Experimental assessment of phonetic register variation in situated interaction

Abstract This study analyses phonetic variation in cross-situational conversational speech styles in German by varying situations in terms of the level of perceived formality of the addressee and the function of an interaction as well as the space in which the interaction took place. We propose an experimental paradigm for controlled elicitation of intra-individual phonetic variation in situated interaction. Several stimulus videos were created and rated in which the identical person was dressed in different guises varying between formal and informal. The person acted in a choreographed way across the videos. Two types of tasks were given to each participant of the production experiment: one posed a potential face-threat, while the other consisted of casually conversing with the informal persona shown in the video. We analyzed vowel dispersion, mean fundamental frequency and its range in formal vs. informal situations. Results show complex effects of formality interacting with space and speaker gender.