Prosodic matching beyond humans: on the interactional basis of “cat-directed” talk

Katariina Harjunpää; Beatrice Szczepek Reed

doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2025.04.007

Prosodic matching beyond humans: on the interactional basis of “cat-directed” talk

Katariina Harjunpää
, Beatrice Szczepek Reed

University of Helsinki

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

239 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This conversation analytic study investigates a Finnish-speaking caretaker interacting with a cat and her two kittens while she records them on video. The study shows that when talking to the cats, the human prosodically matches their meows, chirps, trills, and purrs by approximating their pitch, duration, voice quality, loudness, and rhythm. Matching occurs with directives, questions, and response tokens (m-hm), as well as with imitative interjections (miu). Through different combinations of prosodic and lexical imitation, the human makes her talk responsive to the cats’ local conduct, and displays understanding and sharing of their ongoing activities and/or affective stances. The study sheds light on how prosodic features associated with so-called animal-directed talk emerge in the interspecies interactions in instances of matching.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	65-85
Number of pages	21
Journal	Language & Communication
Volume	103
Early online date	25 Apr 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2025.04.007
Publication status	Published - 31 Jul 2025

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10.1016/j.langcom.2025.04.007Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Harjunpaa and Szczepek Reed 2025 Prosodic matching beyond humansFinal published version, 3.08 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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abstract = "This conversation analytic study investigates a Finnish-speaking caretaker interacting with a cat and her two kittens while she records them on video. The study shows that when talking to the cats, the human prosodically matches their meows, chirps, trills, and purrs by approximating their pitch, duration, voice quality, loudness, and rhythm. Matching occurs with directives, questions, and response tokens (m-hm), as well as with imitative interjections (miu). Through different combinations of prosodic and lexical imitation, the human makes her talk responsive to the cats{\textquoteright} local conduct, and displays understanding and sharing of their ongoing activities and/or affective stances. The study sheds light on how prosodic features associated with so-called animal-directed talk emerge in the interspecies interactions in instances of matching.",

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Prosodic matching beyond humans: on the interactional basis of “cat-directed” talk

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