John Benjamins Publishing Company
Speech rate as reflection of speaker’s social characteristics
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of speech rate in spontaneous conversations between Russian interlocutors conducted on the basis of recordings of 40 speakers and their interlocutors collected in the Speech Corpus of Russian Everyday Communication “One Day of Speech” (ORD corpus). The results allow us to compare the speech rate between speakers of different mother tongues using data drawn from other researchers’ work. For example, Russians speak on average faster than Norwegians, but considerably slower than Spaniards and Brazilians.The impact of different factors on the rate of speech is illustrated by the following findings: 1. There is a statistically valid difference between men’s (m) and women’s (f) speech rate: men speak substantially (from the statistical perspective) faster than women. 2. With age we start speaking more slowly. 3. Informants whose level of verbal competence was assessed at a high level by experts speak more slowly, while an articulation rate higher than the average is typical of speakers with a lower level of verbal competence. 4. Furthermore, we observed that the speech rate is dependent on a statistically significant way on the number of syllables of the utterance: the longer the phrase, the faster the rate.
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of speech rate in spontaneous conversations between Russian interlocutors conducted on the basis of recordings of 40 speakers and their interlocutors collected in the Speech Corpus of Russian Everyday Communication “One Day of Speech” (ORD corpus). The results allow us to compare the speech rate between speakers of different mother tongues using data drawn from other researchers’ work. For example, Russians speak on average faster than Norwegians, but considerably slower than Spaniards and Brazilians.The impact of different factors on the rate of speech is illustrated by the following findings: 1. There is a statistically valid difference between men’s (m) and women’s (f) speech rate: men speak substantially (from the statistical perspective) faster than women. 2. With age we start speaking more slowly. 3. Informants whose level of verbal competence was assessed at a high level by experts speak more slowly, while an articulation rate higher than the average is typical of speakers with a lower level of verbal competence. 4. Furthermore, we observed that the speech rate is dependent on a statistically significant way on the number of syllables of the utterance: the longer the phrase, the faster the rate.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Introduction and overview 1
-
Part I. Multimodal, grammatical and paralinguistic resources in talk-in-interaction
- Talking out of turn 17
- Reanimating responsibility 35
- Eye behavior in Russian spoken interaction and its correlation with affirmation and negation 63
- Hesitation markers in transitions within (story)telling sequences of Russian television shows 85
-
Part II. Statistical analysis of Russian talk-in-interaction
- Russian everyday utterances 105
- Speech rate as reflection of speaker’s social characteristics 117
-
Part III. Displaying and negotiating epistemic and evidential status and evaluation in interaction
- How evaluation is transferred in oral discourse in Russian 133
- ‘This is how I see it’ 147
- How can I lie if I am telling the truth? 167
-
Part IV. Facework and contextualization in interaction – From (im)politeness to humor
- Irony in the face(s) of politeness 187
- Parliamentary communication 213
- Impoliteness and mock-impoliteness 237
- Humor as staging an utterance 257
-
Part V. Language alternation in face-to-face interaction of bilingual families
- Bilingual language use in the family environment 281
- Russian language maintenance through bedtime story reading? 295
- Index 317
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Contributors ix
- Introduction and overview 1
-
Part I. Multimodal, grammatical and paralinguistic resources in talk-in-interaction
- Talking out of turn 17
- Reanimating responsibility 35
- Eye behavior in Russian spoken interaction and its correlation with affirmation and negation 63
- Hesitation markers in transitions within (story)telling sequences of Russian television shows 85
-
Part II. Statistical analysis of Russian talk-in-interaction
- Russian everyday utterances 105
- Speech rate as reflection of speaker’s social characteristics 117
-
Part III. Displaying and negotiating epistemic and evidential status and evaluation in interaction
- How evaluation is transferred in oral discourse in Russian 133
- ‘This is how I see it’ 147
- How can I lie if I am telling the truth? 167
-
Part IV. Facework and contextualization in interaction – From (im)politeness to humor
- Irony in the face(s) of politeness 187
- Parliamentary communication 213
- Impoliteness and mock-impoliteness 237
- Humor as staging an utterance 257
-
Part V. Language alternation in face-to-face interaction of bilingual families
- Bilingual language use in the family environment 281
- Russian language maintenance through bedtime story reading? 295
- Index 317
