Gender Differences on the Perception and Production of Utterances with Willingness and Reluctance in Chinese

Abstract

This study intends to explore the effects of gender differences on the perception and production of emotional intonation with willingness and reluctance. In the perceptual study, 20 native Mandarin listeners were instructed to rate perceived degree of willingness from the utterances (with willingness, reluctance, and neutrality) produced by 6 native Mandarin speakers. The rating results showed that 1) utterances of willingness and reluctance were more accurately perceived than those of neutrality; 2) female listeners were better at perceiving emotional intonation; 3) female speakers’ utterances tend to be perceived as willing attitude. In the acoustic analysis, we selected the utterances which were validly rated and further analyzed their acoustic features, including fundamental frequency, amplitude, and speaking rate. Our findings suggest significant effects of gender on the perception and production of Chinese utterances with willingness and reluctance.