| Abstract [eng] |
Social and Linguistic Variables in Spontaneous Speech Tempo Speech tempo is a complex phenomenon, which includes both social and linguistic variables. As it is not a very popular field of research in Lithuania, the aim of this work is to study how far the speech tempo and its change depend on social variables (conversational situations, age and gender) and reduction. In this work two independent researches of speech tempo have been carried out – the main one deals with teenagers and the controlling one looks into the adult group. One way which has been chosen to measure social variables of the speech tempo is to count syllables spoken in 90 sec., and another way to see how speech tempo is influenced by reduction is to count words spoken in 90 sec. Taking into account the fact that speech tempo is a variable phenomenon and the aim of this work is to represent the average speech tempo as accurate as possible, three conversational segments of 30 sec. (beginning, middle and ending) from all conversations have been taken into consideration. Conversational situations have been divided into three groups – casual conversations, gossip and talk when people are engaged in activities, which require additional cognitive resources. The results of this study show that the average speech tempo of casual conversations is 190.2 words per 90 sec., the speech tempo of gossiping could be described as the fastest – 205 words per 90 sec., and the speech tempo of the conversation where people are engaged into activities requiring additional cognitive resources is the slowest – 157 words per 90 sec. The controlling research of adult speech tempo confirmed the same tendency – the average speech tempo of a casual conversation is 221 words per 90 sec., the speech tempo of gossiping is the fastest – 230.7 words per 90 sec. and the speech tempo when people are engaged in activities requiring additional cognitive resources is the slowest – 202 words per 90 sec. The results of this study show that adults talk faster in all cases. People’s age also influences the speech tempo. Younger teenagers (11–13) talk slower than the older ones (14–16). But both groups of teenagers talk slower than adults. The gender does not influence the speech tempo. The linguistic factor – reduction – is considered to be one of the strongest tendencies of spontaneous speech and is related to patter, quantity of information and convenience. Reduction correlates with speech tempo allowing to put more content in one utterance and to produce it faster. |
