Cover not available
Part of
Multimodal Im/politeness: Signed, spoken, written
Edited by Andreas H. Jucker, Iris Hübscher and Lucien Brown
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 333] 2023
► pp. 213–249

Chapter 8
Perceptual changes between adults and children for multimodal im/politeness in Japanese

ORCID logo | CLLE UMR5263 CNRS, Pessac, France | LaBRI UMR5800 CNRS, Talence, France
ORCID logo | Université Paris Saclay, CNRS, LISN | Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
ORCID logo | Haskins Laboratories

Japanese im/politeness attitudes are conveyed by audiovisual prosody in tandem with lexical markers. This chapter reports on two experiments about the acquisition by Japanese elementary school children of prosodic codes and social categories. The first experiment studied the perceived degree of politeness and its social use, and the second, the perceived similarity between the expressivities conveyed in pairs of expressions. An analysis of the audiovisual performances showed the types of changes in pitch and range in line with symbolic frequency and effort codes. The perceptual results showed that children learn to use and recognize im/polite expressions in a socially adequate fashion between 6 to 10 years old, thus showing an underlying growing cultural coherence gained with age.

Keywords: perceptual changes, multimodal expressivity, im/politeness, Japanese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Listeners
    • 2.2Stimuli
    • 2.3Acoustic and facial analysis
      • 2.3.1Acoustic and facial measurements
      • 2.3.2Acoustic parameters variation
      • 2.3.3Action Units
      • 2.3.4Head movements
      • 2.3.5Gaze direction
    • 2.4Experimental paradigm
      • 2.4.1Experiment 1
      • 2.4.2Experiment 2
    • 2.5Statistical processing
      • 2.5.1Experiment 1
      • 2.5.2Experiment 2
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Experiment 1
      • 3.1.1Question 1
      • 3.1.2Question 2
    • 3.2Experiment 2
      • 3.2.1Spread of stimuli across the perceptual space
      • 3.2.2Shape of the perceptual space
      • 3.2.3Proportion of shared knowledge
  • 4.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
Published online: 21 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.333.08sho
References (69)
Armstrong, Meghan, Núria Esteve Gibert, Iris Hübscher, Alfonso Igualada, and Pilar Prieto
2018 “Developmental and Cognitive Aspects of Children’s Disbelief Comprehension through Intonation and Facial Gesture.” First Language 38 (6): 596–616. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baltrušaitis, Tadas, Marwa Mahmoud, and Peter Robinson
2015 “Cross-dataset Learning and Person-Specific Normalisation for Automatic Action Unit Detection.” In 2015 11th IEEE International Conference and Workshops on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition (FG), 6:1–6. IEEE. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baltrušaitis, Tadas, Amir Zadeh, Yao Chong Lim, and Louis-Philippe Morency
2018 “OpenFace 2.0: Facial Behavior Analysis Toolkit.” In 2018 13th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face & Gesture Recognition (FG 2018), 59–66. Xi’an: IEEE. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benedict, Ruth
1947 The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture. London: Secker & Warburg.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, and David Weenink
2020 Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer [Computer Program]. Version 6.1.16 (version 6.1.16). [URL]
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson
1987 Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burdelski, Matthew
2010 “Socializing Politeness Routines: Action, Other-Orientation, and Embodiment in a Japanese Preschool.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (6): 1606–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Calvetti, Paolo
2020 “Strategies of Impoliteness in Japanese Spontaneous Talks.” In European Approaches to Japanese Language and Linguistics, ed. by Giuseppe Pappalardo, and Patrick Heinrich, 13: 99–114. Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies. Venice: Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan
1996 “Towards an Anatomy of Impoliteness.” Journal of Pragmatics 25 (3): 349–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “Conventionalised Impoliteness Formulae.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (12): 3232–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 “Impoliteness Strategies.” In Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, ed. by Alessandro Capone and Jacob L. Mey, 4: 421–45. Perspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy & Psychology. Cham: Springer International Publishing. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan, Derek Bousfield, and Anne Wichmann
2003 “Impoliteness Revisited: With Special Reference to Dynamic and Prosodic Aspects.” Journal of Pragmatics 35 (10–11): 1545–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan, Michael Haugh, and Dániel Z. Kádár
(eds) 2017 The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic (Im)Politeness. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ekman, Paul, Wallace V. Friesen, and Joseph C. Hager
2002 Facial Action Coding System: The Manual. Salt Lake City, Utah: Research Nexus.Google Scholar
Erickson, Donna, Shigeto Kawahara, Albert Rilliard, Ryoko Hayashi, Toshiyuki Sadanobu, Yongwei Li, Hayato Daikuhara, João de Moraes, and Kerrie Obert
2020 “Cross Cultural Differences in Arousal and Valence Perceptions of Voice Quality.” In Speech Prosody 2020, 720–24. ISCA. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fernández-Dols, José-Miguel, and James A. Russell
(eds) 2017 The Science of Facial Expression. Oxford Series in Social Cognition and Social Neuroscience. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos
2004 The Phonology of Tone and Intonation. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
原田大樹 [Harada, Hiroki
] 2011 “敬語指導の現状と課題 : 小学校国語科を中心に. [Current Status and Issues honorific study: focusing on elementary school Japanese language department].” 日本教科教育学会. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hill, Beverly, Sachiko Ide, Shoko Ikuta, Akiko Kawasaki, and Tsunao Ogino
1986 “Universals of Linguistic Politeness: Quantitative Evidence from Japanese and American English.” Journal of Pragmatics 10 (3): 347–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hong, Min-p’yo
1993 “丁寧表現に見られる日本語音声の韻律的特徴 [Prosodic Characteristics of Japanese Polite Speech (in Japanese)].” The Bulletin of the Phonetic Society of Japan 204: 35–40.Google Scholar
Hübscher, Iris, Núria Esteve-Gibert, Alfonso Igualada, and Pilar Prieto
2017 “Intonation and Gesture as Bootstrapping Devices in Speaker Uncertainty.” First Language 37 (1): 24–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hübscher, Iris, Laura Wagner, and Pilar Prieto
2020 “Three-Year-Olds Infer Polite Stance from Intonation and Facial Cues.” Journal of Politeness Research 16 (1): 85–110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Husson, François, Sébastien Lê, and Jérôme Pagès
2017 Exploratory Multivariate Analysis by Example Using R. Second edition. Boca Raton: CRC Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ide, Sachiko
1989 “Formal Forms and Discernment: Two Neglected Aspects of Universals of Linguistic Politeness.” Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 8 (2–3): 223–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2002 “The Speaker’s Viewpoint and Indexicality in a High Context Culture.” In Bunka, Intaakushon, Gengo [Culture, Interaction, and Language], ed. by Kuniyoshi Kataoka, and Sachiko Ide, 3–20. Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobo.Google Scholar
2006 Wakimae no goyoron. Tokyo: Taishukan shoten.Google Scholar
Idemaru, Kaori, Bodo Winter, and Lucien Brown
2019 “Cross-Cultural Multimodal Politeness: The Phonetics of Japanese Deferential Speech in Comparison to Korean.” Intercultural Pragmatics 16 (5): 517–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Idemaru, Kaori, Bodo Winter, Lucien Brown, and Grace Eunhae Oh
2020 “Loudness Trumps Pitch in Politeness Judgments: Evidence from Korean Deferential Speech.” Language and Speech 63 (1): 123–48. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ito, Mika
2002 “Japanese Politeness and Suprasegmentals: a Study Based on Natural Speech Materials.” In Proc. Speech Prosody 2002, 415–18.Google Scholar
Izard, Carroll E.
2007 “Basic Emotions, Natural Kinds, Emotion Schemas, and a New Paradigm.” Perspectives on Psychological Science 2 (3): 260–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kawano, Toshiyuki
1995 “プロソディ-と丁寧表現–東京・大阪・名古屋の方言差を考慮して [Relationship between Prosody and Politeness Expressions (in Japanese)].” The Bulletin of the Phonetic Society of Japan 208: 9–17.Google Scholar
Kiyama, Sachiko, Katsuo Tamaoka, and Masato Takiura
2012 “Applicability of Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory to a Non-Western Culture: Evidence from Japanese Facework Behaviors.” SAGE Open 2 (4): 215824401247011. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kumbasar, Ece, A. Kimball Romney, and William H. Batchelder
1994 “Systematic Biases in Social Perception.” American Journal of Sociology 100 (2): 477–505. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Long, Christopher
2010 “Apology in Japanese Gratitude Situations: The Negotiation of Interlocutor Role-Relations.” Journal of Pragmatics 42 (4): 1060–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matsumoto, Yoshiko
1988 “Reexamination of the Universality of Face: Politeness Phenomena in Japanese.” Journal of Pragmatics 12 (4): 403–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Max, Ludo, and Patrick Onghena
1999 “Some Issues in the Statistical Analysis of Completely Randomized and Repeated Measures Designs for Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.” Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42 (2): 261–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mixdorff, Hansjörg, Angelika Hönemann, Albert Rilliard, Tan Lee, and Matthew K. H. Ma
2017 “Audio-Visual Expressions of Attitude: How Many Different Attitudes Can Perceivers Decode?” Speech Communication 95 (December): 114–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moore, Carmella C., A. Kimball Romney, Ti-Lien Hsia, and Craig D. Rusch
1999 “The Universality of the Semantic Structure of Emotion Terms: Methods for the Study of Inter- and Intra-Cultural Variability.” American Anthropologist 101 (3): 529–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nadeu, Marianna, and Pilar Prieto
2011 “Pitch Range, Gestural Information, and Perceived Politeness in Catalan.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (3): 841–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ofuka, Etsuko, J. Denis McKeown, Mitch G. Waterman, and Peter J. Roach
2000 “Prosodic Cues for Rated Politeness in Japanese Speech.” Speech Communication 32 (3): 199–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ohala, John J.
1983 “Cross-Language Use of Pitch: An Ethological View.” Phonetica 40 (1): 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1994 “The Frequency Code Underlies the Sound-Symbolic Use of Voice Pitch.” In Sound Symbolism, ed. by Leanne Hinton, Johanna Nichols, and John J. Ohala, 325–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ohara, Yumiko
2001 “Finding One’s Voice in Japanese: A Study of the Pitch Levels of L2 Users.” In Multilingualism, Second Language Learning, and Gender, ed. by Aneta Pavlenko, Adrian Blackledge, Ingrid Piller, and Marya Teutsch-Dwyer. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rao, C. R., and S. Suryawanshi
1996 “Statistical Analysis of Shape of Objects Based on Landmark Data.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 93 (22): 12132–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rilliard, Albert, Donna Erickson, João Antônio de Moraes, and Takaaki Shochi
2014 “Cross-Cultural Perception of Some Japanese Politeness and Impoliteness Expressions.” In Linguistic Approaches to Emotions in Context, ed. by Fabienne Baider, and Georgeta Cislaru, 251–76. Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 241. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 “Perception of Expressive Prosodic Speech Acts Performed in USA English by L1 and L2 Speakers.” Journal of Speech Sciences 6 (1): 27–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rilliard, Albert, Takaaki Shochi, Jean-Claude Martin, Donna Erickson, and Véronique Aubergé
2009 “Multimodal Indices to Japanese and French Prosodically Expressed Social Affects.” Language and Speech 52 (2–3): 223–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Romney, A. K., J. P. Boyd, C. C. Moore, W. H. Batchelder, and T. J. Brazill
1996 “Culture as Shared Cognitive Representations.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 93 (10): 4699–4705. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Romney, A. K., C. C. Moore, W. H. Batchelder, and T.-L. Hsia
2000 “Statistical Methods for Characterizing Similarities and Differences between Semantic Structures.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97 (1): 518–23. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Romney, A. K., C. C. Moore, and C. D. Rusch
1997 “Cultural Universals: Measuring the Semantic Structure of Emotion Terms in English and Japanese.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 94 (10): 5489–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roseberry-McKibbin, Celeste, and Alejandro Brice
1999 “The Perception of Vocal Cues of Emotion by Spanish-Speaking Limited English Proficient Children.” Journal of Children’s Communication Development 20 (2): 19–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sadanobu, Toshiyuki
2004 “A Natural History of Japanese Pressed Voice.” Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan 8 (1): 29–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scherer, Klaus R.
2001 “Appraisal Considered as a Process of Multi-Level Sequential Checking.” In Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Methods, Research, ed. by Klaus R. Scherer, Angela Schorr, and Tom Johnstone, 92–120. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2009 “The Dynamic Architecture of Emotion: Evidence for the Component Process Model.” Cognition & Emotion 23 (7): 1307–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Measuring the Meaning of Emotion Words: A Domain-Specific Componential Approach.” In Components of Emotional Meaning, ed. by Johnny R. J. Fontaine, Klaus R. Scherer, and Cristina Soriano, 7–30. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sherr-Ziarko, Ethan
2019 “Prosodic Properties of Formality in Conversational Japanese.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 49 (3): 331–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shochi, Takaaki
2008 “Prosodie des affects socioculturels en japonais, et anglais : à la recherche des vrais et faux-amis pour le parcours de l’apprenant.” PhD Thesis, Université Stendhal, Grenoble III.
Shochi, Takaaki, Véronique Aubergé, and Albert Rilliard
2007 “Cross-Listening of Japanese, English and French Social Affect: About Universals, False Friends and Unknown Attitudes.” In Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2097–2100. Saarbrucken, Germany.Google Scholar
Shochi, Takaaki, Donna Erickson, Albert Rilliard, Véronique Aubergé, and Jean-Claude Martin
2008 “Recognition of Japanese Attitudes in Audio-Visual Speech.” In 4th International Conference on Speech Prosody, 689–92. Campinas, Brazil.Google Scholar
Shochi, Takaaki, Donna Erickson, Albert Rilliard, Kaoru Sekiyama, and Véronique Aubergé
2009 “Japanese Children’s Perception for Audio-Visual Prosody of Social Politeness.” In National Conference on Man-Machine Speech Communication: International Symposium on Asian Speech Resources, 6p. Xinjiang Province, China.Google Scholar
Shochi, Takaaki, Marine Guerry, Albert Rilliard, Donna Erickson, and Jean-Luc Rouas
2020 “The Combined Perception of Socio-affective Prosody: Cultural Differences in Pattern Matching.” Journal of the Phonetic Society of Japan 24 (December): 84–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shochi, Takaaki, Takeki Kamiyama, Albert Rilliard, and Véronique Aubergé
2014 “Apprentissage des expressions prosodiques et gestuelles de politesse par des francophones.” In Histoires d’amour : quelques modalités de relation à l’autre au Japon, ed. by Makiko Andro-Ueda, and Jean-Michel Butel, 417–424. Japon Pluriels 9. Paris: Philippe Picquier.Google Scholar
Shochi, Takaaki, Albert Rilliard, Véronique Aubergé, and Donna Erickson
2009 “Intercultural Perception of English, French and Japanese Social Affective Prosody.” In The Role of Prosody in Affective Speech, ed. by Sylvie Hancil, 31–60. Linguistic Insights 97. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang AG.Google Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, Helen
1996 “Reconsidering Power and Distance.” Journal of Pragmatics 26 (1): 1–24. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Swerts, Marc
2011 “Correlates of Social Awareness in the Visual Prosody of Growing Children.” Laboratory Phonology 2 (2): 381–402. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Swerts, Marc, and Emiel Krahmer
2005 “Audiovisual Prosody and Feeling of Knowing.” Journal of Memory and Language 53 (1): 81–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna
1985 “Different Cultures, Different Languages, Different Speech Acts.” Journal of Pragmatics 9 (2–3): 145–78. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1996 “Japanese Cultural Scripts: Cultural Psychology and ‘Cultural Grammar’.” Ethos 24 (3): 527–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zinck, Alexandra, and Albert Newen
2008 “Classifying Emotion: A Developmental Account.” Synthese 161 (1): 1–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar