Studying dialects to understand human language
Name
518080995-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
3.47 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
8f8262cd874db0f4432f03edffe8d138
Author(s)
Nti, Akua Afriyie
Advisor(s)
Patrick H. Winston and Stephanie Shattuck-Hufnagel.
Date Issued
2009
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis investigates the study of dialect variations as a way to understand how humans might process speech. It evaluates some of the important research in dialect identification and draws conclusions about how their results can give insights into human speech processing. A study clustering dialects using k-means clustering is done. Self-organizing maps are proposed as a tool for dialect research, and a self-organizing map is implemented for the purposes of testing this. Several areas for further research are identified, including how dialects are stored in the brain, more detailed descriptions of how dialects vary, including contextual effects, and more sophisticated visualization tools. Keywords: dialect, accent, identification, recognition, self-organizing maps, words, lexical sets, clustering.
Description
Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-71).
Subjects
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
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