Articulatory settings of English, Japanese, and Chinese bilingual and trilingual speakers

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20K00606
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 02060:Linguistics-related
Research Institution	The University of Aizu
Principal Investigator	Wilson Ian 会津大学, コンピュータ理工学部, 教授 (50444930)
Project Period (FY)	2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Project Status	Granted (Fiscal Year 2020)
Budget Amount *help	¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000) Fiscal Year 2022: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000) Fiscal Year 2021: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000) Fiscal Year 2020: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Keywords	articulatory setting / English / Japanese / bilingual / frequency of occurrence / Chinese
Outline of Research at the Start	For a given language, its "articulatory setting" is the default position of the tongue, lips, and jaw just before speaking and between utterances. It has interested phoneticians for centuries, and this knowledge is important for creating articulatory models of the vocal tract and for language teachers and learners who always look for an easier way to modify pronunciation. This research will measure the articulatory settings of bilingual and trilingual speakers of English, Japanese, and Chinese, propose accounts for those differences, and develop software to teach them to language learners.
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	Our original plan was to collect ultrasound tongue image video data and high-speed lip and jaw data from bilingual and trilingual Japanese and Chinese participants. However, due to COVID-19 we could not collect any new speech data, which would have required face-to-face mask-less communication. Instead, we purchased new hardware and software, and trained an RA. We read papers on the frequency of occurrence of phonemes in Japanese versus English. Together with our Research Assistant, we worked on modelling expected articulatory settings based on frequency of occurrence of phonemes across English and Japanese. After implementing precautions against the spread of COVID-19, we hosted Dr. Kikuo Maekawa, president of the Phonetic Society of Japan, and two accompanying professors for a discussion of ultrasound data collection in our laboratory. We invited Mr. Takayuki Nagamine, a PhD student at Lancaster University (UK), overlapping with Dr. Maekawa. Mr. Nagamine’s PhD studies are focused on articulatory settings, the general topic of this kakenhi grant. We held very fruitful discussions, and gave an invited Zoom webinar at the March 2021 National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) Colloquium. Without new data though, it was impossible to publish a paper.
Current Status of Research Progress	Current Status of Research Progress 2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned. Reason Although our FY2020 plan was to use ultrasound and video to collect new speech data from bilingual and trilingual Japanese and Chinese speakers, COVID-19 prevented us from this. However, we purchased hardware and software, trained a Research Assistant to use them, reviewed literature, and brainstormed with other researchers. To not waste time, we jumped ahead to our FY2021 plan. We read existing literature on the frequency of occurrence of phonemes in Japanese versus English. With a Research Assistant, we modelled expected articulatory settings based on the frequency of occurrence of phonemes across languages. Thus, although forced to switch the order of some items in our research, we made reasonable progress and are prepared to collect data face-to-face when the situation permits.
Strategy for Future Research Activity	As soon as COVID-19 clears up and vaccinations become widespread in Japan, we will start speech data collection. Until that time, we will continue to model articulatory setting based on phoneme frequencies of occurrence. We will also prepare Mandarin Chinese stimuli and have them checked by a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese. We will start to search for bilingual and trilingual participants who can join us as soon as data collection becomes safely possible.