Tone of voice in Japanese conversation

Abstract

AbstractAn experimental study of the role of tone of voice in Japanese conversations, using both Japanese and American subjects, has uncovered situational determinants of voice quality not related to emotion. Some of these variations are perceived differently by the two sets of subjects, some in the same way. The nature of the situational determinants casts new doubt on the plausibility of ‘language’ as a natural subset of human communications. (Tone of voice, non-linguistic communication, ethnography of communication, Japan.)