot”（骨头）和“bod”（提供）的发音都类似于英语单词“bought”。这种类型的声音变化称为“中和”，并不总是完全的；尽管肉耳听起来相同，但这两种声音之间可能仍然存在微小但可测量的声学差异。研究表明，听众能够在潜意识中察觉到这些差异，因为即使没有额外的上下文，他们也能以比偶然更好的速度区分两个看似相同的单词（例如荷兰语“bot”和“bod”）。目前尚不清楚是什么原因导致了这种不完整性，这个过程如何随着时间的推移而展开，以及哪些社会特征会影响它。此外，目前还不清楚扬声器如何区分这些声音，以及区分它们所需的声学条件是什么。本论文将研究荷兰语和南非荷兰语中明显不完全中和的两个案例。两种语言都在失去“t”和“d”以及“p”和“b”之间的区别，无论是词首还是词尾，尽管它们处于中和过程的不同阶段。在四个实验中，参与者将阅读具有这些辅音的单词和故事，然后通过操纵的声学聆听声音，看看他们是否可以区分它们。当我们发现听众可以听到哪些差异时，我们就能更多地了解我们的认知能力以及社会特征如何影响我们的言语和听力。这些知识可用于为语音识别技术提供信息，以更好地理解语音产生的可变性。此外，我们将更好地了解语言发音随时间的变化，这可以帮助我们开发外语教学课程，特别是关注阅读和发音之间的联系。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并被认为值得支持使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估。