In:Linguistic Approaches to Emotions in Context
Edited by Fabienne H. Baider and Georgeta Cislaru
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 241] 2014
► pp. 231–250
Prosody and emotion in Greek
Evidence from spontaneous-speech corpora analysis
Published online: 13 March 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.241.14kot
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.241.14kot
Acoustic measurements were conducted in three small corpora conveying the following emotional states: neutral, sad and happy speech. The main objective was to investigate, to my knowledge for the first time for the Greek language, whether there are acoustic cues that facilitate the perception of emotions in real speech situations. The analysis of the acoustic material was mainly performed on the basis of syllable-sized units (using Prosogram and Praat). The acoustic parameters that were calculated were: total duration within and between these units, pitch change rate as well as the energy distribution in the spectrum. The findings confirm a slower speech rate and pitch change rate for sad speech in comparison to neutral speech as well as a high concentration of energy in lower frequencies. For happy speech the speech rate did not significantly differ from neutral speech but a faster speech change rate as well as a higher amount of energy in higher frequencies were observed.
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