• Korean Journal of Japanese Language and Literature
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• no.82
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• pp.1-26
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• 2018

In the present study, we conduct perception-judgment experiments and utterance analyses concerning the production and perception of Japanese emotive expressions by Japanese speakers and Korean learners, relating to the emotive meanings of "comprehension" and "empathy." Our experiments concerning Japanese "comprehension" utterances indicate that the perception rate of plain style is high for Japanese speakers, while the perception rate of polite style is high for Korean learners. As for "empathy" utterances, it seems that Japanese speakers are not affected by the style of utterance, while Korean learners are significantly affected, as can be seen in the high perception rate of plain style. In the case of Japanese speakers' "comprehension" utterances, the pitch varies greatly and the duration time is short, and in the case of "empathy" utterances, the pitch does not vary considerably and decreases gradually, and the duration time is long. Furthermore, if the pitch does not exhibit a systematized pattern but the duration time is reasonably long, the utterance tends to be interpreted as "empathy," while if the duration time is not reasonably long, the perception rate is low. In the case of the variant of Japanese produced by Korean learners, a notable point of difference in pitch patterns from Japanese speakers' utterances is observed in "comprehension," but decrease in perception rates is not detected when the duration time constraints are satisfied.