Clopper Cynthia G, Pierrehumbert Janet B
Department of Linguistics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2008 Sep;124(3):1682-8. doi: 10.1121/1.2953322.
This study explored the interaction between semantic predictability and regional dialect variation in an analysis of speech produced by college-aged female talkers from the Northern, Midland, and Southern dialects of American English. Previous research on the effects of semantic predictability has shown that vowels in high semantic predictability contexts are temporally and spectrally reduced compared to vowels in low semantic predictability contexts. In the current study, an analysis of vowel duration confirmed temporal reduction in the high predictability condition. An analysis of vowel formant structure and vowel space dispersion revealed overall spectral reduction for the Southern talkers. For the Northern talkers, more extreme Northern Cities shifting occurred in the high predictability condition than in the low predictability condition. No effects of semantic predictability were observed for the Midland talkers. These findings suggest an interaction between semantic and indexical factors in vowel reduction processes.
本研究在美国英语北方、中部和南方方言区的大学年龄女性谈话者的言语分析中，探讨了语义可预测性与区域方言变异之间的相互作用。先前关于语义可预测性影响的研究表明，与低语义可预测性语境中的元音相比，高语义可预测性语境中的元音在时间和频谱上有所缩减。在本研究中，对元音时长的分析证实了高可预测性条件下的时间缩减。对元音共振峰结构和元音空间离散度的分析显示，南方谈话者的频谱总体上有所缩减。对于北方谈话者，高可预测性条件下比低可预测性条件下出现了更极端的北方城市音变。未观察到中部谈话者存在语义可预测性的影响。这些发现表明在元音缩减过程中语义和指示性因素之间存在相互作用。
