Abstract An important dimension of linguistic variation is formality. This study investigates the role of social distance between interlocutors. Twenty-five native Dutch speakers retold eight short films to confederates, who acted either formally or informally. Speakers were familiarized with the informal confederates, whereas the formal confederates remained strangers. Results show that the two types of interlocutors elicited different versions of the same stories. Formal interlocutors (i. e. large social distance) elicited lower articulation rates, and more nouns and prepositions, both indicators of explicit information. Speakers addressing the informal interlocutors, to whom social distance was small, however, provided more explicit information with an involved character (i. e. adjectives with subjective meanings). They also used the word and more often as a gap filler or as a way to keep the floor. Furthermore, a small social distance elicited more laughter, interjections, first-person pronouns and direct speech, which are all indicators of involvement, empathy and subjectivity.

中文翻译：

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社交距离对言语行为的影响：休闲言语的形式变异

摘要语言变异的一个重要方面是形式。这项研究调查了对话者之间的社会距离的作用。25位讲荷兰语的母语人士将八部短片转播给同盟国，这些同盟国采取正式或非正式的行动。演讲者熟悉非正式的同盟，而正式的同盟仍然陌生。结果表明，两种类型的对话者都引出了同一故事的不同版本。正式对话者（即较大的社会距离）引起了较低的发音率，以及更多的名词和介词，这两者都是明确信息的指标。与社交距离不大的非正式对话者的演讲者却提供了更明确的信息，这些信息具有所涉及的特征（即具有主观含义的形容词）。他们还使用了这个词，并且更经常地用作填隙或保持地板的方法。此外，小的社交距离会引发更多的笑声，感叹词，第一人称代词和直接语音，这些都是参与，共情和主观性的指标。