A Syntactic and Prosodic Analysis of Utterance Final Segments: in Explanation-Giving Dialoues among Young Japanese

International audienceThis work reports findings on the relationship between speaker sex and linguistic behavior of young Japanese in explanation-giving dialogues. The relationship between speaker sex and (1) the choice of utterance final forms; (2) the prosodic characteristics on these forms, has thus been examined. Data from 110 students of the Tokyo area revealed no statistically significant effect of the sex factor in the linguistic forms used. However utterance final syllables had a statistically significant effect both on intonation and on rhythm. Also the scripts written by women revealed a statistically significant use of symbols suggesting underlying vowel lengthening or hesitation