A Study on Paralinguistic Aspects of Aizuchi in Japanese

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate some paralinguistic aspects of aizuchi in Japanese. There are many previous studies on back-channels in the context of form, frequency and function, but one area not yet completely understood is paralinguistic aspects such as timing, duration, intonation and pause. Investigations in this area concerning aizuchi by Japanese learners have just begun. This paper reports the results obtained from Japanese native speakers to be used for baseline data.