语音信息论主要研究语言信息冗余和声学特征之间的关系。目前的研究结论主要来自印欧语系的语言, 而在汉语普通话方面的研究较少, 尤其是在语言冗余与韵律结构(边界和重音)的对应关系问题上, 还缺乏研究。该文运用信息理论中的惊异度(surprisal)概念表示语言冗余程度, 通过计算汉语朗读语篇语料库(ASCCD)中汉字层级的一元惊异度(unigram surprisal)和二元惊异度(bigram surprisal), 考察普通话中语言冗余、 韵律结构和音节时长三者之间的关系。结果表明： 给定前字的二元惊异度与重音程度有关, 给定后字的二元惊异度与边界层级存在对应关系; 在控制韵律结构因素后, 语言冗余能够独立解释音节时长的变化, 从而支持弱化版的平稳信号冗余假设。
Abstract
[Objective] Information theory in phonetics primarily investigates the relationship between language redundancy and acoustic features. Language redundancy refers to the predictability of linguistic information, which arises from lexical, syntactic, and semantic contextual factors. The more predictable the information, the higher its redundancy. Numerous studies suggest that when spoken, linguistic units with higher redundancy tend to be shorter in duration. The smooth signal redundancy hypothesis posits that the influence of language redundancy on duration is modulated by prosodic structures. These structures adjust acoustic features by assigning stress and boundaries to elements with lower language redundancy, thus achieving an inverse relationship between language redundancy and duration. However, these conclusions are predominantly based on Indo-European languages, leaving a research gap for Mandarin Chinese. Moreover, there is a lack of research on the correspondence between linguistic redundancy and prosodic structure. Thus, this study aims to investigate the relationships among language redundancy, prosodic structure, and syllable duration, specifically within the context of Mandarin Chinese. [Methods] This study quantifies language redundancy using the concept of surprisal, a principle derived from information theory. A large-scale textual corpus was used to train a 2-gram Chinese character-level language model, which was used to estimate unigram and bigram surprisal. Additionally, The corpus employed in this study comprises Annotated Speech Corpus of Chinese Discourse (ASCCD). The Chinese Tone and Break Index(C-ToBI) annotation system is employed to represent prosodic structures in terms of boundaries and stress. Concurrently, the duration of each syllable and its corresponding stress and boundary levels were recorded. A linear mixed-effect model was employed to explore the effects of language redundancy factors and prosodic structure on syllable duration. To verify whether language redundancy directly explains changes in syllable duration, prosodic structure factors were initially introduced as control variables in the baseline model. Subsequently, the factors of language redundancy were added. By comparing changes in the model's log-likelihood values, any substantial effects of language redundancy on syllable duration can be identified. [Results] The experimental findings revealed a consistent relationship between language redundancy and syllable duration across different Mandarin speakers. Moreover, a moderate correspondence between language redundancy and prosodic structure was observed. However, different redundancy factors were associated with distinct aspects of the prosodic structure. Based on these experimental results, a correlation existed between forward surprisal and stress levels, whereas backward surprisal correlated with boundary levels. Specifically, higher forward surprisal indicated lower redundancy, leading to more salient syllables during speech production. Conversely, elevated backward surprisal corresponded to higher boundary levels. The successive inclusion of prosodic structure factors and language redundancy factors when examining the effects on Mandarin syllable duration enhanced the model's fit. This indicated that controlling for prosodic structure factors allowed language redundancy factors to independently account for changes in syllable duration. [Conclusions] The experimental results of this study support a weak version of the smooth signal redundancy hypothesis. Prosodic structures are confirmed to modulate language redundancy, whereas language redundancy directly accounts for changes in syllable duration. Given that this study relies on read speech data, it opens up an avenue for future research on spontaneous speech. It will also be beneficial to explore the relationship between different methods of measuring language redundancy and prosodic structure. Moreover, understanding their effect on other acoustic features, such as the fundamental frequency, presents another promising research direction.
关键词
语言冗余 /
音节时长 /
韵律结构 /
平稳信号冗余假设
Key words
language redundancy /
syllable duration /
prosodic structure /
smooth signal redundancy hypothesis
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基金
中央高校基本科研业务专项资金(23YBT18);教育部人文社科研究规划项目(23YJA740012);国际中文教育研究重点研究项目(22YH49B)
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