Abstract:
The present study explored the acoustic characteristics of
prosodic cues that indicate a speaker’s reluctance when giving permission
or agreement using a single word (“okay”). Eight speakers (four
male, four female) produced the recorded materials that were subsequently
validated through a listening experiment using 12 normal-hearing
listeners. Acoustic analyses revealed that significantly longer word
duration was the cue used most consistently across speakers to communicate
reluctance. Voice quality, fundamental voice frequency, and intensity
cues also differed significantly between the two prosodic
conditions, but the manner in which these cues were applied varied
greatly across speakers.
