Studying Language Attitudes Using Robots

Abstract

Research on language attitudes concerns the identification of the beliefs people hold towards speakers of a particular variety (for instance, a dialect) or towards speakers with a foreign accent. While researchers have been very creative in finding methods for determining speaker attitudes towards their own and others' linguistic productions, robots provide an excellent methodological tool to study language attitudes. We illustrate this methodology on the perception of transfer of speech melody from one's mother tongue to a second language. Our results show effects of such transfer on the perception of the respective speaker; for instance, Danish speakers may be perceived as dominant when transferring their intonation contours to German, whereas Germans may appear formal when transferring their speech melody into Danish.