Article published In:
Pragmatics: Online-First ArticlesProsodic features of polite speech
Evidence from Korean interactional data
This paper uses interactional data to investigate the acoustic characteristics of polite or deferential speech in
Korean. We asked fourteen Korean speakers to perform two tasks with two different interlocutors: a status superior and a friend.
Consistent with previous studies of non-interactional data, deferential speech has lower pitch and shimmer, and quieter final
syllables. However, divergent from previous studies, deferential speech featured higher jitter (in some locations), higher shimmer
and higher H1-H2 (on one task). Through analysis of different locations in prosodic structure, we found that females used more
pitch variation on final syllables in deferential speech. We argue that these mixed results show the importance of context in
signalling vocal politeness, and also complexities of using interactional data. The findings advance the study of multimodal
politeness beyond the analysis of experimental data.
Keywords: Politeness, prosody, multimodality, social distance, power, Korean, gender
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Multimodal politeness
- 2.2Korean prosodic system
- 2.3Phonetic features analyzed in the current study
- 3.Methods
- 3.1Participants
- 3.2Task and procedure
- 3.3Acoustic analysis
- 4.Results
- 4.1IP-Initial versus IP-final Accentual Phrases (AP)
- 4.2IP-final syllables
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
- Note
-
References
References (70)
Anderson, Anne H., Miles Bader, Ellen Gurman Bard, Elizabeth Boyle, Gwyneth Doherty, Simon Garrod, Stephen Isard, Jacqueline Kowtko, Jan McAllister, and Jim Miller. 1991. “The
HCRC Map Task Corpus”. Language and
Speech 34 (4): 351–66. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Astruc, Lluisa, Maria del Mar Vanrell, and Pilar Prieto. 2016. “Cost
of the Action and Social Distance Affect the Selection of Question Intonation in
Catalan”. In Intonational Grammar in Ibero-Romance: Approaches across
Linguistic Subfields, edited by Meghan E. Armstrong, Nicholas Henriksen, and Maria del Mar Vanrell, 91–114. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bates, Douglas, Martin Mächler, Ben Bolker, and Steve Walker. 2015. “Fitting
Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using Lme4”. Journal of Statistical
Software 67 (1): 1–48.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Boersma, Paul, and David Weenik. 2017. “Praat:
Doing Phonetics by Computer”. [URL]![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien. 2011. Korean
Honorifics and Politeness in Second Language
Learning. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
. 2022. “Linguistic
Politeness”. In The Routledge Handbook of Korean as a Second
Language, edited by Andrew Sangpil Byon, and Danielle Ooyoung Pyun, 51–67. Abingdon/New York: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien, Iris Hübscher, and Andreas Jucker. 2023. “Multimodal
Im/Politeness: Introduction”. In Multimodal Im/Politeness: Signed,
Spoken, Written, edited by Andreas Jucker, Iris Hübscher, and Lucien Brown, 1–31. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien, Iris Hübscher, Hyunji Kim, and Bodo Winter. 2023. “Indexing
Social Distance through Bodily Visual Practices in Two
Languages”. In Multimodal Im/Politeness: Signed, Spoken,
Written, edited by Andreas Jucker, Iris Hübscher, and Lucien Brown, 131–61. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien, Hyunji Kim, Iris Hübscher, and Bodo Winter. 2023. “Gestures
Are Modulated by Social Context: A Study of Multimodal Politeness across Two
Cultures”. Gesture 21 (2/3): 167–200. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien, Hyunji Kim, and Bodo Winter. 2022. “Is
It Polite to Hiss?: Nonverbal Sound Objects as Markers of (Im) Politeness in Korean”. Frontiers
in Communication 71: 854066. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien, and Pilar Prieto. 2017. “(Im)Politeness:
Prosody and Gesture”. In The Palgrave Handbook of Linguistic
(Im)Politeness, edited by Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh, and Daniel Z. Kádár, 357–79. London: Palgrave. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
. 2021. “Gesture
and Prosody in Multimodal Communication”. In The Cambridge Handbook
of Sociopragmatics, edited by Michael Haugh, Daniel Z. Kádár, and Marina Terkourafi, 430–53. Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien, and Bodo Winter. 2019. “Multimodal
Indexicality in Korean: “Doing Deference” and “Performing Intimacy” through Nonverbal
Behavior”. Journal of Politeness
Research 15 (1): 25–54. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Lucien, Bodo Winter, Kaori Idemaru, and Sven Grawunder. 2014. “Phonetics
and Politeness: Perceiving Korean Honorific and Non-Honorific Speech through Phonetic
Cues”. Journal of
Pragmatics 661: 45–60. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Penelope. 2015. “Politeness
and Language”. In The International Encyclopedia of the Social and
Behavioural Sciences (IESBS), 2nd
Ed., 326–30. Elsevier. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness:
Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bryant, Gregory A. 2011. “Verbal Irony in the
Wild”. Pragmatics &
Cognition 19 (2): 291–309. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bryant, Gregory A., and Jean E. Fox Tree. 2002. “Recognizing
Verbal Irony in Spontaneous Speech”. Metaphor and
Symbol 17 (2): 99–119. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Caballero, Jonathan A., Nikos Vergis, Xiaoming Jiang, and Marc D. Pell. 2018. “The
Sound of Im/Politeness”. Speech
Communication 1021: 39–53. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Chen, Aoju, Carlos Gussenhoven, and Toni Rietveld. 2002. “Language-Specific
Uses of the Effort Code”. In Proceedings Speech Prosody
2002, 215–218. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Choi, Jiyoun, Sahyang Kim, and Taehong Cho. 2020. “An
Apparent-Time Study of an Ongoing Sound Change in Seoul Korean: A Prosodic Account”. Plos
One 15 (10): e0240682. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2005. “Impoliteness
and Entertainment in the Television Quiz Show: The Weakest Link”. Journal of Politeness
Research 1: 35–72. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ferrand, Carole T. 2002. “Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio: An
Index of Vocal Aging”. Journal of
Voice 16 (4): 480–87. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fougeron, Cécile, and Patricia A. Keating. 1996. “Articulatory
Strengthening in Prosodic Domain-Initial Position”. UCLA Working Papers in
Phonetics, 61–87.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Marjorie Harness, Charles Goodwin, and Malcah Yaeger-Dror. 2002. “Multi-Modality
in Girls’ Game Disputes”. Journal of
Pragmatics 34 (10–11): 1621–49. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grawunder, Sven, Marianne Oertel, and Cordula Schwarze. 2014. “Politeness,
Culture, and Speaking Task–Paralinguistic Prosodic Behavior of Speakers from Austria and
Germany”. In Proceedings Speech Prosody
2014, 159–163. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Herraiz, Empar Devís, and Francisco José Cantero Serena. 2014. “The
Intonation of Mitigating Politeness in Catalan”. Journal of Politeness
Research 10 (1): 127–149. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Holliday, Jeffrey, Abby Walker, Mihyun Jung, and Esther Sung Ryun Cho. 2023. “Bringing
Indexical Orders to Non-Arbitrary Meaning: The Case of Pitch and Politeness in English and
Korean”. Laboratory
Phonology 14 (1): 1–24. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hübscher, Iris, Joan Borràs-Comes, and Pilar Prieto. 2017. “Prosodic
Attenuation Characterizes Formal Register in Catalan Requests”. Journal of
Phonetics 651: 145–59. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ide, Sachiko. 1989. “Formal
Forms and Discernment: Two Neglected Aspects of Universals of Linguistic
Politeness”. Multilingua 81: 223–48. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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 logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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 logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ito, Mika. 2004. “Politeness
and Voice Quality-the Alternative Method to Measure Aspiration
Noise”. In Proceedings Speech Prosody
2004, 213–216. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jeon, Hae-Sung. 2014. “The
Perception of Korean Boundary Tones by First and Second Language
Speakers”. In Proceedings Speech
Prosody, edited by Nick Campbell, Dafyd Gibbon, and Daniel Hirst, 954–58. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
. 2015. “Prosody”. In The
Handbook of Korean Linguistics, edited by Lucien Brown, and Jaehoon Yeon, 41–58. Malden, MA: Wiley. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jun, Sun-Ah. 2018. The
Phonetics and Phonology of Korean Prosody: Intonational Phonology and Prosodic
Structure. Abingdon/New York: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kiesling, Scott Fabius. 2009. “Style as Stance: Stance as
the Explanation for Patterns of Sociolinguistic Variation”. Stance: Sociolinguistic
Perspectives, edited by Alexandra Jaffe, 171–194. New York: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kim, Hye Ri Stephanie. 2010. “A High Boundary Tone as
a Resource for a Social Action: The Korean Sentence-Ender–Ta”. Journal of
Pragmatics 42 (11): 3055–77. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kim, Hyunji, Bodo Winter, and Lucien Brown. 2021. “Beyond
Politeness Markers: Multiple Morphological and Lexical Differences Index Deferential Meanings in
Korean”. Journal of
Pragmatics 1821: 203–20. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kim, Minju. 2018. “From
Connective to Final Particle: Korean Tunci “Or” and Cross-Linguistic Comparisons”. Journal of
Pragmatics 1351: 24–38. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kim-Renaud, Young-Key. 2001. “Change
in Korean Honorifics Reflecting Social Change”. In Language Change in
East Asia, edited by Thomas McAuley, 27–46. London: Curzon.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lee, Ho-Young. 1990. Kwukewunyullon
[Korean Prosody]. Seoul: Hankwukyenkwuwen [Korean Study Institute].![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lee, Tae-Seung, Mikyong Park, and Tae-Soo Kim. 2005. “Toward
More Reliable Emotion Recognition of Vocal Sentences by Emphasizing Information of Korean Ending Boundary
Tones”. In Proceedings of the Korean Information Science Society
Conference. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Loveday, Leo. 1981. “Pitch,
Politeness and Sexual Role: An Exploratory Investigation into the Pitch Correlates of English and Japanese Politeness
Formulae”. Language and
Speech 24 (1): 71–89. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mason, Paul H., Bodo Winter, and Andrea Grignolio. 2015. “Hidden
in Plain View: Degeneracy in Complex
Systems”. Biosystems 1281: 1–8. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McKinnon, Sean, and Pilar Prieto. 2014. “The
Role of Prosody and Gesture in the Perception of Mock Impoliteness”. Journal of Politeness
Research 10 (2): 185–219. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nagata, Takashi. 2022. “Japanese
Honorifics”. In Handbook of Japanese
Sociolinguistics, edited by Yoshiyuki Asahi, Mayumi Usami, and Fumio Inoue, 295–326. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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 logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oh, Eunhae, and Mao Cui. 2020. “The
Acquisition of Acoustic Correlates of Politeness by Native Chinese Speakers”. Linguistic
Research 371: 113–34.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Oh, Eunhae, Bodo Winter, and Kaori Idemaru. 2021. “Korean
Speakers Hyperarticulate Vowels in Polite Speech”. Malsoli-Wa Umsengkwahak (Phonetics and
Speech
Sciences) 13 (3): 15–20. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ohala, John J. 1984. “An Ethological Perspective on
Common Cross-Language Utilization of F₀ of
Voice”. Phonetica 41 (1): 1–16. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ohara, Yumiko. 2001. “Finding
One’s Voice in Japanese: A Study of the Pitch”. In Multilingualism,
Second Language Learning, and Gender, edited by Aneta Pavlenko, Adrian Blackledge, Ingrid Piller, and Marya Teutsch-Dwyer, 231–54. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Orozco, Leonor. 2008. “Peticiones
Corteses y Factores Prosódicos”. In Fonología Instrumental. Patrones
Fónicos y Variación, edited by Z. E. Herrera, and P. Martín Butragueño, 335–55. México D.F: El Colegio de México.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
. 2010. “Estudio
Sociolingüístico de La Cortesía En Tratamientos y Peticiones. Datos de Guadalajara”. PhD
dissertation. El Colegio de México.
Pardo, Jennifer S. 2009. “Expressing Oneself in
Conversational Interaction”. In Expressing Oneself/Expressing One”s
Self: Communication, Cognition, Language, and Identity, edited by Ezequiel Morsella, 183–96. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rockwell, Patricia. 2000. “Lower,
Slower, Louder: Vocal Cues of Sarcasm”. Journal of Psycholinguistic
Research 29 (5): 483–95. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sherr-Ziarko, Ethan. 2019. “Prosodic
Properties of Formality in Conversational Japanese”. Journal of the International Phonetic
Association 49 (3): 331–52. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Singmann, Henrik, Ben Bolker, Jake Westfall, Frederik Aust, and Mattan S. Ben-Shachar. 2015. “Afex:
Analysis of Factorial Experiments”. R Package Version
0.13–145.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stadler, Stefanie Alexa. 2006. “Multimodal (Im)Politeness:
The Verbal, Prosodic and Non-Verbal Realization of Disagreement in German and New Zealand
English”. PhD disseration. The University of Auckland.
Stanford, James N. 2010. “Gender, Generations, and
Nations: An Experiment in Hmong American Discourse and Sociophonetics”. Language &
Communication 30 (4): 285–96. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wichmann, Anne. 2000. “The
Attitudinal Effects of Prosody, and How They Relate to
Emotion”. In ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop (ITRW) on Speech and
Emotion. Belfast: Textflow.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Winter, Bodo, and Sven Grawunder. 2012. “The
Phonetic Profile of Korean Formal and Informal Speech Registers”. Journal of
Phonetics 40 (6): 808–15. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Winter, Bodo, Grace Eunhae Oh, Iris Hübscher, Kaori Idemaru, Lucien Brown, Pilar Prieto, and Sven Grawunder. 2021. “Rethinking
the Frequency Code: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Role of Acoustic Body Size in Communicative
Phenomena”. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society
B 376 (1840): 20200400. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)