Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan

It is known that certain prosodic aspects of speech play a role in the expression of paralinguistic meaning, yet the concrete mechanisms of how this is implemented have not yet been fleshed out. The present article attempts to explore the contribution of pitch range to the expression of politeness i...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Nadeu, Marianna, Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Institución:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repositorio:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/27910
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/27910
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.015
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Boundary tone
Catalan
Intonation
Paralinguistic meaning
Pitch range
Politeness
id ES_963f296ccf7f315e6b6093d8fcd353d7
oai_identifier_str oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/27910
network_acronym_str ES
network_name_str España
repository_id_str
spelling Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in CatalanNadeu, MariannaPrieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-Boundary toneCatalanIntonationParalinguistic meaningPitch rangePolitenessIt is known that certain prosodic aspects of speech play a role in the expression of paralinguistic meaning, yet the concrete mechanisms of how this is implemented have not yet been fleshed out. The present article attempts to explore the contribution of pitch range to the expression of politeness in information-seeking yes–no questions in Catalan. Two perception experiments were carried out with stimuli that contained a gradual increase and decrease of the pitch range at the end of two target intonation contours (rising and falling). The results of the first experiment revealed that, for both contours, increasing the pitch range of the final part of the utterance tone resulted in a decrease of perceived politeness, whereas decreasing the pitch range had no effect. The second perception experiment showed that adding contextual (gestural) information reversed the tendency. Taken together, these results point to the complex interaction between prosodic cues and contextual information (specifically, facial gestures). There is nothing intrinsically polite about using an increased pitch range, unless it is accompanied by consistent contextual information. In sum, when assessing the degree of perceived politeness of an utterance, attention has to be paid to various prosodic aspects together with contextual and gestural information.Parts of this study were presented at the first Cat_ToBI workshop (Barcelona, July 2009). We are grateful to the audience at this workshop, and especially to Eulàlia Bonet, Teresa Cabré, Verònica Crespo, José Ignacio Hualde, Joan C. Mora, Maria del Mar Vanrell, and Anne Wichmann for very useful feedback. We would like to thank the participants in the two experiments, Verònica Crespo for her help running the experiments, Joan C. Mora for his support with the use of DmDx, Romà Rofes for technical support, and Maria del Mar Vanrell for her help with the statistical analysis of the data. This research has been funded by projects FFI2009-07648/FILO and CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 Programme CSD2007-00012 (both awarded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) and by project 2009 SGR 701 (awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya).Elsevier201720172011info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersionapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10230/27910http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.015reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPFinstname:Universitat Pompeu FabraInglésJournal of pragmatics. 2011 Feb; 43(3): 841–854info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PN/FFI2009-07648info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PN/CSD2007-00012© Elsevier http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.015info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/279102026-06-12T07:21:37Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
title Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
spellingShingle Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
Nadeu, Marianna
Boundary tone
Catalan
Intonation
Paralinguistic meaning
Pitch range
Politeness
title_short Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
title_full Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
title_fullStr Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
title_full_unstemmed Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
title_sort Pitch range, gestural information and perceived politeness in Catalan
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Nadeu, Marianna
Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-
author Nadeu, Marianna
author_facet Nadeu, Marianna
Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-
author_role author
author2 Prieto Vives, Pilar, 1965-
author2_role author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Boundary tone
Catalan
Intonation
Paralinguistic meaning
Pitch range
Politeness
topic Boundary tone
Catalan
Intonation
Paralinguistic meaning
Pitch range
Politeness
description It is known that certain prosodic aspects of speech play a role in the expression of paralinguistic meaning, yet the concrete mechanisms of how this is implemented have not yet been fleshed out. The present article attempts to explore the contribution of pitch range to the expression of politeness in information-seeking yes–no questions in Catalan. Two perception experiments were carried out with stimuli that contained a gradual increase and decrease of the pitch range at the end of two target intonation contours (rising and falling). The results of the first experiment revealed that, for both contours, increasing the pitch range of the final part of the utterance tone resulted in a decrease of perceived politeness, whereas decreasing the pitch range had no effect. The second perception experiment showed that adding contextual (gestural) information reversed the tendency. Taken together, these results point to the complex interaction between prosodic cues and contextual information (specifically, facial gestures). There is nothing intrinsically polite about using an increased pitch range, unless it is accompanied by consistent contextual information. In sum, when assessing the degree of perceived politeness of an utterance, attention has to be paid to various prosodic aspects together with contextual and gestural information.
publishDate 2011
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2011
2017
2017
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion
format article
status_str acceptedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://hdl.handle.net/10230/27910
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.015
url http://hdl.handle.net/10230/27910
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.015
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Journal of pragmatics. 2011 Feb; 43(3): 841–854
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PN/FFI2009-07648
info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/2PN/CSD2007-00012
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv © Elsevier http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.015
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv © Elsevier http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.015
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
instname:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
instname_str Universitat Pompeu Fabra
reponame_str Repositorio Digital de la UPF
collection Repositorio Digital de la UPF
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
_version_ 1869413935231270912
score 15,811543

Similares en LA Referencia