| Grant number: | 03/09930-9 |
| Support Opportunities: | PRONEX Research - Thematic Grants |
| Start date: | October 01, 2004 |
| End date: | March 31, 2009 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Probability and Statistics - Probability |
| Agreement: | CNPq - Pronex |
| Principal Investigator: | Jefferson Antonio Galves |
| Grantee: | Jefferson Antonio Galves |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Matemática e Estatística (IME). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
| Pesquisadores principais: | Maria Bernadete Marques Abaurre ; Nancy Lopes Garcia |
| Associated research grant(s): | 06/52639-1 - Nasal consonants in Tupi and Jê languages, AR.EXT |
Abstract
The aim of this interdisciplinary project is to develop the area of Stochastics Processes Theory in order to rigorously address the following central problems in Linguistics: 1. the question of the existence of rhythmic patterns in natural languages 2. ,the existence of a discrete typology characterized by well-defined critical points; as opposed to a rhythmic continuum 3. the existence of rhythmic features in the acoustic signal and in written texts. Besides obtaining new mathematical results which are interesting by themselves, the project will use the conceptual framework of Probability Theory to effectively interpret linguistic data. The use the of statistical analysis will be crucial in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of the linguistic issues. As a by-product, the project will develop the statistical and computational tools necessary to treat the relevant linguistic data. This last aspect opens the possibility of technological developments in Language Engineering. In order to achieve its goals, the project team will engage in the following activities: 1. mathematical research to study the properties of the formal models proposed by the project; 2. linguistic research to update and reformulate the central questions of the project in the light of the new mathematical findings; 3. acoustical and written speech corpora building, and laboratorial treatment of linguistic samples; 4. statistical analysis of linguistic data in order to adjust the mathematical models and to find supporting or negative evidence for the predictions of the models; 5. development of new computational and statistical tools for the analysis of linguistic data. The research activities will be conducted at the Núcleo de Modelagem Estocâstica e Complexidade da USP (Numec), at IME-USP, IMEC-UNICAMP, IEb--UNICAMP, Mathematics-UFMG, and also at foreign research institutions (Laboratoire de Mathématiques; Rouen, Centre de Physique Théorique-CNRS e Ecole Polytechnique de Palaiseau, Centre de Physique Théorique-CNRS Luminy, Fisica-Roma La Sapienza, Lingüística-Ferrara,Lingüística-Lisboa, Lingüística-Braga, Cognitive Sciences-UPenn, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives-Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales e ENS, Lingüístics Bielefeld and Freiburg, Linguistics-Northwestern University). Therefore regular working visits of members of the project team at the different institutions that host the project will be absolutely necessary. Work coordination will be at Numec-USP, where the Experimental Phonetics Laboratory and the Scientific Calculus Laboratory will be located. This project requires an array of specific knowledges and competences which comprise Mathematics, Computer Science, Statistics and Linguistics... (AU)
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