Sound symbolic effects in Italian
Valeria Fasano ANR 158885
Master’s Thesis Communication and Information Sciences Specialization Business Communication and Digital Media
Faculty of Humanities Tilburg University, Tilburg
Supervisor: Dr. M. Postma-Nilsenová Second reader: Prof. Dr. E.O. Postma Third reader: MA C.C.L. Kaland
August, 2014
i
Abstract p. 3
1. Introduction p. 4
2. Theoretical framework p. 7 2.1. Sound Symbolism p. 7
2.3. Intrinsic Fundamental Frequency p. 11
2.4. Italian Language p. 12
2.4.1. Italian Phonetic System p. 12
3.Current Study p. 17
3.1. Production Study p. 18
3.1.1. Participants p. 19
3.1.2. Materials p. 19
3.1.3. Procedure p. 20
3.1.4. Analysis and Results p. 20
3.1.5. Discussion p. 23
3.2. Perception Study p. 24
3.2.1. Participants p. 24
3.2.2. Materials p. 25
3.2.3. Procedure p. 26
3.2.4. Analysis and results p. 27
3.2.5. Discussion p. 30
4.Conclusion p. 33
References p. 34
Appendices p. 37
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Abstract
The term phonetic/sound symbolism expresses the idea that listeners associate certain existing and non-existing words of a language with specific meanings based on the words’ phonetic structure. At present, research on sound symbolism has mostly focused on the effects of intrinsic properties of vowels (particularly, their pitch/F0 and intensity) in
Germanic languages, whereas only a few studies have been conducted for Romance languages. Given that earlier empirical observations indicate that vowel-intrinsic properties are language specific (for instance, Romance languages do not use F0 to classify vowel quality differences), the question arises to what extent sound symbolic associations are universally present.
The current study focuses on the effects of intrinsic pitch of vowels on perceptual associations in Italian. For this purpose, a production task and a perceptual study have been carried out. In the production task, the Italian vowels uttered by two native speakers (male and female) in various contexts were recorded and analysed with the help of standard acoustic tools. Results of the acoustic analysis showed that the two intrinsic properties F0
(IF0) and intensity (II) were negatively correlated, in line with the findings reported for
Germanic languages in other studies. The subsequent perception experiment investigated the effects of vowel intrinsic F0 on perceptual associations. Italian native speakers (N = 107) evaluated possible associations for a list of meaningless words containing a subset of the vowels from the production task. Results indicate that sound symbolic associations in Italian are comparable to those described for Germanic languages.
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Introduction
According to one of the most fundamental postulates of linguistic theory about human language, originating with de Saussure (1916/1959), the relationship between sound and meaning is arbitrary, and every characteristic of language that differs from this assumption has traditionally been considered a minor exception (de Saussure, 1916). Traditional linguistics has always claimed that the number of pictorial, imitative, or onomatopoeic words in a language is very low (de Saussure, 1916/1959). However, results of experiments conducted in the last 20 years seem to contradict this traditional assumption and are pointing towards the existence of cross-modal associations for both existing and non-existing words in various languages: these words evoke certain meanings based on their phonetic structure
(Ohala, Hinton, & Nichols 1994; Postma-Nilsenová et al. 2013). Supposedly, the sound- meaning association has several functions, such as facilitating both Language 1 (L1) and
Language 2 (L2) learning and influencing people’s perceptions when confronted with novel words, including proper names (Imai, Nagumo, & Okada 2008; Bremner, Caparos, Davidoff, de Fockert, Linnell, & Spence, 2012; Lapolla, 1994; Postma-Nilsenová et al. 2013). Although the effect of sound symbolism seems to be stronger for non-existing words, such as invented brand names, it appears to hold for certain existing words as well (Shrum et al., 2012;
Postma-Nilsenová et al., 2013). In sum, although there is still a debate among linguistics scholars about the exact nature and origin of sound symbolism, several research projects in psycholinguistics over the years show convincingly that the effect can be attested in various contexts. In addition, it has also been hypothesized that the effects of sound symbolism hold universally (Baxter, & Lowrey, 2011; Ultan, 1978; Ramachandran, & Hubbard, 2005).
With respect to the phoneme inventory, studies on sound symbolism typically focus on the symbolic value conveyed by vowels. Repeatedly, it has been shown that words
iv containing vowels with high intrinsic fundamental frequency (IF0), such as front vowels like
/I, i, ɛ/, are perceived as smaller, faster, brighter, lighter, less powerful and more feminine, compared to words containing vowels with low intrinsic fundamental frequency, such as back vowels like /ʊ, o, ɔ/, that are perceived as larger, slower, darker, softer, heavier, more powerful and less feminine (Klink, 2000; Postma-Nilsenová et al., 2013; Whalen & Levitt,
1995). The perception of size appears to be consistent in at least 125 languages, possibly due to the fact that the volume of certain vowel sounds is greater than others (Ultan, 1978; Sapir,
1929). When people articulate front vowels, they have to move the tongue in a higher position and in the front part of the mouth – as a consequence, the size of their resonant cavity is smaller than when they are articulating back vowels, that are produced by a movement of the tongue in a lower position and towards the back of the mouth (Becker and
Fisher 1988; Pinker 1994; Shrum and Lowrey 2007). The positions of the tongue during the articulation process generate different sounds. These sounds seem to be distributed along a pattern that is similar to the one followed by sound symbolic associations (Yorkston et al.,
2004). Previous research has suggested that this pattern is rather consistent across languages
(Makino, Nakasa, & Ohso, 1999), In addition, recent studies that have been conducted for marketing purposes have found that brand names that make use of front vowels, as opposed to back vowels, convey attributes such as smallness, lightness, mildness, thinness, fastness, coldness, bitterness, femininity, weakness, and prettiness (Klink, 2000). Results of recent research have also highlighted the fact that sound symbolism has an influence on consumers’ evaluation of brand names (Klink, 2001).
Limited research results available for consonants show that stops, like back vowels, are usually associated with perceptions of large size, whereas fricatives, like front vowels, are typically linked with small size and angular shapes (Klink 2003). From a phonetic point of view, there seem to be two ways consonants influence cross-modal associations for a word -
v directly or by modifying the frequency of the vowels that they precede (Klink 2000).
Marketing research into perception of brand names shows that people usually perceive brands containing fricatives as referring to products that are smaller, faster, and lighter than those containing stops (Klink 2000; Ohala 1994).
Interestingly, different sounds produced by combinations of phonemes may generate a micro-prosodic contour that gives rise to meaningful associations as well (Postma-Nilsenová et al., 2013). For example, words composed of two-syllable sequences of high-low vowels, such as /CɪCɔ/, create a so-called “falling contour”, whereas sequences of low-high vowels, such as /CɔCɪ/, create a “rising contour”. According to the mechanism of the Frequency Code
(i.e. a psycholinguistic principle used to explain interpretational effects of rising and falling contours in different languages), people interpret these two contours in two different ways
(Chen, 2004). By means of the Frequency Code, high pitch is generally linked to smaller speakers because they have smaller vocal folds and shorter vocal tracts and, therefore, produce higher fundamental frequency (Fitch 1994, 1997). As a consequence, high and rising pitch is interpreted as less dominant, more uncertain, friendlier and questioning, as opposed to low and falling pitch (Chen, 2004). Presumably, that is the reason why the falling contour
/Cɪcɔ/ is interpreted as bigger and more powerful, whereas the rising contour /Cɔcɪ/ is interpreted as small and powerless (Postma-Nilsenová et al., 2013).
Apart from IF0, another intrinsic property of vowels, Intrinsic Intensity (II), seems to play a role in cross-modal associations. Given the fact that vowel-intrinsic intensity and fundamental frequency are often correlated, previous research showed that II seems to co- determine some sound-symbolic associations (Postma-Nilsenová et al., 2013).
Despite the claims regarding universality (Imai et al., 2008), the effects of sound symbolism in different languages and writing systems have not been sufficiently addressed,
vi since the majority of past studies have been conducted in English. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate the phenomenon of sound symbolism and its effects on perceptions of brand names. In particular, this research will focus on whether intrinsic properties of vowels determine cross-modal correspondences in the Italian language.
The research report consists of three parts: the first section presents a theoretical framework in which the linguistic concepts of sound symbolism and intrinsic fundamental frequency and intensity of speech sounds are introduced, and the main characteristics of the
Italian language are explained. The second section summarizes main results concerning sound symbolism, introduces the goals of the current study and the two experiments that have been carried out. Finally, the last part of the research report presents the results of these experiments and provides some suggestions for future research in phonetic symbolism.
Theoretical framework
Sound Symbolism
Sound symbolism is a linguistic process by means of which the sound of a word – even in the absence of context - evokes meaningful associations. The idea of a non-arbitrary relationship between a speech signal and its meaning is not new, since it was already discussed by Plato in his work Cratylus (Reeve, C. D., 1998): there, Socrates debates with two pupils about whether the names of things are arbitrary or whether they are a natural reflection of the things they define (Ohala, 1997). Several authors throughout the history have used sound symbolic properties of words to capture attributes of literary characters (e.g., Swift in his Gulliver’s travels when naming the populations of Lilliputians –very small people, and Brobdingnagians
– giants).
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To what extent is sound symbolism present in our every-day language use? For some expressions, sound and meaning appear to be closely linked, as in the case of involuntary expressions, e.g., cries of pain or hiccups (Ohala et al., 1994). In these cases, the sound directly reflects an internal state of the body or the mind. However, a number of other examples can be found. Taking into account different degrees of interconnection between sound and meaning, previous research has divided the concept of sound symbolism into four categories: corporeal sound symbolism, metalinguistic symbolism, imitative sound symbolism, and synesthetic sound symbolism (Ohala et al., 1994).
Corporeal sound symbolism is directly related to the emotional or physical state of the speaker. Besides the involuntary sounds previously mentioned, it includes a series of expressive intonations, voice qualities, and interjections. Usually, this kind of sound symbolism is not used in written language. Corporal sound-symbolic utterances are complete expressions with a simple, non-segmentable structure; they rarely occur as parts of more complex sentences. In English, classical examples of corporal sound symbolic utterances can be found in comic strips in forms (e.g., Aaugh! or Achoo!). These forms also portray expressive intonation and voice quality by variations in letter size, shape and colour (Ohala et al. 1994).
The category of metalinguistic symbolism refers to the choice of segments and intonation patterns to signal aspects of linguistic structure and function. A common example is the substitution of a vowel or a consonant in order to signal different kinds of grammatical phenomena, such as tense, aspect, and pluralization. According to past research (Ohala et al.,
1994), each of the four types of sound symbolism also has a meta-communicative variant, for instance the use of vocatives to signal turn-taking.
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Imitative sound symbolism includes words and phrases that represent environmental sounds (e.g. swish). These forms may be extrinsic to language, as in the case of onomatopoeia, where the choice of linguistic representation is determined by language extrinsic sounds. In general, languages make use of three main sound-symbolic strategies: 1) reduplication; 2) the use of segments/segmental distributions that are not common in the language; and 3) the use of phoneme classes associated with certain semantic fields.
Reduplication use tends to be language specific; for example, English employs so-called
“partial reduplication”, i.e., a kind of reduplication that involves vowel alternation (as in the word ding-dong). In general, European languages use reduplication less often than the languages in the rest of the world (Ohala et al. 1994).
Finally, the fourth category is one that includes synesthetic sound-symbolic forms.
These forms generally enhance people’s mental associations of particular phoneme classes with certain semantic fields: for example, stops are generally used to represent sounds or acts that are abrupt, whereas fricatives are used to represent those that are continuing (Ohala et al.,
1994). Synesthetic sound symbolism is defined as “the acoustic symbolization of non- acoustic phenomena” (Ohala et al. 1994, p.4), in other words, in this kind of sound symbolism, vowels, consonants, and suprasegmentals are used to evoke visual, tactile or other properties of objects, such as their shape or size. For example, palatal consonants and high vowels are commonly used to represent small objects. In the morphological domain,
Ultan (1978) showed in his research that the 90% of the languages he analysed that were provided with a diminutive marking, expressed the diminutive form with high front vowels.
Expressive intonations can be used synesthetically as well, as it happens when people make use of a deep voice and vowel lengthening in order to describe large objects (e.g. “It was a la- a-a-rge table”; Ohala et al., 1994). Synesthetic sound symbolism is one of the most puzzling types of sound symbolism and has been frequently documented in the past.
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Apart from linguistics, the interest for synesthetic sound symbolism is particularly strong in the field of branding where it is used to create suitable names for commercial products. A clear example is the use of the name L’Oreal for shampoos, a name that is full of continuant sounds to symbolise flowing hair (Ohala et al., 1994). In one of the first studies of sound symbolism for branding purposes, Peterson and Ross (1972) found that monosyllabic words and plural forms are more readily identified with cereals, whereas singular forms are associated more frequently with laundry detergents. Spence (2012) observed that in 1981 there was a significant over-representation of the letter “k” among the top brand names during the period from 1975-1979 (e.g. Kraft, Kodak, Kellog’s), together with letters such as
“p, c, b, t”. He concluded that this fact could not be explained by chance alone. Follow-up research (Vanden Bergh et al., 1984) showed that brand names starting with a plosive are more easily recognized and recalled than those starting with a non-plosive. In a further study, researchers examined and classified 479 brand names from 1971 to 1985 according to their linguistic properties, and they found that the characteristic of semantic appositeness, i.e., the fit between a product and its name, and the use of plosives were the most common (Vanden
Bergh, Adler & Oliver, 1987). Brand preferences can also be enhanced when the phonetically conveyed perceptions of the brand name and the characteristics of the product itself are tightly linked (Shrum, Lowrey, Luna, Lerman, & Liu 2012), for instance by sound and shape symbolism influencing consumer’s expectations (Spence, 2012).
To sum up, sound symbolism is a linguistic phenomenon that is potentially present in every language. Thanks to the fact that it influences people’s interpretations of word meanings, sound symbolism represents an important field of research for marketing, that is necessary in order to create successful brands. Recent studies have demonstrated that sound symbolic meaning is conveyed by segment-intrinsic acoustic properties such as fundamental
x frequency and intensity and that these properties may play a role in the interpretation of exiting and non-existing words (Postma-Nilsenová et al., 2013).
Intrinsic Fundamental Frequency
Intrinsic fundamental frequency (IF0) or intrinsic pitch is a phonetic feature that is strictly related to vowels. It is the tendency of closed vowels such as [i] and [u] to have a higher fundamental frequency than open vowels, such as [a] and [æ]. This tendency was first noticed for German in a series of early linguistic studies (Meyer, 1896-7), and it has been documented for several other languages afterwards (Whalen & Levitt, 1995; Verhoeven &
Van Hoof, 2008).
Interestingly, there appears to be tendency among languages with a smaller vowel inventory to have a smaller IF0 than in languages with a larger number of vowels. Results of a research that compared two languages with a different number of vowels in their phonetic system (i.e., Moroccan Standard Arabic, that displays 3 distinctive vowels, and Belgian
Standard Dutch, that displays 12), found that vowel-intrinsic pitch in Moroccan Standard
Arabic differs significantly from Belgian Standard Dutch in that IF0 in the first language is significantly smaller than in the second one (Verhoeven and Van Hoof, 2008). According to this result, there might be a relationship between the size of the vowel inventory and IF0, so that bigger inventories present bigger IF0 values (Verhoeven and Van Hoof, 2008).
In the present study on sound symbolism, we will, therefore, focus on the vowel system of Standard Italian, compared to the vowel system of Standard Dutch. A comparison of these two systems is interesting because these two languages differ in their vowel inventories; the Italian inventory is considerably smaller (with 7 vowels) than the Dutch
xi inventory (with 12 vowels). In addition, the two languages belong to different linguistic groups (i.e., Romance and Germanic), and previous research has shown that their linguistic systems work in different ways, especially with regards to IF0 (Pape & Mooshammer, 2006;
Pape, 2008). Prior to the description of the study, the Italian vowel and consonantal system will be briefly described below.
Italian Language
Italian Phonetic System
Arguably, it is challenging to identify the phonological system of Italian in view of the fact that there are at least twenty systems available in different dialects (d’Achille, 2007).
Standard Italian makes use of 30 phonemes, of which 7 are vowels, 2 are semi-consonants, and 21 are consonants (d’Achille, 2007). When the consonants are in intervocalic position, 15 of them can be either short or long. This difference in duration has a phonological value (as it happens for example in pala/palla, the first word meaning shovel and the second meaning ball). If we take into consideration the different durations of the consonants, the phonological system of Italian consists of 45 phonemes in total (D’Achille 2007).
The 21 consonant phonemes are distributed among seven places of articulation and six manners of articulation (see Table 1).
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Table 1
Articulations of Italian consonants Labio- Dental/ Post- Bilabial Palatal Velar dental Alveolar alveolar
Nasal m n ɲ
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Affricate ts dz t d
Fricative f v s z
Approximant j w
Lateral l ʎ
Trill r
Note. Adapted from “L’italiano contemporaneo”, by D’Achille, P., 2007. Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino.
The distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants has a phonological value in
Italian (e.g. moto [mɔto] ‘motorcycle’/modo [mɔdo] ‘mode’). A distinctive feature of Italian
phonology is the existence of four affricates (/ts/, /dz/, /ʧ/, /ʤ/), where other main European
languages typically have only two. The orthographic representation of Italian consonants
follows a number of rules: the phoneme /z/ is represented by ‹s›, the same grapheme used to
represent the phoneme /s/; however, the phoneme /z/ can only be found before a voiced
consonant or in intervocalic position (e.g. sganciare [zgan’ʧare] ‘to detach’). When /s/ and /z/
precede a consonant, their distinction depends on the context. However, when they are in
intervocalic position, their distinction has a phonological value in the Standard pronunciation
(e.g. chiese [‘kiɛse] ‘he asked’ and chiese [‘kiɛze] ‘churches’). The phonemes /k/ and /ʧ/ are
both represented by the grapheme ‹c›: the rule is that when ‹c› is followed by the vowels /a/,
/ɔ/, /o/, /u/ or a consonant, it is pronounced as /k/ (e.g. cane [‘kane] ‘dog’, chiedere [‘kjɛdere]
‘to ask’), and when it is followed by /i/, /e/, /ɛ/ it is pronounced as /ʧ/ (cena [‘ʧena] ‘dinner’).
The same rule applies to the phonemes /g/ and /ʤ/. The phonemes /dz/ and /ts/ are both
represented by the grapheme ‹z›. Their pronunciation is different in the several regions of
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Italy and it doesn’t have phonological value. Finally, the dental nasal /n/ has an allophone /ŋ/ before velar consonants (e.g. banca [‘baŋka] ‘bank’) and an allophone /ɲ/ before palatal consonants (D’Achille 2007).
All the consonants of Italian can be graphically rendered as single or double, apart from phonemes [ɲ], [ ], and [ʎ], that can be pronounced as long or short invariably. In all the other cases, consonantal length has phonological value, as it happens for minimal pairs such as copia [kɔpja] ‘copy’ and coppia [kɔppja] ‘pair’. Consonantal length is a distinctive feature of Italian phonology, compared to other European languages.
The vowels in Italian constitute the nucleus of the syllable and can carry the word accent. In a stressed position, there are seven vowels, distributed in the so-called vocalic triangle (see Figure 1).
i u
e o
ɛ ɔ
a
Figure 1. Italian Vocalic Triangle. Adapted from “L’italiano contemporaneo”, by D’Achille, P., 2007.
Bologna, Italy: Il Mulino.
According to the vocalic triangle, Italian is characterized by:
/a/, the central vowel that is produced by opening the oral cavity completely, and by
placing the tongue in the lowest position;
/ɛ/, /e/, /i/, the so called anterior or palatal vowels, where the tongue has to move
forward towards the hard palate;
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/ɔ/, /o/, /u/, the posterior or velar vowels that are articulated by a movement of the
tongue towards the palatine velum; they are also called bilabials, as their articulation
requires a particular movement of the lips (D’Achille 2007).
Taking into account the different positions of the tongue during the articulation of the seven vowels, it is possible to divide them into high ([i] and [u]), semi-high ([e] and [o]), semi-low ([ɛ] and [ɔ]), and low ([a]) (D’Achille 2007). The difference between semi-high and semi-low vowels is graphically represented by adding an accent (grave or acute) in order to distinguish between minimal pairs such as ‘è’ [ɛ] (‘he/she/it is’) and ‘e’ [e] (‘and’). However, this distinction is very rarely reported in the written form, even though it is phonologically meaningful in the Standard pronunciation (e.g., venti [‘venti], ‘twenty’, and venti [‘vɛnti]
‘winds’).
Unstressed /u/ never appears at the end of a word, apart from some surnames and loan words, and the phoneme [e] only appears at the end of words compound from che [ke] -as in perché [per’ke] ‘why’- or in some third persons of simple past - as in poté [po’te] ‘ he could’.
All the other words show the phoneme [ɛ], as in bignè [bi’ɲɛ] ‘cream puff’. The same rule applies for phonemes [o] and [ɔ]. Importantly, when the vowels are in an unstressed position their number decreases to five, because the distinction between semi-high and semi-low vowels is lost (D’Achille 2007).
The semi-consonants /j/ (jod) and /w/ (wao) are articulated as [i] and [u] but have a very short duration and are never stressed. These two semi-consonants can only appear immediately before or immediately after another vowel within the same syllable and together they originate a diphthong: if the vowel follows the semi-consonant, the diphthong is said to be rising, and if the vowel precedes the semi-consonant, it is said to be falling. These semi- consonants have phonological value, as it can be inferred from minimal pairs such as spianti
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[spianti] ‘people who are spying’ and spianti [spjanti] ‘you uproot’. In addition to diphthongs, Italian semi-consonants may also originate triphthongs that are made up of two semi-consonants and a vowel, as in aiuole [a’jwɔle] ‘flowerbed’, or of a semi-consonant, a vowel and a semi-consonant, as in miei [‘mjɛj] ‘my/mine’. A hiatus originates from two vowels placed next to each other but belonging to two different syllables, as in leone [le’one]
‘lion’ (D’Achille 2007).
As opposed to other languages, in Italian the nucleus of a syllable can only be composed of a vowel (with the exception of interjections and onomatopoeias, such as brr, zzz). The onset, that can also be missing (e.g. in a-go [ago] ‘needle’), is usually constituted by a consonant (e.g. ca-ne [kane] ‘dog’). The “CV” structure is the most common in Italian, even though there are several options: the onset may be constituted by a semi-consonant (e.g. uo-vo [wɔvo] ‘egg’), by more than one consonant (e.g. e.g. stra-da [strada] ‘street’), and, more rarely, by a consonant and two semi-consonants (quie-te [kwjɛte] ‘the quiet’) or by two semi-consonants (e.g. a-iuo-la [ajwɔla] ‘flowerbed’; D’Achille 2007).
Current Study
Sound symbolic phenomena have been explored in a range of languages, including English,
Chinese, Japanese, French, German, and Spanish (Klink, 2000, 2001; Lapolla, 1994; Ohala et al., 1994; Shinohara et al., 2012), but little is known about the effects of intrinsic F0 on cross- modal associations in Italian. Research on IF0 perceptual distinctions in Italian (Pettorino,
1987; Pape & Mooshammer, 2006; Pape, 2008) suggests that Italian listeners do not use IF0 to classify vowel quality, possibly as a consequence of their smaller vowel inventory. In other words, IF0 is perceptually less prominent for Italian listeners. If so, sound-symbolic effects in
Italian are likely to be less pronounced than in other (e.g., Germanic) languages.
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The present study explores the effect of vowel-intrinsic F0 in Italian on interpretation of invented words. A previous study conducted with Dutch native speakers explored the effects of vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency on their perceptions of two-syllabic words
(Postma-Nilsenová et al., 2013). It was demonstrated that the sequences of phonemes in a word may give rise to the perception of a micro-prosodic contour and produce meaningful associations between phoneme-intrinsic fundamental frequency and meaning. According to results of this study, two-syllabic words composed of a sequence of high-low vowels are perceived as “falling” combinations (e.g. /kiku/) and are judged as more powerful than two- syllabic words composed of a sequence of low-high vowels (that are perceived as “rising” combinations, e.g. /kuki/). However, when these “falling” combinations are compared to monosyllabic stimuli containing a high-front vowel, they are judged as less powerful. The effects of sound symbolism that originate from vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency, thus, seem to be influenced by the combination of the acoustic values of different syllabic sequences, in accordance with the predictions of the Frequency Code (Chen, 2004; Postma-
Nilsenová et al., 2013).
Considering that this psycholinguistic principle is thought to be innately present among humans, and that it seems to underlie the phenomenon of sound symbolism (Ohala,
1984), the expectation formulated for the current study is that sound-symbolic effects should be similar for Dutch and Italian speakers. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency on Italian native speakers’ perceptions of two-syllabic words constituted by sequences of high-low (“Falling” stimuli), low-high (“Rising” stimuli), high-high (“High” stimuli), and low-low (“Low” stimuli) vowels.
To sum up, the present research addresses the following research questions:
1. Do vowel-intrinsic properties generate significant sound-symbolic effects in Italian?
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2. Do sound-symbolic associations differ for words containing different sequences of high- and low-pitched phonemes?
In order to answer these research questions, the experiment has been divided into two parts: a production study, in which the vowels of the Italian system are measured in order to support the creation of suitable stimulus material, and a perception study, in which Italian speakers (N = 107) were asked to evaluate the stimulus material in the context of a possible marketing study on brand names.
Production study
The aim of this study was to test whether the cross-modal correspondences that were described for other languages hold among Italian speakers as well. The production study consisted of a controlled measurement of intrinsic fundamental frequency and intrinsic intensity of all the native vowels [a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ, u] of the Italian inventory. The methodology that is used to carry out this production study was based on an earlier study in Dutch (Kaland
& Postma-Nilsenová, 2014) and American English (Lehiste & Peterson, 1959).
Participants
One female (age: 25 years) and one male (age: 30 years), both native speakers of Italian, carried out the reading task. The female speaker was the author of the study and had prior knowledge of phonetics. The male speaker participated in the experiment on a voluntary basis. Both speakers came from the same region of Italy (Lombardia) and spoke the same variant of Italian, including a few specific dialectal characteristics. These dialectal characteristics did not affect the vowels production, as participants were instructed to read the
International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) transcriptions of the syllables. Both participants were
L2 speakers of English.
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Materials
All the Italian vowels were combined with a subset of consonants [p, b, t, d, k, s, z, m, n, l, r]
(n=11) in every possible CV and VC syllable (n=154). The subset of consonants was composed of five plosives (3 voiceless, 2 voiced), two fricatives (1 voiced, 1 voiceless), two nasals, one liquid (voiced) and one vibrant (voiced). Every syllable of the reading list was written in IPA (1999), and presented in a matrix sentence (Ho detto [syllable], English translation: I have said [syllable]) in order to be displayed in a linguistic context. Two reading lists (original order and reversed order), both consisting of 154 sentences, were created for the purposes of the study.
The recordings were made in a sound proof cabin. A professional headset (MB Quart
K-800) was used to ensure that the microphone remained at a constant distance from the speakers’ mouth during the reading task. The headset microphone was connected to a laptop computer (Acer EA50_HC_CR), and the wave-files were recorded and saved using the software Audacity (Audacity Development Team, 2006) as mono recordings (32-bit, 44.1 kHz). The scientific computer software package Praat (Boersma & Weenink, 2011) for the analysis of speech was used to analyse the recordings.
Procedure
Before starting the recordings, the experimenter checked the equipment and made a test recording. The speakers were recorded in a soundproof cabin and were instructed by the experimenter to read each sentence with the same neutral intonation. They received a set of training sentences to get to know the procedure and the IPA notation. Once the recordings had been saved on the laptop computer, they were analysed using Praat (Boersma et al.,
2011). The vowel boundaries were annotated manually, using the TextGrid notation option.
A Praat script was run in order to extract mean pitch and mean intensity of every vowel
xix interval. The final results for mean pitch and mean intensity of every vowel were calculated using the software SPSS 20.0 (Field, 2009) for statistical analyses.
Analysis and Results
Results of the measurements of Italian vowels’ mean pitch and mean intensity showed the situation presented in Table 2.
Table 2
Measurements for mean Intrinsic Frequency (IF0, measured in Hz) and mean Intrinsic Intensity (II, measured in dB) of Italian
Female speaker Male speaker Combined analysis
Vowel IF0 II IF0 II IF0 II
a 183.40 80.52 110.91 83.50 147.16 82.01 e 190.00 76.72 122.03 80.17 155.98 78.45
ɛ 187.78 79.94 122.45 83.70 154.74 81.84 i 190.79 71.26 125.68 75.73 158.09 73.49 o 184.51 77.63 121.17 79.81 152.34 78.72
ɔ 183.90 80.71 119.07 83.50 151.73 82.10 u 187.83 73.51 125.93 76.24 157.47 74.87
As indicated in Table 2, the values of vowel-intrinsic intensity are similar for both speakers, whereas the values of vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency are overall higher for the female speaker than for the male speaker. This difference is likely due to natural gender differences in modal pitch, due to the length of male and female vocal tracts.
xx
The figures below show the measurements of Italian vowels in more detail. Figure 2 represents the values for the combined measurements of the two speakers, whereas Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the results for the female and the male speakers respectively.
Combined Analysis 160 158 /u/ 74,87; 157,47 /i/ 73,49; 158,09 /e/ 78,45; 155,98 156 /ɛ/ 81,84; 154,74
154
Hz /o/ 78,72; 152,34 152 /ɔ/ 82,1; 151,73 150
148 /a/ 82,01; 147,16 146 72 74 76 78 80 82 84 dB
Figure 2. IF0 (Hz) as a function of II (dB) for Italian vowels produced by native speakers
The way in which vowels spread along the two axes in Figures 2, 3, and 4 seems to indicate that IF0 and II are negatively correlated.
Female Speaker 192 191 /i/ 71,26; 190,79 190 /e/ 76,72; 190 189
188 /u/ 73,51; 187,83 /ɛ/ 79,94; 187,78 Hz 187 186 185 /o/ 77,63; 184,51 /ɔ/80,71; 183,9 184 183 /a/ 80,52; 183,4 70 72 74 76 78 80 82 dB
Figure 3. IF0 (Hz) and II (dB) measurements for the female speaker
xxi
A correlation analysis was run on the combined measurements of the two speakers and showed that vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency and intensity correlate negatively, rcombined = -.78, N = 7, p = .04.
Male Speaker 128 126 /u/ 76,24; 125,93 124 /i/ 75,73; 125,68 /ɛ/ 83,7; 122,45 /e/ 80,17; 122,03 122
120 /o/ 79,81; 121,17 /ɔ/ 83,5; 119,07 Hz 118 116 114 112 /a/ 83,5; 110,91 110 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 dB
Figure 4. IF0 (Hz) and II (dB) measurements for the male speaker
A negative correlation was also found for the measurements of the male and the female speakers separately, rmale = -.56, N = 7, p = .19; rfemale = -.89, N = 7, p = .007.
Discussion
In the first part of this study, the intrinsic acoustic properties of the Italian vowels were measured for recordings obtained by means of a controlled production task with two speakers. Results of these measurements show that the vowels /i/ and /u/ have high IF0 and low II, /e/ has high IF0 and middle II, /o/ has middle IF0 and middle II, /ɛ/ has high IF0 and high II, /ɔ/ has low IF0 and high II, and /a/ has low IF0 and high II. These results are consistent with previous analyses for other languages (Dutch and English), and show that, in
xxii general, close-front vowels have a higher IF0 and a lower II than open-back vowels. These results also confirm the hypothesis that words containing vowels that are articulated by opening the mouth have higher II (Kaland & Postma-Nilsenová, 2014). On the contrary, words that are pronounced by closing the mouth contain vowels that have a higher IF0. This finding is inconsistent with previous claims made in the literature, at least with respect to IF0 in the Romance languages (Pape & Mooshammer, 2006; Pape, 2008). The negative correlation between IF0 and II of Italian vowels suggests that the phonological system of the
Italian language works in a similar way to the Dutch system. Some minor differences between the measurements of the female and the male speakers are most likely due to differences in the speakers’ intonation during the reading task.
Perception Study
This section describes a perception study that was carried out using stimuli containing a subset of vowels from the Italian inventory. These vowels were selected on the basis of the outcomes obtained during the acoustic measurements of intrinsic fundamental frequency and intrinsic intensity. The stimuli consisted in a list of fictitious company names composed of two syllables containing vowels with different IF0, as well as different open-close and front- back dimensions. The aim of the perception experiment was to test whether sound-symbolic associations of Italian speakers vary when the stimuli contain different sequences of high- and low-pitched phonemes.
Participants
One hundred and seven Italian native speakers, 43 female and 64 male, (Mage = 38.02, SD =
15.99) took part in the experiment on a voluntary basis. In order to participate in the survey, the participants did not need to satisfy any specific requirement other than being native speakers of the Italian language. A non-probabilistic sampling technique (a snowball
xxiii sampling) was used in order to recruit participants for the experiment. The links to the four online surveys were randomly distributed among a number of native speakers of Italian, who were asked to distribute the survey among their acquaintances and colleagues. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four online survey variants, with 29 people taking part in Survey 1, 26 in Survey 2, 27 in Survey 3, and 25 in Survey 4.
Materials
A subset of four vowels was selected among the seven vowels of the Italian inventory. The four selected vowels differed in their values of IF0 and II and were systematically divided along the open-close and front-back dimensions: the close back rounded vowel /u/, the close front unrounded vowel /i/, the open mid-front unrounded vowel /ɛ/, and the open mid-back rounded vowel /ɔ/. According to results of the measurements presented in the previous section, /u/ and /i/ are representative for high IF0 and low II, /ɛ/ showed high IF0 and high II, and /ɔ/ was characterised by low IF0 and high II. These values were taken from the combined measurements of both the female and the male speakers.
As stimuli, a list of fictitious company names was created for two reasons: on the one hand, results from previous research showed that the effects of sound symbolism are observed more often for non-existing than for existing words (Klink, 2000; Klink, 2001). On the other hand, non-existing words were used to avoid influencing participants’ perceptions, given that people would unconsciously link existing words with the concepts that they already convey, and their associations might be biased. The fictitious names were created in the following manner: all of them were composed of two syllables, according to the pattern
/CV1CV2/ with the two consonants being identical in each company name. To control for possible consonantal effects, we used only five occlusive consonants, [p, b, t, d, k], i.e. two voiced consonants [b, d] and three voiceless consonants [p, t, k]. The two vowels of the
xxiv stimuli were displayed in all their possible combinations [/i-ɛ/, /ɛ-i/, /ɔ-u/, /u-ɔ/, /i-u/, /u-i/, /i-
ɔ/, /ɔ-i/, /ɛ-u/, /u-ɛ/, /ɛ-ɔ/, /ɔ-ɛ/, /i-i/, /ɛ-ɛ/, /u-u/, /ɔ-ɔ/], resulting in a total of eighty disyllabic names (sixteen vowel combinations per consonant) composed of different combinations of intrinsically high, low, rising, and falling vowels. Of these eighty names, thirty-six had to be excluded because they were potentially meaningful to Italian native speakers. The final list of forty-four fictitious company names was divided into four different variants of twelve names each. In order to obtain four lists with the same number and the same kinds of stimuli, four fictitious company names had to be used in two different lists. These names were: CUCHE,
POPI, PEPU, and TETO. The twelve names in each list were placed in a randomized order into four different online surveys that were randomly distributed among the participants. The surveys were hosted on the Lime Survey platform, an application for creating surveys online free of charge.
Instruments and Procedure
The stimuli were presented in the text modality only. The task of participants was to silently read the list of company names and to evaluate the attributes that they associated with them with the help of four five-point scales: strong-weak, masculine-feminine, light-heavy, and fast-slow (the Italian words used were: Potenza, Mascolinità, Leggerezza, and Velocità).
These scales expressed four dimensions of the construct of ‘power’ that has been found to be associated with changes in intrinsic fundamental frequency and intensity in other languages.
Each company name was displayed in the same statement (e.g. “Il nome PIPU mi trasmette”
– ‘The name PIPU conveys’), followed by the four scales that were randomized per stimulus.
Participants were instructed to indicate the degree to which they agreed with each attributed for a given stimulus (1 for ‘Absolutely Not’ and 5 for ‘Absolutely Yes’), as in the following example: The name PIPU conveys MASCULINITY (1 = Absolutely Not, 5 = Absolutely Yes).
xxv
In order to create a suitable context for the task, the survey was presented as a marketing research on behalf of a Dutch car company aiming to sell its products in Italy. To make participants more actively involved in the survey, they were also asked to submit their own idea about a name for a car company.
The data collected with the four surveys were extracted from the Lime Survey software, organised into four Excel files and imported into the statistics software SPSS 20.0
(Field, 2009).
Results
Prior to the statistical analyses, the scale anchored at ‘light-heavy’ was recoded in order to achieve the same polarity (less powerful – more powerful) as the other three scales. A reliability test showed that the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was negative for almost all the stimuli when the recoded subscale was included. If the subscale was excluded, however, the
Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was >.7 for all the stimuli. For this reason, it was decided that the subscale related to participants’ associations with respect to weight would be treated as a separate variable in the analysis. The remaining three scales were reduced into a new variable, Power, with a higher value of the scale indicating that the stimulus was associated with a higher degree of power. The values of the new variable were averaged according to the
Vowel-Intrinsic Fundamental Frequency and Intrinsic Intensity of the vowels that were contained in the stimuli, and four different variables indicating stimuli with intrinsically
High, Low, Rising, and Falling combinations of vowels were computed. The variables belonging to the Weight scale underwent the same process, and new variables for intrinsically
High, Low, Rising, and Falling stimuli were created for this scale as well.
xxvi
Table 3.
Combinations of vowels in the stimuli
High Stimuli Low Stimuli Rising Stimuli Falling Stimuli
Vowels e-e, i-i, e-i. i-e o-o, u-u, u-o, o-u o-i, o-e, u-i, u-e i-u, e-u, i-o, e-o
Two repeated-measures ANOVA analyses were run in order to test the effects of vowel-intrinsic Fundamental Frequency on people’s perceptions of power and weight in the invented company names. The independent variable was Vowel-Intrinsic Fundamental
Frequency (High, Low, Falling and Rising stimuli), and the dependent variable was perceived
Power of the stimulus (invented company name).
Results of the repeated-measures ANOVA analysis run on the Power scale showed a significant effect of intrinsically High and intrinsically Low vowel sequences, F(1, 106) =
2 21.8, p < .001, ηp = .17, and a significant effect of intrinsically Rising and intrinsically
2 Falling vowel sequences, F(1, 106) = 9.35, p = .003, ηp = .09, on the perceived power conveyed by the invented company names. In addition, results of this analysis show the
2 presence of a significant interaction effect, F (1, 106) = 7.19, p = .009, ηp = .06, between intrinsically High-Low stimuli, and intrinsically Rising-Falling stimuli on participants’ perceptions of power in the pseudo-names. Results of a post-hoc analysis indicate that company names composed of intrinsically Falling sequences were evaluated as the most powerful compared to names containing one of the other three sequences (M = 2.12, SE =
.08). Company names composed of intrinsically Low sequences are judged as more powerful
(M = 2.48, SE = .1) than those composed of intrinsically Rising (M = 2.4, SE = .08) and intrinsically High stimuli (M = 2.12, SE = .08), see Figure 5.
xxvii
2,7 FALLING: M = LOW: M = 2.48, 2.52, SE = .1 RISING: M = 2.4, SE = .09 2,5 SE = .08
2,3 HIGH: M = 2.12, High-Rising SE = .08 Stimuli 2,1
Low-Falling 1,9 Stimuli
1,7
1,5
Figure 5. Perceived Power in the stimuli
Results of the repeated-measures analysis for the effect of the experimental manipulation on the Weight scale showed a significant effect of intrinsically High and
2 intrinsically Low vowel sequences, F(1,106) = 70.26, p < .001, ηp = .4, and a significant effect of intrinsically Rising and intrinsically Falling sequences, F(1, 106) = 20.09, p < .001,
2 ηp = .16, on participants’ perception of power related to weight in the invented company names. Results also disclose an interaction effect between intrinsically High-Low stimuli and
2 intrinsically Rising-Falling stimuli, F(1, 106) = 78.66, p < .001, ηp = .43, on the perceived power in the invented names. A post-hoc analysis on the Weight scale presents that stimuli containing intrinsically Low sequences of back vowels (e.g. o-o) are perceived as indicating the most powerful names (M = 3.92, SE = .1) compared to stimuli that contained one of the other three possible sequences (see Figure 6).
xxviii
4,5
LOW: M = 3.92, 4 SE = .1 RISING: M =3.64, FALLING: SE = .09 M = 3.58, SE = .09 3,5
HIGH: M = 2.69, High-Rising 3 SE = .11 Low-Falling 2,5
2
1,5
Figure 6. Perceived Weight in the stimuli
Differently than results of the previous analysis, however, the post-hoc analysis on the Weight scale shows that names containing intrinsically Rising sequences of front-back vowels (e.g. u-i) are evaluated as indicating more powerful stimuli (M = 3.64, SE = .09) than those containing intrinsically Falling (M = 3.58, SE = .09) and intrinsically High sequences
(M = 2.69, SE = .11).
Discussion
The aim of the perception experiment was to test whether sound-symbolic associations in
Italian vary when the pseudo-words contain different combinations of High- and Low-pitched phonemes. In particular, the present study focused on participants’ perceptions of Power in pseudo-words.
Results of this experiment show that vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency influences people’s perception of power in words so that words containing some kinds of vowels are evaluated as more powerful compared to words containing other types of vowels. In
xxix particular, the perception study shows that the higher the pitch of a word, the less power
Italian speakers associate with it. Furthermore, the order of vowels in words appears to have a significant effect on the perception of Power, so that stimuli composed of intrinsically Rising combinations of front-back vowels (e.g. u-i) are perceived as less powerful than stimuli with intrinsically Falling combinations (e.g. i-u). This result is consistent with what was found by previous research carried out for Dutch speakers (Postma-Nilsenová et al. 2014), and shows that vowel-intrinsic F0 has a similar effect on sound-symbolic associations in both linguistic systems.
As regards the perception of power related to Weight in the stimuli, results of this study are consistent with previous research in that intrinsically Low stimuli are perceived as the most powerful, and intrinsically High stimuli are perceived as the least powerful among the several combinations of vowels (Postma-Nilsenová et al. 2014). However, as opposed to results of previous studies (Postma-Nilsenová et al. 2014), intrinsically Rising stimuli are perceived by Italian speakers as more powerful than intrinsically Falling stimuli. This difference in results may be due to participants’ mental associations among power, speed, and weight when they think about objects like cars, given that cars that weigh less are usually more powerful and faster than cars that weigh more. Considering that previous research showed that segments with high pitch are associated with smaller and lighter objects compared to segments with low pitch (Ohala, 1984), it might be the case that participants associated rising sequences with lighter/more powerful cars.
Results of this study also confirm that the presence of vowel-intrinsic intensity may play a role in people’s perceptions of words. The production experiment demonstrated that vowel-intrinsic intensity is negatively correlated to vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency, so that vowels with high intrinsic pitch have low intrinsic intensity, and vice-versa. According to earlier studies, this negative correlation between IF0 and II seems to be due to the open/close
xxx dimensions of vowels so that, in general, close vowels have high IF0 and low II, whereas open vowels have low IF0 and high II (Kaland & Postma-Nilsenová, 2014). Given the negative correlation between the two intrinsic properties of vowels, words containing vowels with high II are associated with more power than words containing low II vowels. Results of this study, thus, seem to confirm what previous research found about the fact that IF0 and II operate in opposite directions on people’s perceptions of power (Postma-Nilsenová et al.
2013 and Kaland & Postma-Nilsenová, 2014). Follow-up research could explore this correlation more in detail, in order to check whether vowel-intrinsic intensity has a significant effect on sound-symbolic associations in Italian.
Results of this perception study can be explained by means of the concept of
Frequency Code: according to this psycholinguistic principle, different combinations of vowels in words composed of two or more syllables produce some micro-prosodic contours that are interpreted by people in different ways (Postma-Nilsenová et al. 2014). Previous studies have argued that Frequency Code may underlie the linguistic phenomenon of sound symbolism, especially for what concerns cross-modal associations between high intrinsic frequency and the meanings ‘small vocalizer, subordinate, submissive, non-threatening’, and low intrinsic frequency with the meanings ‘large vocalizer, dominant, aggressive, threatening’ (Ohala, 1984). Results of this study are important because they are a further step in confirming that sound-symbolism may be a universal phenomenon, as it might be caused by the innately specified Frequency code (Ohala, 1984).
xxxi
General Discussion and Conclusion
The present study addressed a number of questions regarding intrinsic properties of speech sounds and cross-modal correspondences. A production and a perception studies were conducted to test the hypotheses that the phenomenon of sound-symbolism operates in a similar way in different linguistic systems (i.e. Dutch and Italian), and that sound-symbolic associations are due to intrinsic properties of phonemes, as effects of the psycholinguistic principle of frequency code. Results of this study confirm the existence of some cross-modal associations generated by vowel-intrinsic fundamental frequency on Italian speakers’ perceptions of sounds. Interestingly, as opposed to results of previous research on Romance languages (Pape & Mooshammer, 2006; Pape, 2008), the present research shows that IF0 plays a role in Italian speakers’ perceptions of vowel quality in a way that is similar to the
Dutch language (Kaland et al., 2014). The present study did not demonstrate whether II has a significant effect on Italian speakers’ cross-modal associations. This could represent a starting point for follow-up research. Furthermore, since this study was conducted in the visual modality only, another issue that follow-up research could investigate is whether sound-symbolic effects in Italian are stronger if the stimuli are presented visually rather than aurally.
xxxii
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Appendix A
Instructions for Readers
Gent.mi lettori
Innanzitutto, grazie per aver accettato di partecipare a questo esperimento.
Durante la prossima ora e mezza, il vostro compito sarà quello di leggere una serie di frasi, mentre la vostra voce sarà registrata dal software Audacity. A tal fine, vi è gentilmente richiesto di indossare le cuffie che troverete collegate al computer. La vostra voce sarà registrata attraverso il microfono. Qui di seguito troverete le istruzioni riguardanti il vostro compito. Vi preghiamo gentilmente di leggerle attentamente, poiché contengono informazioni essenziali per il successo dell’esperimento.
Le frasi che leggerete contengono pressoché le stesse parole: infatti, tutte sono introdotte da
“Ho detto” e tutte terminano con una parola che è solitamente priva di senso in italiano. Tale parola è un monosillabo composto da una consonante e una vocale. In particolare, questa parola è trascritta foneticamente ed è inclusa tra barre. Qui sotto potete leggere una breve spiegazione della trascrizione fonetica delle vocali e delle consonanti che compongono i monosillabi, e di come pronunciarli. Leggete attentamente e cercate di memorizzare i diversi simboli fonetici, in modo da facilitare il vostro compito durante l’esperimento.
Vocali Come in… Consonanti Come in…
/a/ la /p/ pace
/e/ le /b/ bacio
/ɛ/ è /t/ tetto
41
/i/ li /d/ dado
/o/ lo /k/ cane
/ɔ/ no /s/ sole
/u/ blu /z/ casa
/m/ mamma
/n/ naso
/l/ legge
/r/ rischio
È molto importante che, durante la lettura, ogni frase venga letta con la stessa intonazione.
Inoltre, è importante che la vostra intonazione sia neutra e che le frasi non differiscano tra loro per quanto riguarda la tonalità di voce.
A seguito troverete un esempio della lista di parole trascritte foneticamente, così come le troverete all’interno del documento dell’esperimento. Leggetele ad alta voce in modo da fare pratica per la registrazione. La lettura di questo esempio, inoltre, vi sarà utile per sentire se la vostra intonazione è neutra e per capire quale tonalità di voce vi sarà più facile mantenere durante la fase di registrazione.
1. Ho detto / uz/ blu
2. Ho detto / al/ la
3. Ho detto /ok/ lo
4. Ho detto /ol/ lo
42
5. Ho detto /zo/ lo
6. Ho detto /ɔl/ no
7. Ho detto /an la
8. Ho detto /ed le
9. Ho detto /me le
10. Ho detto /mi li
Infine, alcune informazioni pratiche riguardanti l’esperimento: esso è composto da due parti, ognuna contenente 154 frasi. Tra le due parti è prevista una pausa, ma, durante la lettura, è necessaria continuità per la registrazione. Assicuratevi, inoltre, che le cuffie siano posizionate in modo confortevole, poiché dovranno rimanere nella stessa posizione durante tutta la fase della registrazione, in modo da evitare rumori di sottofondo e di rovinare o alterare la qualità dell’audio. Se possibile, cercate di evitare pause durante la lettura, a meno che non siano necessarie (per esempio, se dovete bere dell’acqua per schiarirvi la voce). Se siete insoddisfatti della lettura di una frase, per esempio se sbagliate l’intonazione o fate un errore di pronuncia, rileggete l’intera frase. Non passate alla frase successiva finché non siete soddisfatti della pronuncia della frase precedente. Ogni frase ha un proprio numero: leggete le frasi nell’ordine in cui si trovano. Se dimenticate una frase o dovete ripeterne la lettura, leggete prima il suo numero e poi il contenuto.
Una volta terminata la prima parte, potete prendere una pausa. Al fine di defaticare la gola, raccomandiamo di bere dell’acqua o del the (non il latte, poiché potrebbe alterare la vostra voce e, di conseguenza, la registrazione).
Per concludere, è importante che i lettori:
43
Siano di madrelingua italiana;
Non abbiano freddo;
Non abbiano affaticato la voce recentemente (presentazioni, urla…);
Non abbiano mal di gola, denti, lingua, bocca, o labbra;
Non abbiano piercing nelle zone appena citate;
Non abbiano barba lunga sotto al naso e intorno alla bocca;
Abbiano i cellulari spenti (non in modalità silenziosa o con vibrazione, ma spenti o in
modalità aereo).
Buona lettura e grazie ancora per la collaborazione.
44
Reading List for Production Study
1. Ho detto / uz/ blu 19. Ho detto /po/ lo
2. Ho detto / al/ la 20. Ho detto /it/ li
3. Ho detto /ok/ lo 21. Ho detto /un/ blu
4. Ho detto /ol/ lo 22. Ho detto /ɔm/ no
5. Ho detto /zo/ lo 23. Ho detto /op/ lo
6. Ho detto /ɔl/ no 24. Ho detto /ar/ la
7. Ho detto /an la 25. Ho detto /bu/ blu
8. Ho detto /ed le 26. Ho detto /im/ li
9. Ho detto /me le 27. Ho detto /be/ le
10. Ho detto /mi li 28. Ho detto /id/ li
11. Ho detto /no/ lo 29. Ho detto /or/ lo
12. Ho detto /ob/ lo 30. Ho detto /ro/ lo
13. Ho detto /bɛ/ è 31. Ho detto /ka/ la
14. Ho detto /ɔb/ no 32. Ho detto /ur/ blu
15. Ho detto /ko/ lo 33. Ho detto /mo/ lo
16. Ho detto /os/ lo 34. Ho detto /lo/ lo
17. Ho detto /ɛz/ è 35. Ho detto /la/ la
18. Ho detto /to/ lo 36. Ho detto /lu/ blu
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37. Ho detto /pɔ/ no 56. Ho detto /ot/ lo
38. Ho detto /ul/ blu 57. Ho detto /om/ lo
39. Ho detto /iz/ li 58. Ho detto /ut/ blu
40. Ho detto /do/ lo 59. Ho detto /sa/ la
41. Ho detto /ɔk/ no 60. Ho detto /in/ li
42. Ho detto /su/ blu 61. Ho detto /ɔr/ no
43. Ho detto /du/ blu 62. Ho detto /um/ blu
44. Ho detto /il/ li 63. Ho detto /sɛ/ è
45. Ho detto /te/ le 64. Ho detto /ib/ li
46. Ho detto /ik/ li 65. Ho detto /ni/ li
47. Ho detto /up/ blu 66. Ho detto /az/ la
48. Ho detto /nu/ blu 67. Ho detto /ip/ li
49. Ho detto /ba/ la 68. Ho detto /ki/ li
50. Ho detto /er/ le 69. Ho detto /us/ blu
51. Ho detto /se/ le 70. Ho detto /ɛd/ è
52. Ho detto /el/ le 71. Ho detto /ez/ le
53. Ho detto /ɔz/ no 72. Ho detto /is/ li
54. Ho detto /ɛb/ è 73. Ho detto /am/ la
55. Ho detto /pe/ le 74. Ho detto /mu/ blu
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75. Ho detto /nɛ/ è 94. Ho detto /za/ la
76. Ho detto /nɔ/ no 95. Ho detto /re/ le
77. Ho detto /ra/ la 96. Ho detto /ɔt/ no
78. Ho detto /ri/ li 97. Ho detto /en/ le
79. Ho detto /ek/ le 98. Ho detto /bo/ lo
80. Ho detto /ku/ blu 99. Ho detto /na/ la
81. Ho detto /di/ li 100. Ho detto /uk/ blu
82. Ho detto /ɔn/ no 101. Ho detto /bɔ/ no
83. Ho detto /oz/ lo 102. Ho detto /ne/ le
84. Ho detto /li/ li 103. Ho detto /rɛ/ è
85. Ho detto /od/ lo 104. Ho detto /ɛn/ è
86. Ho detto /on/ lo 105. Ho detto /zi/ li
87. Ho detto /ub/ blu 106. Ho detto /ad/ la
88. Ho detto /ɛm/ è 107. Ho detto /ru/ blu
89. Ho detto /tɛ/ è 108. Ho detto /ɛr/ è
90. Ho detto /ɛl/ è 109. Ho detto /ma/ la
91. Ho detto /ir/ li 110. Ho detto /so/ lo
92. Ho detto /ɔd/ no 111. Ho detto /lɛ/ è
93. Ho detto /ud/ blu 112. Ho detto /zu/ blu
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113. Ho detto /pu/ blu 132. Ho detto /mɔ/ no
114. Ho detto /si/ li 133. Ho detto /ke/ le
115. Ho detto /bi/ li 134. Ho detto /rɔ/ no
116. Ho detto /ap/ la 135. Ho detto /de/ le
117. Ho detto /at/ la 136. Ho detto /as/ la
118. Ho detto /es/ le 137. Ho detto /sɔ/ no
119. Ho detto /ɔp/ no 138. Ho detto /ɛk/ è
120. Ho detto /ab/ la 139. Ho detto /et/ le
121. Ho detto /zɛ/ è 140. Ho detto /kɔ/ no
122. Ho detto /lɔ/ no 141. Ho detto /mɛ/ è
123. Ho detto /ep/ le 142. Ho detto /eb/ le
124. Ho detto /pi/ li 143. Ho detto /dɔ/ no
125. Ho detto /tu/ blu 144. Ho detto /ɛs/ è
126. Ho detto /ak/ la 145. Ho detto /da/ la
127. Ho detto /ɔs/ no 146. Ho detto /dɛ/ è
128. Ho detto /ti/ li 147. Ho detto /tɔ/ no
129. Ho detto /zɔ/ no 148. Ho detto /ze/ le
130. Ho detto /pa/ la 149. Ho detto /le/ le
131. Ho detto /ɛt/ è 150. Ho detto /pɛ/ è
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151. Ho detto /ta/ la
152. Ho detto /ɛp/ è
153. Ho detto /kɛ/ è
154. Ho detto /em/ le
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Appendix B
List of fictitious company names
1) TUTI
2) TETO
3) CHICHE
4) DUDU
5) BOBI
6) CUCO
7) DEDI
8) BUBE
9) TITO
10) PEPU
11) BOBU
12) DEDE
13) PIPO
14) BUBO
15) DIDI
16) BOBE
17) CHECU
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18) TETI
19) DODU
20) PEPO
21) TITE
22) BUBI
23) CUCHE
24) POPI
25) PIPU
26) BEBI
27) COCU
28) CHICHI
29) DIDE
30) BEBU
31) DUDI
32) TOTE
33) BIBO
34) DUDE
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35) BIBE
36) TITI
37) POPU
38) COCHI
39) BEBO
40) DUDO
41) CHECHI
42) TITU
43) DODE
44) DIDO
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