Abstract Although linguistic politeness has been studied and theorized about extensively, the role of prosody in the perception of (im)polite attitudes has been somewhat neglected. In the present study, we used experimental methods to investigate the interaction of linguistic form, imposition, and prosody in the perception of (im)polite requests. A written task established a baseline for the level of politeness associated with certain linguistic structures. Then stimuli were recorded in polite and rude prosodic conditions and in a perceptual experiment they were judged for politeness. Results revealed that, although both linguistic structure and prosody had a significant effect on politeness ratings, the effect of prosody was much more robust. In fact, rude prosody led in some cases to the neutralization of (extra)linguistic distinctions. The important contribution of prosody to (im)politeness inferences was also revealed by a comparison of the written and auditory tasks. These findings have important implications for models of (im)politeness and more generally for theories of affective speech. Implications for the generation of Particularized Conversational Implicatures (PCIs) of (im)politeness are also discussed.

中文翻译：

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影响说话人礼貌的因素：语言结构，拼写和韵律的影响

摘要尽管对语言礼貌进行了广泛的研究和理论化，但韵律在（礼貌）礼貌观念中的作用却被忽略了。在本研究中，我们使用实验方法来调查语言形式，拼写和韵律在（不）礼貌要求的感知中的相互作用。一项书面任务为与某些语言结构相关的礼貌水平建立了基线。然后在礼貌和粗鲁的韵律条件下记录刺激，并在感知实验中将其判断为礼貌。结果表明，尽管语言结构和韵律都对礼貌等级有显着影响，但韵律的作用要强得多。实际上，粗鲁的韵律在某些情况下导致了（额外）语言区别的中和。比较书面和听觉任务，也可以发现韵律对（不）礼貌推论的重要贡献。这些发现对（不）礼貌的模型具有重要意义，更普遍地对情感言语理论具有重要意义。还讨论了礼貌的（im）礼貌的特定会话含意（PCI）的产生。