Conveyance of emotional connotations by a single word in English

Ilkka Linnankoski, Lea Leinonen, Minna Vihla, Maija-Liisa Laakso, Synnöve Carlson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

Abstract

"Native British English speakers uttered the name Sarah to simulate 10 emotional connotations: ""naming"", ""sad"", ""pleading"", ""admiring"", ""content"", ""commanding"", ""astonished"", ""scornful"", ""angry"", and ""frightened"". In an identification task, British English listeners categorized the samples. Of the connotations, ""angry"", ""frightened"" and ""astonished"" were conveyed best, and ""content"" poorest. Regarding auditory differentiation among the connotations, the results suggest that recognition of ""naming"", ""sad"", ""admiring"" ""commanding"", ""angry"", and ""frightened"" is based on differences in the signal wave form and its short-term alterations, whereas recognition of ""pleading"", ""astonished"", and ""scornful"" also relies on temporal patterning of short-term cues. In general, the present results together with an earlier comparable study on the conveyance of emotional connotations by a single word in Finnish indicate that English and Finnish have shared features in the vocal expression of admiration, positive surprise, scorn, plea, command, fear, and emotional neutrality. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved."
Original languageEnglish
JournalSpeech Communication
Volume45
Pages (from-to)27-39
Number of pages13
ISSN0167-6393
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2005
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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