EMOTIVE SPEECH ACTS IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Abstract

The aim of the study is to determine the role of emotive speech acts in cross-cultural language learning environments, revealing the complex interplay between universal emotional markers and culturally specific expression patterns. In the course of the research, data analysis methods were applied (acoustic analysis, facial expression analysis using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), lexical analysis, correlational and regression analysis). Through comprehensive analysis of acoustic features, facial expressions, and lexical patterns, the research demonstrates that emotional expression follows dual patterns: universal elements remain consistent across languages while others undergo significant cultural adaptation. Results indicate that language learners develop an “emotional interlanguage” that synthesizes native expression strategies with target language norms. Spanish learners exhibited greater facial expressiveness when expressing happiness, suggesting adoption of the target culture’s more overt emotional display rules. Anger was more explicitly verbalized across all language learning groups, indicating that different emotions utilize distinct channels of expression. Principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering revealed discrete emotional expression profiles across language groups, while multiple regression models identified predictive relationships between linguistic proficiency, cultural exposure, and emotional adaptation. Our findings support a nuanced theoretical model that integrates universalist and relativist perspectives on emotional expression, suggesting that language learners navigate a dynamic space between these poles. The research confirms that certain aspects of emotional expression — such as increased vocal intensity for anger and decreased speech rate for sadness — remain relatively consistent across language groups, supporting the universality hypothesis. However, other aspects — particularly facial expressiveness for happiness and lexical choices for emotional states — show significant adaptation to target language norms, supporting the cultural relativity perspective. Our data reveals that language learners develop what might be termed an “emotional interlanguage” — a dynamic system of emotional expression that incorporates elements from both their native emotional repertoire and the target language’s cultural norms. This emotional interlanguage evolves with increased language proficiency and cultural exposure, but the adaptation process varies across different channels of emotional expression and across different emotions. The finding that cultural familiarity mediates the relationship between language proficiency and emotional expressiveness suggests that emotional adaptation in language learning is not simply a function of linguistic knowledge, but requires deeper cultural learning and engagement.

Keywords

• emotive speech
• cross-cultural communication
• emotional tone
• cultural differences influence
• vocal intensity
• lexical choice
• cross-cultural emotional adaptation