Speech a La Mode

Abstract

Forty sentences, each containing one of five modal auxiliaries (must, should, can, would, and might), were recorded by four speakers (two males, two females), using three patterns of emphatic stress (stress on modal, stress on main verb, and no stress). For each sentence, respondents (N = 55) were asked to judge the degree of certainty and the degree of obligation being communicated. Judgments were found to differ according to modal used; stress pattern used, with stress on the main verb resulting in higher certainty and obligation ratings for most modals; and sex of the respondent, with females expressing stronger judgments than males. Respondents listened to the recordings in four blocks. Each block comprised 10 sentences uttered by one speaker. After listening to each speaker, respondents rated that speaker on an impression scale. Male respondents rated male speakers higher than female speakers on assertiveness. There was some indication that, when speakers employed a medium pitch range across the utterance, certainty and obligation ratings were higher and impression ratings were more favourable, than when a wide pitch range was used. Results were seen to support the interpersonal functional component of language.