Abstract
Emotional states can be characterised by specific acoustic parameters. Fundamental frequency (F0) reflects biomechanical characteristics of vocal folds and is sensitive to affective components. Vocally expressed negative emotions are accompanied by increased muscular activation, while positive and neutral emotions result in fewer physiological changes. The present study aimed to research (1) whether the length of linguistic unit impacts the change of F0; (2) whether F0 differs in words, phrases, and continuous speech produced in neutral, happy, and angry prosody. Methods: Ten professional actors (5 males, 5 females) recorded nine voice samples (4 words, 4 phrases, 1 paragraph) in neutral, happy, and angry intonations. Each linguistic unit was recorded three times, resulting in a data pool of 810 samples. Six experts assessed the affective component of each actor’s performance to obtain 270 highest-ranked samples. Selected recordings were analysed using the software PRAAT v. 6.1.31. and script Vocal fundamental frequency, v. 02.04 (Phonanium, 2019). Results: In females, there were no statistically significant differences in speaking F0 between different linguistic units within a single prosody type. In males, mean F0 significantly increased with the increasing complexity of the linguistic unit in neutral, but not affective conditions. Overall, the highest speaking F0 was observed in happy prosody for females and in angry prosody for males. Both genders showed significant differences in mean F0 between neutral and affective prosody in words and phrases. A statistically significant difference in F0 between angry and happy intonation was observed in phrases in males and in text in females. Conclusion: The results showed that affective prosody did not impact mean F0 between linguistic units of different complexity. However, emotional intonation increased speaking F0. The differences in F0 between neutral and affective prosody were observed in all components of linguistic hierarchy, from single words to continuous speech. Since voice is used in daily communication, recognizing the role of emotions in vocal output can improve understanding of functional voice disorders.
Published Version
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