Audio recordings of polite and non-polite speech produced by native and non-native speakers of Japanese

Tsurutani, Chiharu; Shi, Shuju

Author(s)

Tsurutani, Chiharu

Shi, Shuju

Griffith University Author(s)

Tsurutani, Chiharu

Year published

2016

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Abstract

This data was gathered as part of a project funded by 10th Hakuho Foundation International Fellowship for Japanese Research. The project attempted to identify common prosodic features used by native speakers in polite speech and provide some strategies useful to deliver polite speech for L2 learners of Japanese. The researchers recorded common polite sentences (Desu, Masu) in polite and non-polite scenarios using 18 native and 11 non-native speakers. Only the sound files used for the project have annotations and acoustic measurements.|1) Sound files of polite and non-polite speech produced by 18 Japanese native speakers (9 ...
View more >This data was gathered as part of a project funded by 10th Hakuho Foundation International Fellowship for Japanese Research. The project attempted to identify common prosodic features used by native speakers in polite speech and provide some strategies useful to deliver polite speech for L2 learners of Japanese. The researchers recorded common polite sentences (Desu, Masu) in polite and non-polite scenarios using 18 native and 11 non-native speakers. Only the sound files used for the project have annotations and acoustic measurements.|1) Sound files of polite and non-polite speech produced by 18 Japanese native speakers (9 male/ 9 female) , their annotation and acoustic measurements for 12 sentences <<402MB and 2) 11 non-native speakers' speech data with annotation for 18 sentences.<<roughly 197MB
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Publisher URI

https://griffith.edu.au/

Copyright Statement

Item Access Status

Open Access. Files available via the Data Link. CC BY-ND.

Note

Intonation is one factor that can completely change the interpretation of an utterance. Despite that, second language learners have limited knowledge of Japanese intonation, such as the use of a falling tone for a declarative sentence and a rising tone for an interrogative sentence. The demands of teaching more advanced communication than at beginners’ level has become more obvious as the number of Japanese language learners increases. The attitude associated with social behaviour can have language specific requirements. Since Japanese people are reportedly known to be polite and well-mannered in public, learning to sound polite is of particular importance for second language learners of Japanese. This project focuses on politeness as a variable in investigating possible language specific requirements for Japanese speech. Project Description This study attempts to identify common prosodic features used by native speakers in polite speech and provide some strategies useful to deliver polite speech for L2 learners of Japanese. Using Desu, Masu forms, which are polite forms introduced at beginners’ level, two different scenarios, polite and non-polite, were prepared for the same sentence. We recorded common polite forms, in polite and non-polite scenarios using 18 native and 11 non-native speakers. All sound files are annotated except two non-native speakers' (aa)(gar). For the native speakers’ data, acoustic measurements are provided as well.

Subject

Japanese Language

Laboratory Phonetics and Speech Science

L2 Japanese

Australian English learners of Japanese

prosodic features