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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS-15)Barcelona, Spain |
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This study investigates the contribution of breathiness to the expression
of positive politeness under varying conditions of relative social
status between male speakers of Japanese. In previous studies, suprasegmental
features have been found to express politeness. However, the association
between suprasegmental features and politeness is complex. In order
to convey positive politeness, speakers may modify voice quality. In
this study, the contribution of breathiness, often associated with
intimacy, was the focus of interest. Vowel data (/a/) were extracted
from natural utterances produced by five male native speakers of Tokyo
dialect. For measurement of breathiness, a method suggested by Hanson
(1995) was employed, to avoid known disadvantages of inverse filtering.
The study also employed a perception test, in which 22 native Tokyo
Japanese listeners rated politeness-related features of the utterances.
The results suggest that perceived positive politeness is more likely
to be correlated with the first formant bandwidth than with the other
parameters measured.
Bibliographic reference. Ito, Mika (2003): "Breathiness and Politeness: an experimental study of male speakers of Japanese", In ICPhS-15, 2165-2168.