Acoustic Analysis of Prosodic Features in Sarcastic Discourse Among Native and Non-Native English Speakers

Abstract

The ability to understand and express sarcasm indicates the highest degree of pragmatic competence, which poses a challenge to second-language acquisition. This research deals with the sound production of sarcastic speech, comparing the prosodic features used by native (L1) and non-native (L2) English speakers. The primary concern addressed here is the prosodic mismatch occurring when L2 users apply the intonation of their native language while performing sarcastic utterances in English, causing misunderstanding or insincerity. In this study, the method of quantitative analysis was applied. The experimental group consisted of 40 people (20 L1 and 20 L2 participants), who had to produce sincere and sarcastic minimal pairs as an elicitation task. The collected audio data were then quantitatively processed in the Praat program according to four critical acoustic parameters: fundamental frequency, intensity, syllable duration, and spectral tilt. The significance level was set to determine whether there is a difference in the Sarcastic Shift between L1 and L2 speakers. These findings reveal that the natives have used a wider range of lengthening of their syllables, which is termed as a 30% extension of the syllable length, for conveying their meaning of sarcasm through a process referred to as sarcastic drawling. The non-natives, on the other hand, have utilised a monotonic pattern of intonation and have lacked the ability to use temporal features to distinguish between the sarcastic and real communication. From this experiment, it is clear that the non-natives who know the lexicon in English lack the necessary knowledge about phonetics required for conveying their pragmatics appropriately. From this experiment, it can be inferred that learning English does not simply entail studying grammar but also phonetics.