Emotionality in Verbal Intercultural Communication

Abakumova Ol'ga Vasilevna ORCID: 0000-0002-3028-6324 PhD in Philology Abakumova O. V., PhD, associate professor Voronezh State University, e-mail: olga.abakumova16@gmail.com ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3028-6324 394007, Russia, Voronezh region, Voronezh, Sportivnaya Embankment str., 4, sq. 66 olga.abakumova16@gmail.com

Velichkova Lyudmila Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0003-3917-4481 Doctor of Philology Professor, Department of German Philology, Voronezh State University 394007, Russia, Voronezh region, Voronezh, Sportivnaya Embankment str., 4, sq. 4 luvel1@mail.ru

Problem statement: The study of the communication process with a focus on linguistics.

Linguistics approaches several other sciences, allowing one to research speech behavior in general. Comparative studies in the communicative aspect are becoming increasingly relevant. However, in setting goals, ignoring the patterns of sounding speech continues, which is largely facilitated by an insufficiently developed mechanism for studying this phenomenon. In the case of intercultural oral communication, the parameters of the sounding speech actively influence the communication situation. At the same time, this area is poorly described from the point of view of intercultural dialogue.

When considering the problem of the adequacy of perception and, accordingly, communication, the means of sounding speech are usually taken out of the equation. At the same time, it means that speakers communicate without violating the signals of foreign-sounding speech, and if these violations occur, they do not affect the communication process. This applies both to the semantic features of sounding speech (the implementation of phonemes, intonemes) and the expressive means of speech.

This phenomenon indicates that the language material is abstracted by researchers from real communication situations. In a real situation of intercultural communication, as in communication in the native language, the means of sounding speech are the canvas through which communication proceeds both in a cognitive and, above all, emotional aspect. These parameters do not reach the level of the speakers’ consciousness. However, if violated, they significantly affect the communication situation, coloring it in a different tone than the communication participants’ wish. It is important to consider the fact of natural communication that the parameters of sounding speech can give additional shades or meaning to the reported information that do not correspond or are opposed to the meaning of the constituent linguistic units.

It seems that the components of intonation, and for many languages, the melodic component is considered to be the leading one and constitutes a mechanism for expressing the main communicative types of utterances that have national specificity against the background of universal ones, the nature of which is due to the physiological commonality of the implementations of suprasegmental means. In this area, the process of a systematic approach is in the formation process. At the same time, we observe a large time gap between the study of the segmental and suprasegmental levels.

A psycholinguistic approach to experimental research sounding speech

The possibility of a systematic approach to analyzing rhythmic-intonation parameters of sounding speech allows the development of research methods of sounding material, from formal signs to the characteristics of the style of speech and the speaker’s emotional state.

The tasks of analyzing sounding speech assume an interdisciplinary nature of study.

First of all, when perceiving speech, we register a set of signs characterizing the speaker and their condition. These observations have yet to be used to create a model of systematic representation and analysis of expressive means of sounding speech. The system of expressing emotional states, which is important for speech activity in general, can be found at this level.

Studies of speech generation and perception processes belong to the central problems of psycholinguistics. At the Scientific and Methodological Center of Phonetics at VSU, mechanisms for studying the process of perception are being developed. In particular, a method of conducting an auditory analysis has been developed that identifies perceptual (perceived by speech hearing) signs of intonation, signaling a particular communicative type of utterance. It has been established that the perception of differential signs of intonation in a foreign language occurs in an emotional key in all those moments where these signs diverge between two languages ^[1].

An important stage of the research is the choice of experimental material: it should contain speech fragments with a change of emotional state related to a certain genre of speech. The research conducted by the NMC of Phonetics includes experimental material of the following styles and speech genres: children's speech, artistic speech (including poetic texts), quasi-spontaneous dialogical and monologue speech, professional speech genres: sports commentator's speech, political speech in the media, and business speech, including an intercultural aspect. The research is carried out in comparative terms on the material of several European languages.

The main research methods are psycholinguistic experiments and the auditory analysis of sounding speech. In the process of a psycholinguistic experiment, a perceived sounding utterance (text fragment) correlates with a particular emotional state (emotion) based on the subjective perception of the experiment participants—native speakers (experts). At the same time, two ways of conducting research are possible: the correlation of the experimental-sounding material with the inventory (list) of emotions or free evaluation by the experiment participants. In the first case, lists of emotions presented in well-known works in the field of emotionality theory are used ^{[2, 4, 6]}. In both cases, it can be noted that there are difficulties on the part of the experiment participants. In the first case, with a given list of emotions, doubts about the choice were caused by the presence of similar designations. With free choice, short-term difficulties may arise caused by the search for the name of the emotion. In both variants, obtaining a certain overall result is based on the proportion of identical or similar estimates from the number of participants in the experiment, equal to 10 to 40 in experiments of varying complexity and volume of material.

Emotionality in oral communication

During the development of linguistic theory, studies of the emotionality of speech have long been in the shadows. This reflected the orientation of the European cultural tradition towards a rational understanding of the world. Emotionality, which had to be overcome and subordinated to reason, could not be the object of the science of language. This situation was also facilitated by the tradition of relying on written text. As a result, it turned out that the study of emotionality took place in the space of the science of psychology. Today, interest in the person who speaks (and perceives speech) has caused the turn of linguistics to expressive means of speech. Emotionality is an indispensable component of oral communication. Taking this position as a basis for research, the experimenter (researcher) of sounding speech inevitably puts the parameters of sounding speech in relation to the linguistic means of utterance in the foreground. At the same time, one of the attitudes is the recognition of the primary role of the means of sounding speech in forming the emotional characteristics of the utterance. The complex means of sounding speech expresses the speaker's state and may not coincide or be in opposition to the lexical means of utterance.

The parameters of oral speech are perceived emotionally, which applies to any style of oral speech.

First, it is necessary to determine the place of emotionality as a component of the communicative process. From a linguistic point of view, we can talk about emotionally colored vocabulary and violations of syntax norms in speech that conveys the speaker's emotional state. In a literary text, the emotional state is often described descriptively. When transferring the researcher's attention to oral communication, it becomes evident that there is a need for a different approach to analyzing the means of transmitting emotionality in speech. The study of this phenomenon is possible only with an interdisciplinary approach. Instead, this approach can be called psycholinguistic as it considers speech from the perspective of a perceiving and speaking person. From a psycholinguistic point of view, speech is always emotional. If a speech utterance by its parameters can be attributed to the so-called neutral style, then this fact may indicate the speaker's possession of this style of speech and their intention to implement it. However, this fact in itself does not provide information about the speaker’s actual emotional state. Moreover, the so-called neutral style of speech cannot be directly correlated with any emotional state of the speaker; it testifies primarily to their speech culture.

Even in relatively neutral speech utterances, in which expressive means should be presented minimally, one can observe their negative perception as passive, indifferent speech, regardless of the statement's content or in contradiction to it. Experimental data indicate that native speakers are not characterized by the style of neutral speech in the target implementation. This style of speech is accepted in this society as a pronouncing norm of neutral official speech; it is implemented in a fairly narrow phonostylistic space: news, rulings, court proceedings, etc.

One of the stages of the experimental work was aimed at determining the emotional perception of foreign-sounding speech by native speakers of the Russian language.

For these purposes, at the first stage, it was necessary to obtain sounding texts performed by "naive" native German speakers in three versions: "neutral," "positive," or "negative." The texts of modern fiction were selected, the content of which could be perceived in isolation from the context. The style of the text can be characterized as typical, moderate in the dynamics of the events described, and in emotional coloring. When analyzed, an increase in the number of recordings performed by various speakers can give a more precise description of the formal features for expressing the three selected emotional options. However, at the same time, a sufficiently high typicity of signs is established at the level of rhythmic and melodic parameters, which is explained by the installation, implementation, and choice of native non–professional speakers. To carry out the next stage of the experiment, when presenting a foreign language text, one typical sample (voice) in three given emotional readings is sufficient for perception.

To obtain reliable results in the study of the perception of a foreign language text, the number of participants in the experiment is important. According to our data, the identification of common signs of text perception is possible with the number of participants—native speakers equal to 35–40. A further increase in their number increases the accuracy of the results obtained.

According to the experimental data, it can be concluded that the perception of non-native (German) speech by native speakers of the Russian language who do not speak German is readily perceived in a certain emotional way. In contrast, the markers of positivity and negativity do not coincide with the original ones. The "neutral" option was evaluated in 50% of responses as "positive," in 40% of responses as "neutral," in 10% of responses as "negative." The "positive" variant of reading the text was evaluated in 75% of the responses as "negative," in 15% of the responses as "neutral," and in 10% of the responses as "positive." The "negative" reading option was rated as "neutral" in 80% of the responses and as "negative" in 5% of the responses, and in 15% of responses as "positive."

When reading texts read by native speakers (Russian), this style was evaluated as negatively colored in half of the cases, which may also depend on the degree of "neutrality" in the implementation of the text. There was uncertainty among the announcers and experts when implementing a task with a neutral installation, while the installation itself was perceived as very understandable. The general conclusions based on the results of the data obtained are as follows: the "neutral" nature of the foreign language, in this case, German speech, is not clearly identifiable. Emotionally marked texts were partially perceived with the opposite sign. This applies primarily to "positive" texts. Experts reported that they could perceive "emotionally restless" speech, but inside it, it was difficult to distinguish between "positive" and "negative."

For each given pair of languages, it is possible to set conditions and the nature of the perception of the sounding speech of one language "against the background" of another and the nature of the basic units of emotional perception of speech. For us, the theoretical basis for our experimental research follows the position of E.N. Vinarskaya about emotionally expressive timbre complexes of speech that develop at very early stages of speech ontogenesis and function in the generation and perception of adult speech ^[3]. Comparing these complexes can explain the prerequisites for the emotional nature of speech perception. The parameters responsible for the transmission of the emotional state in speech are, first of all, the melodic signs of stressed syllables, for which we use the term "melodic sign," the frequency of ascending and descending melodic signs, as well as the rhythmic parameters of speech.

For a systematic analysis of the sounding speech from the point of view of the expression of emotionality in it, rhythmic-intonation parameters are selected: pauses, percussion, and characteristics of the melodic sign. An increase in emotionality is indicated by a change in percussion frequency and the intensity of melodic signs with a certain sign (ascending or descending).

Conducting an auditory analysis of experimental material was of an individual nature. The auditors used a previously tested scheme developed at the Scientific and Methodological Phonetic Center of Voronezh State University in their work. Each auditor was offered to listen to a video recording of the speech:

1. mark pauses - /

2. mark the stressed syllable (or syllables) in each phrase

3. determine the direction of movement of melodics on stressed syllables

4. determine the nature of the expressed emotion, i.e., evaluate each individual text with the sign /e +/, /e-/ from the point of view of positive or negative emotion; absence of emotions /n-/.

Let's consider the general scheme of signs of transmission of positive emotional states with an increase in the degree of emotional state: for calm (not stressed), Russian speech is characterized by a uniform distribution of stressed syllables with a distance of 2–3 syllables. In less tense Russian speech, stress, as a rule, falls on syllables standing in the middle of a phrase, and the culminating stress is on the last syllable. Violation of these patterns, which occurs rather in the direction of increasing distances, creates the impression of irritation, threat, and other negative impressions. With the increase in the tension of Russian speech, the pace of speech increases. An increase in the number of ascending melodic signs indicates an increase in positive emotionality in speech. Negative emotional states are expressed with the participation of descending melodies ^[8].

Consideration of these signs of sounding speech is significant for the use of Russian as a non-native language. When interpreting, the important information for the training is the characteristic of these signs in a foreign language. With regard to German speech, it can be concluded, in general, that the frequency of stressed syllables, which exceeds the average, signals an increase in emotional tension and, in general, the negative nature of this tension. These accent indicators destroy the rhythmic outline of the usual "neutral" speech and thereby create a kind of restless, negative tension. With an increase in the speaker's positive attitude or his desire to demonstrate it in sounding speech (for example, in sounding advertising texts), there is a tendency to decrease the proportion of accents with an ascending melodic sign and an increase in descending melodic signs at the end of rhythmic groups ^{[5, pp. 81–84]}.

The results of the auditory analysis of Spanish-sounding speech allow us to conclude that when expressing a positive emotion in Spanish speech, the sign of an increase in the tone of voice on stressed syllables prevails; negative emotion in Spanish speech can be expressed by lowering the tone of voice on stressed syllables.

Perception of communicative types of utterance-intonation as a complex multicomponent speech phenomenon is the greatest difficulty in mastering a non-native (foreign) language.

Possession of all shades of emotionally colored intonation in native and foreign languages is a phenomenon that deserves attention in theoretical terms and a linguo-didactic aspect. Let's turn to the basic concepts in the field of intonation. They can be considered in terms of the participation of suprasegmental level units in the process of speech generation and perception and in terms of their impact on the communication situation.

The system of expressive means of speech is connected in a certain way with the intonation system. According to our hypothesis, the strengthening of differential signs for this system marks positive emotional states, and the intensification of integral signs means the manifestation of negative emotional states. In other words, the intonation system is coupled with a system of expressing basic emotions based on the differential features of the intonation of a given language. In speech ontogenesis, it is possible to trace the formation of the intonation system in connection with the system of emotionally expressive means of speech formed at an early stage of ontogenesis.

Differential signs of intonation correlate in a certain way with timbre complexes in the native language, which explains the emotional nature of the perception of violations of differential signs of intonation of native speech.

For German and Russian, we have determined these prerequisites and the nature of the perception of sounding speech, starting from the range of the voice and further considering the ratio of differential signs of intonation (completeness, interrogative, progredient) with expressive means of speech. The considered pair of languages is an example of pronounced differences at the level of basic expressive means with the reflection of these differences in the perception of sounding speech, including the perception of differential features of intonation units. Intonation as a natural environment for the existence of a sounding speech is not realized by a person when communicating; when they are in the language environment and activities, it has many functions, the system description of which has not yet developed. The differential signs of communicative types of utterances belong to linguistic, i.e., systemic linguistic ones. These signs cannot be considered paralinguistic. They are realized as necessary for communication, have a certain localization on the phrase’s linear length, and are recognized in the corresponding type of utterance regardless of several integral features.

The perception of differential signs of intonation in a non-native language occurs emotionally in all those moments where these signs diverge in the two languages. In other words, if the semantics of information is distorted at the level of differential signs of phonemes, then when the differential signs of the suprasegmental level are distorted, the emotional factor is turned on, i.e., any distortion of the signs of the suprasegmental level is perceived emotionally.

E.V. Lukyanchikova's research on the perception of differential intonation features of German and Russian languages experimentally confirms this position on the material of these two languages. German phrases with the intonation of completion (terminality) in experiments on their perception by native speakers of the Russian language (with the involvement of a large number of subjects) were almost without exception perceived emotionally, namely as categorical ^[7]. The transfer of intonational signs of completion from Russian to German as a fact of interference gave these phrases, from the point of view of native German speakers, an emotional shade of uncertainty and doubts about the content of statements.

Conclusion: Experimental data confirm the propositions put forward about the emotional nature of the perception of foreign language speech.

At the same time, two aspects can be distinguished: 1. signs of emotionally colored foreign language speech can be perceived with different, sometimes opposite emotional meanings; 2. violations of systemic linguistic signs of foreign-sounding speech, primarily differential signs of intonations responsible for characterizing communicative types of utterance (completeness, interrogative, progredient), are perceived emotionally.