Labeling expressive speech in L2 Italian: the role of prosody in auto-and external annotation

The present study is intended to compare two approaches of
labeling expressive corpora: auto-annotation and annotation by
external lay listeners. These two methods have been applied to
the semi-spontaneous emotional speech produced by Chinese
learners of L2 Italian, involved in the CardTask, a moodinduction
procedure that allows us to control the context of
interaction, preserving the spontaneity of reactions.
The emotional responses to the stimuli presented in the
task were the object of an auto-annotation session. The same
samples were then administered only in the auditory mode to
20 Italian and 20 Chinese lay listeners. The results of
perceptual tests have underlined some similarities and
differences between both auto- and external annotation, and
between the ratings given by external Italian and Chinese
listeners. The labels chosen by native Italians were similar to
those selected in the auto-annotation session, particularly in
the case of anxiety, fear and disgust. The correspondence
between the results of the two annotation methods may be
ascribed to the different prosodic patterns characterizing the
emotional states. The results of the annotation made by
Chinese listeners show that they found it hard to give a
specific emotional label to utterances produced in a second
language relying solely on prosodic patterns.