Etsuko Ofuka
(Leeds University, U.K.)
Nick Campbell
(ATR-ITL)
The role of speaking style, duration, and f0
in signalling affect: anger and politeness.
Abstract:This report describes research carried out at ATR-ITL on the prosodic manipulation of speech
to emulate politeness. It is concerned particularly with the effects of changing fundamental
frequency and segmental duration, and examines their inteaction with the underlying voice
quality of the original speech. It was found that whereas appropriate settings of both duration
and fundamental frequency can change the perception of politeness (kindness/ anger) in the
resultant speech, neither cue alone is strong enough to override the effect of the original voice
source and trigger a percept of anger or politeness.