Attitudinal Meanings Conveyed by Intonation Contours

Abstract

This paper describes experiments in which Osgood's semantic differential was used to measure the attitude of listeners to a variety of intonation patterns. 16 pitch contours were applied by synthesis to recordings of four sentences and listeners were asked to rate the patterns with respect to 10 scales of the type BORED/ INTERESTED, POLITE/RUDE. From the results it was possible to draw some conclusions about the relative effectiveness of the chosen scales and about some general features of the intonation patterns which had particular weight with respect to three factors: Pleasant/Unpleasant, Interest/Lack of Interest and Authoritative/ Submissive.