Assessing the influence of phonetic variation on the perception of spoken threats
In spite of the belief that there is such a thing as a 'threatening tone of voice' (Watt, Kelly and Llamas, 2013), there is currently little research which explores how listeners infer traits such as threat from speakers' voices. This thesis addresses the question of how listeners infer traits such as how threatening speakers sound, and whether phonetic aspects of speakers' voices can play a role in shaping these evaluations. Additionally, it is sometimes the case that a victim of a crime will never see the perpetrator's face but will hear the perpetrator's voice. In such cases, attempts can be made to get the witness or victim to describe the offender's voice. However, one problem with this is whether phonetically untrained listeners have the ability to accurately describe different aspects of speakers' voices. This issue is also addressed throughout this thesis. Over five experiments, this thesis investigates the influence of a range of linguistic and phonetic variables on listeners' evaluations of how threatening speakers sounded when producing indirect threat utterances. It also examines how accurately phonetically-untrained listeners can describe different aspects of speakers' voices alongside their evaluative
Tompkinson, James
Assessing the influence of phonetic variation on the perception of spoken threats. In spite of the belief that there is such a thing as a 'threatening tone of voice' (Watt, Kelly and Llamas, 2013), there is currently little research which explores how listeners infer traits such as threat from speakers' voices. This thesis addresses the question of how listeners infer traits such as how threatening speakers sound, and whether phonetic aspects of speakers' voices can play a role in shaping these evaluations. Additionally, it is sometimes the case that a victim of a crime will never see the perpetrator's face but will hear the perpetrator's voice. In such cases, attempts can be made to get the witness or victim to describe the offender's voice. However, one problem with this is whether phonetically untrained listeners have the ability to accurately describe different aspects of speakers' voices. This issue is also addressed throughout this thesis. Over five experiments, this thesis investigates the influence of a range of linguistic and phonetic variables on listeners' evaluations of how threatening speakers sounded when producing indirect threat utterances. It also examines how accurately phonetically-untrained listeners can describe different aspects of speakers' voices alongside their evaluative
assessing influence phonetic variation perception speak threat spite belief thing tone voice kelly currently little explores listener infer trait threat speaker voice address_question listener infer trait threaten speaker sound whether phonetic aspect speaker voice play_role shaping evaluation additionally sometimes case victim crime never see perpetrator face hear perpetrator voice case attempt_make get witness victim describe offender voice however problem whether phonetically listener ability accurately describe different_aspect speaker voice issue also_address throughout_thesis investigate influence range_linguistic phonetic variable listener evaluation threaten speaker sound produce indirect threat utterance also_examine accurately phonetically listener describe different_aspect speaker voice alongside evaluative