Acoustic Cues in the Production and Perception of Cantonese Sarcasm

Sarcasm has been associated with several acoustic cues, but exploration of such cues in Cantonese has been limited. The present study revisited the production and perception of sarcasm in Cantonese, investigating how prosodic features and voice quality measures signal sarcastic speech and how well they can be recognized. Eighteen native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers produced colloquial sentences with three attitudes: sarcasm, neutrality, and sincerity. Five prosodic parameters and three voice quality parameters were analyzed and compared between attitudes, genders, and individual speakers. In addition, 42 native listeners rated the degree of sarcasm and sincerity of the target utterances. Average rating scores were compared between attitudes. Results show that Cantonese sarcasm is characterized by a slower speech rate, lower mean F0, narrower F0 range, lower mean amplitude, greater amplitude range, higher harmonic-to-noise ratio (HNR), lower jitter, and lower shimmer than sincere speech. Speakers utilized different combinations of acoustic cues to express sarcastic feeling. Listeners were able to distinguish sarcasm from sincerity according to the acoustic cues alone in the absence of verbal context. The more acoustic cues were utilized in a sarcastic utterance, the easier it would be for the listeners to understand the implied sarcastic meaning. Moreover, the insertion of an intensifier “ zan55hai22 (really) ” enhanced the sarcastic intonation, increasing listeners’ accuracy at recognizing the speaker’s sarcastic intention. The present study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the relationship between prosody and sarcastic speech by using an improved method and providing evidence of production and perception in native Cantonese speakers.