Pilot Study for The Relationship Between Politeness and Prosodic Features

1、Pilot Study for The Relationship Between Politeness and Prosodic FeaturesI.IntroductionChinaisacountrywhichhighlyrespectsLicourtesyindailyinteractionsoChinesepeopleprefertoshowpolitenessatdifferentcircumstances.However，onlydependingonthewordstorealizepolitenessisnotsufficientenough，howpeoplesaythewo

2、rdsalsocountsthecredit.Therefore，itisreasonableandimportanttoinvestigatetherelationshipbetweenpolitenessandprosodicfeatures.Thecurrentstudyisapilotstudyforananotherresearchwhichwillinvolvemoreparticipants.theproblemsoccurredinthecurrentstudywillbeimproved.II.Methodology1.ResearchQuestions1InMandarin

3、，thereexistsnopitchdifferencebetweendegreesofformality？2InMandarin，thereexistsnospeechratedifferencebetweendegreesofformality？2.ParticipantsThirteenparticipantswerechoseninthisexperiment，fivemalesand8females.AlltheparticipantsarenativeChinesespeakersandcomefromdifferentprovincesinChina.3.ProcedurePa

4、rticipantswereinstructedbyanativespeakerofChineseandtheinstructionsonthecomputerscreenwerealsoChinese.Participantswereinformedthatthestudywasaboutformality.Eachparticipantneededtoperformtwospontaneoustaskstodifferentinterlocutorswhohavetotallydifferentsocialstatusandpower，thatistosay，closefriendandp

5、rofessor.Picturesrelatedtothesituationswouldbedisplayedonthescreensothatparticipantscouldbeindulgedintotherequiredsituation.4.StimulusMaterialsInthisexperiment，therearetwostimulimaterials.Inthespontaneousspeech，participantswerefirstgivenanoteinpaperformandtheyneedtothinkofaninvitationaccordingtothem

6、assageonthenotethroughanimaginaryWechatvoicemessage.ThenotesaysthattheywanttoinvitetheirclosefriendtoattendabirthdaypartyonFridayevening，70clockatBurgerKingThistaskisbasedonthe“MailboxTaskusedbyShin2020andWinterandGrawunder2020.AsChinesedonthavethehabitofusingvoicemail，Wechatvoicemessageisadoptedint

7、hecurrentstudy.Theformalsituationprovidedfortheparticipantsismakinganapologizeforbeinglateintheclassroom.onlythetopicofthetaskisshownonthescreenwithoutanykeywordsorrelatedhints.Participantshas5secondstoprepareforthetaskandneedtotalkmorethan1minute.Nowrittenmaterialisprovidedasparticipantsneedtorespo

8、ndaccordingtothesituation.Inordertoleadparticipantsintocorrespondingcircumstances，differentpictureswerechosen.Intheinformalsituation，theyweregivenapictureoftwofriendswithoneextendinghandtoinvitetheother.Onthecontrary，thepicturechoseninformalsituationisagrey-hairprofessorwhofoldshisarmsinfrontofhimse

9、lf.5.RecordingsAllspeakerswererecordedinaquiteroomwithamicrophoneconnectedtothecomputer.ThephoneticanalyseswererealizedbyPraat5.2.16BoersmaandVincent2020.6.StatisticalAnalysesSignificantTestwasusedtotestthehypotheseslistedabove.AseriesofindependentsampleT-testisconductedtofigureoutthedifference.Ifp-

10、valuesissmallerthan0.05，thentheresultwillbesignificantandthehypotheseswillberejected.Tobemorespecific，thereexistdifferencesinpitchandspeechratebetweeninformalandformalspeeches.III.DataAnalysisPitchandspeechratewillbeanalyzedatthissteptodiscovertheinfluenceofpowertowardprosodicfeatures.Thereweretwosi

11、tuationsprovidedinthetests，onewithfriendandonewithsupervisor，revealingthedifferenceofsocialpowerlow-highaswellasequal.AccordingtoBrownandLevinsonspolitenesstheory，itissupposedthatpowerdifferencemayhavetheinfluenceontheproduceofspeech，whichisrealizedbyspeechrataaswellaspitch.Figure2showsthattheobserv

12、edt-valueis0.786withdegreeoffreedomequalto12andthetwo-tailedpossibilityof0.447islargerthan0.05.Hence，theseisnosignificanceatthe0.05levelandthenullhypothesisthereexistsnopitchdifferencebetweenlevelsofformalityisnotrejectedatthe0.05level，revealingthatthereisnodifferencebetweentwopowersituations.Theres

13、ultiscontradicttothepreviousonethatpeopletendstolowertheirpitchwhencommunicatingwithpeoplepossessinghigherpowerGeng1998；Ericksonetal.2020.Asforthespeechrate，thesignificanceofrelevanceis0.112，largerthan0.05，whichmeansthatthesetwosamplesarenotrelevance，differentfromthepreviousassumption.Hence，thispape

14、rusedtheindependentsampleT-testtore-analyzethedifferencebetweenthesetwosituationsFigure2.Theobservedt-valueis-0.057withdegreeoffreedomequalto12andthe2-tailedsignificanceis0.995，largerthan0.05，therefore，thereisnosignificanceatthe0.05level.IV.DiscussionTheresultsshownindataanalysisrevealthatthereexist

15、snodifferenceinpitchandspeechrate，whichiscontradicttothepreviousresearch.Itissupposedthatthereexistsdifferencebetweenlevelsofformalitysincethepolitenesstheorysuggestthatrelativepower，distanceandrankingwouldinfluencethechoiceofpolitenessstrategy.However，theresultsdemonstratethattherewerenodifferent，m

16、akingtheresearchertothinkaboutthereasonwhythepolitenesstheoryisnotfollowed.Iflookedclosedinthethreefactorsthatinfluencethechoiceofpolitenessstrategy，itcanbefoundthatrelativepowerandrankingareobjectivefactorswhicharedefinedbysocialrules，nevertheless，distance，whichalsocounttocontextandidentity，isarela

17、tivelysubjectivefactorwhichmaynotstrictlyfollowthesocialroutine.Itissupposedthatthedistancebetweenstudentandsupervisorisdifferentfromthatbetweenfriends，however，accordingtothefeedbackofsomeparticipants，itcanbefoundthattheboundarybetweenthesetwokindsofdistanceisnotthatclear，tobemorespecific，somepartic

18、ipantsbuiltacleardistancetowardsdifferentspeakerswhileothersblurredit.Insummary，inthesituationofthisexperiment，astheobjectivefactorsrelativepowerandrankingcannotbealtered，thentherearisesthehypothesisthatitisthechangeofdistancethataffecttheresultofanalysis.References：【1】Boersma，Paul，andvanHeuvenVincent.2020.“SpeakandunS