Prosodic matching beyond humans: On the interactional basis of “cat-directed” talk

IF 1.3 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Language & Communication Pub Date : 2025-04-25 DOI:10.1016/j.langcom.2025.04.007

Katariina Harjunpää , Beatrice Szczepek Reed

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This conversation analytic study investigates a Finnish-speaking caretaker interacting with a cat and her two kittens while she records them on video. The study shows that when talking to the cats, the human prosodically matches their meows, chirps, trills, and purrs by approximating their pitch, duration, voice quality, loudness, and rhythm. Matching occurs with directives, questions, and response tokens (m-hm), as well as with imitative interjections (miu). Through different combinations of prosodic and lexical imitation, the human makes her talk responsive to the cats’ local conduct, and displays understanding and sharing of their ongoing activities and/or affective stances. The study sheds light on how prosodic features associated with so-called animal-directed talk emerge in the interspecies interactions in instances of matching.

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超越人类的韵律匹配：基于“猫导向”谈话的互动基础

这个对话分析研究调查了一位讲芬兰语的管理员与一只猫和她的两只小猫的互动，并将他们的互动记录在视频中。研究表明，当与猫交谈时，人类通过接近它们的音调、持续时间、音质、响度和节奏，在韵律上匹配它们的喵喵声、唧唧声、颤音和咕噜声。匹配发生在指令、问题和响应令牌（m-hm）以及模仿感叹词（miu）之间。通过韵律和词汇模仿的不同组合，人类使她的谈话对猫的当地行为做出反应，并表现出对猫正在进行的活动和/或情感立场的理解和分享。这项研究揭示了与所谓的动物导向谈话相关的韵律特征是如何在物种间相互作用的匹配实例中出现的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Language & Communication Multiple-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal is unique in that it provides a forum devoted to the interdisciplinary study of language and communication. The investigation of language and its communicational functions is treated as a concern shared in common by those working in applied linguistics, child development, cultural studies, discourse analysis, intellectual history, legal studies, language evolution, linguistic anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, the politics of language, pragmatics, psychology, rhetoric, semiotics, and sociolinguistics. The journal invites contributions which explore the implications of current research for establishing common theoretical frameworks within which findings from different areas of study may be accommodated and interrelated. By focusing attention on the many ways in which language is integrated with other forms of communicational activity and interactional behaviour, it is intended to encourage approaches to the study of language and communication which are not restricted by existing disciplinary boundaries.