Some phonetic notes on emotional expressions: Laughter, interjections and weeping

Some phonetic notes on emotional expressions:Laughter, interjections and weeping Bernd Pompino-Marschall, Sabine Kowal & Dan O‘Connell

Material Emotional outbursts on the part of Mrs. Bennetplayed by Alison Steadmanin Jane Austen‘s Pride and Prejudice[1995, BBC mini series] The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

An example Mrs. Bennet: []let me give you a kiss, then! (B:) [nEh](B:, P:) [mhm] [m] [ahhahh] (B:) Mr. Bennet: well, shall we go in? (P:) Mrs. Bennet: [] The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Contents • emotional & ‘nonarticulate’ vocalisations: • laughter • non-tame interjections • weeping and their phonetic realisations The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Exalted laughter • Multiple call bout • Extremely high f0: • falsetto voice & laryngeal whistle The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Embarrassed laughter • One or few call bout • Relatively low f0 The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Furious weeping • Multiple call bout • High or mid f0 The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Some observations • In laughing we find a lot of abnormal phonatory features (in combination): • expanded pitch range • laryngeal whistle • octave jumps, diplophonia • ingressive phonation etc. The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Some observations • and reduced supralaryngeal articulation: • mainly central vowels • no controlled (front) consonantal articulation The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Some observations • the rhythmic structure is realised by “Drucksilben” (in the sense of Sievers), i.e. chest pulses • not as articulated syllables (“Schallsilben”) The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Some observations • similar features can be observed in weeping • as well as non-‘tame’ interjections and hesitation vocalisations The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Discussion • We would like to characterise laughing as vocalisation with: • high pulmonal and laryngeal tension • combined with low supralaryngeal tension The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Discussion Extending the H&H model (Lindblom): Continuum of articulatory ‘tonus’ hyperspeech hypospeech hesitations [] high low speech setting vegetative setting neutral: [], raised velum, closed vocal tract, spontaneous phonation lowered velum, open glottis The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Discussion To include laughter (and weeping) we would have to state different ‘tonus’ settings • at the supralaryngeal level (i.e. low) • at the (sub)laryngeal level (i.e. high) The Phonetics of Laughter 5 Aug. 2007, Saarbrücken

Some phonetic notes on emotional expressions: Laughter, interjections and weeping