Efeitos da estrutura gramatical e da entonação da voz na identificação de frases do tipo ordem e sugestão.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate whether Grammatical Structure and Intonation of voice are relevant variables for the identification of a verbal stimulus as an Order and/or a Suggestion, or even, if one or other of these two characteristics is more relevant to the occurrence of this identification. The study included 180 students (between 18 and 30 years) of several undergraduate courses, which were exposed to fourteen different phrases which varied in content, Grammatical Structure and Intonation. The phrases in Portuguese were presented with the Grammatical Structure of Order (three phrases) and Suggestion (three phrases), each presented with two Intonations - Order and Suggestion - phrase in Mandarin was also presented with the same two intonations; totaling 14 phrases. The phrases were presented randomly to participants, through an audio recording. The task was to record on worksheet answer the corresponding option so that identified be the phrase: Order, Suggestion or None of the Above. The participants were divided into two groups, Group I and Group II, which differed only in the voice used in audio recording. The results of the Set 1 - composed by phrases with Structure of Order and Intonation of Suggestion and Order - showed that the participants of Group I chose to 55.2% and the Group II 58.9% of the time the option Order when the Grammatical Structure does not match the Intonation and that 93.3% and 93.7% of responses of participants' choices of Groups I and II, respectively, was the option Order when the Grammatical Structure corresponded to Intonation. The results of the Set 2 - composed by phrases with Structure of Suggestion and Intonation of Suggestion and Order - indicated that the Group I 48.5% of phrases were identified as Order and in Group II 54.4% as Suggestion when the Grammatical Structure does not match the intonation and that in Group I and II 91.1% and 89.3% of the phrases, respectively, were identified as Suggestion when the Grammatical Structure corresponded to Intonation. The results of the Set 3 - composed of phrases in Mandarin with Intonation of Order and Suggestion - showed that the participants of Group I were 85.6% and in Group II 70% of the time the option None of the Above when the Intonation was of Order and that the participants of Group II were 85.6% of Group I and 82.2% the option None of the Above when the Intonation was Suggestion. These results indicate that the control by the Grammatical Structure prevailed under the control by the Intonation of the voice in the identification of phrases as being of type Order or Suggestion.