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Article published In:
Identity and Communication in Asian Contexts
Edited by Asmah Haji Omar and Michael Dimitrios Hadzantonis
[Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 32:1] 2022
► pp. 133–153

Gendering prosody in communication

The case of Standard Chinese

| Masaryk University

The study focuses on the prosody of Standard Chinese in communication in correlation with gender of speakers. In the field of Standard Chinese prosody is built on the research work done by Oldřich Švarný, who established the system of prosodic transcription and analysis. The connection with the gender of the speakers is completely new and unique. This article uses results of the analysis of SC language corpus transcribed by prosodic transcription and endeavour to find a connection between obtained results and gendered influences on prosodic (suprasegmental) level of language. Basic prosodic phenomena observed here are prosodic word syllable number, speech rate, syllable accentual prominence and the frequency of rhythmic sequence types. The results clearly show there is a connection between gender of the speaker and the prosodic realization of his/her speech.

Keywords: Standard Chinese, prosody, gender, prosodic word, rhythm
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Conceptualizing prosody in Standard Chinese
    • Gendered language
    • Describing prosody in China
    • Prosodic transcription
  • Methodical framework
  • Data and analysis
    • Prosodic word syllable count and speech rate
    • Syllable accentual prominence
    • Counting rhythmic stress
    • Frequency of rhythmic sequence types
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 August 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00087.pos
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