Käsitykset ja vaikutelmat äänestä : kuuntelijoiden arviointia radiopuheen äänellisistä ominaisuuksista

Abstract

The primary aim of the study was to examine evaluative attitudes to variation in nonverbal, vocal aspects of speech. Both beliefs as to the characteristics of a good and a poor voice and evaluative responses to actual vocal behaviour are investigated. The secondary aim was to develop research methods for the measurement of attitudes to voice. In order to elicit the norms of vocal behaviour in a demanding speech situation, the study was contextualized in radio communication, specifically in formal reading performance in traditional Finnish nationwide radio. The analysis of 330 written descriptions of both a good and a poor voice resulted in beliefs regarding vocal acceptability. Eight normal voices were judged by non-expert listeners both in a speaker evaluation task (N = 330) and in a voice evaluation task (N = 331) using measurement instruments based on the semantic differential technique. Various aspects of the eight voice samples were analyzed by computer and rated by an expert jury (N = 23). Beliefs as to a good and a poor voice did not always correspond to evaluative responses to actual vocal behaviour. Thus, voice attitudes can better be assessed by listener-judgements. The acceptability of variation in vocalics was clearly reflected in inferences about the speaker. Samples representing the prototype of conventional reading performance produced the most favourable impressions. Voices with good vocal quality, non-reduced articulation, appropriate loudness, relatively fast tempo, low fundamental frequency, much variation in fundamental frequency, fast fundamental frequency changes and appropriate pausing strategies were unanimously judged positively. There appears to be no invariant dimensionality in speaker or voice evaluation; the dimensions were related to the characteristics of the target.