Acoustic and perceptual analyses of politeness in Japanese speech
In order to examine potential acoustic cues for politeness in Japanese speech, fO and temporal aspects of polite and casual utterances of two question sentences spoken by six male native speakers were acoustically analysed. The analysis showed that fO movement of the final part of utterances and speech rate of utterance were consistently differently used in these different speaking styles (i.e., 'polite' and 'casual')across all the speakers. Perceptual experiments with listeners using a rating scale method confirmed that these acoustic variables, which were manipulated using digital resynthesis, had an impact on politeness perception. It was showed that the duration and fO direction of the final vowel of utterances were so influential that the overall impression of utterance politeness was changed. An experiment which used speech rate variations of a polite utterance showed the important role of this variable in perceived politeness. Politeness ratings showed an inverted-U shape as a function of speech rate, but differed according to particular speakers. The speech rate of listeners was found to affect their utterance rate preference; listeners clearly preferred rates close to their own, i.e., rates they perceived
Ofuka, Etsuko
Acoustic and perceptual analyses of politeness in Japanese speech. In order to examine potential acoustic cues for politeness in Japanese speech, fO and temporal aspects of polite and casual utterances of two question sentences spoken by six male native speakers were acoustically analysed. The analysis showed that fO movement of the final part of utterances and speech rate of utterance were consistently differently used in these different speaking styles (i.e., 'polite' and 'casual')across all the speakers. Perceptual experiments with listeners using a rating scale method confirmed that these acoustic variables, which were manipulated using digital resynthesis, had an impact on politeness perception. It was showed that the duration and fO direction of the final vowel of utterances were so influential that the overall impression of utterance politeness was changed. An experiment which used speech rate variations of a polite utterance showed the important role of this variable in perceived politeness. Politeness ratings showed an inverted-U shape as a function of speech rate, but differed according to particular speakers. The speech rate of listeners was found to affect their utterance rate preference; listeners clearly preferred rates close to their own, i.e., rates they perceived
acoustic_perceptual analysis politeness japanese speech order examine_potential acoustic_cue politeness japanese speech temporal aspect polite casual utterance two_question sentence speak male native_speaker acoustically analyse analysis_show movement final_part utterance speech_rate utterance consistently differently use different speaking style polite casual across speaker perceptual listener use rating scale method confirm acoustic variable manipulate use_digital impact politeness perception show duration direction final vowel utterance influential overall impression utterance politeness change use speech_rate variation polite utterance show important_role variable perceived politeness politeness rating show shape function speech_rate differ_accord particular speaker speech_rate listener find affect utterance rate preference listener clearly prefer rate close rate perceive