Sociolinguistic Aspects in Designing Dialogue Strategies for Speech Dialogue Systems

Traineeship Project Report

Andreea Niculescu Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R)

21 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Republic of Singapore 119613

Abstract This paper presents a research scheme to investigate human-machine interactions from a socio-linguistic point of view. It starts from the premise that human-human and human-machine interaction are at the psychological level quite similar, people treating machine as they treat other humans. We speculate that users’ subjective perception concerning the performance of a speech dialogue system can be improved if the dialogue flowchart contains polite markers and typical users’ language patterns. The claim will be tested with a simulated dialog system that helps users to communicate through speech with their mobile phone. The paper will offer a theoretical and empirical overview about related research work in this area proposing an investigation methodology, meant to prove empirically whether our assumptions are accurate. 1. Introduction Since computers have started to take more importance in our lives man-machine communication has become a highly interesting topic. Today’s communications is strongly related to new technologies such as speech or image recognition. Speech technology has made a lot of progress in development of high quality dialogue systems, focusing on acoustical and informational interaction between people and machines. However dialogue systems are by far not perfect and many improvements are highly desired. Research papers have shown that it is not merely the informational amount exchanged and its acoustical form that contribute to the quality of a dialogue system; more psychological dialogue dimensions together with socio-linguistic and cultural issues seem to play a significant role in the subjective quality evaluation of a dialogue system. Since the ultimate designer goal is to bring high competitive dialogue systems on the market he/she might need to take into account some simple marketing rules like i.e. the fact that the success of a product increases if the features of the product appear familiar to the customers: if a product seems to be friendly, if customers can “identify” themselves with it, giving them feeling of trust, then most probably they will buy it. Therefore developing systems that correspond to psychological needs of the users might be crucial for their acceptance of those systems. Very interesting insides on this topic were gained by a group researcher 1 from Stanford University who investigated how people interact with media. They found that humans deal with new technologies in the same way they do with other humans, i.e. interactions with computers or television are identical to real social relationships. The result of numerous psychological studies made in Stanford showed the following results:

1. People respect politeness the same rules either they speak with a human or with a computer. 2. People like to identify the personality of their dialog partner and enjoy interacting with personalities that resemble their own.

What can we infer from these conclusions? If people are polite to a computer, they will probably like to be similar treated in return. Politeness defined as the concern for the feelings of others includes features that may vary from culture to culture. More research needs to be done in this area in order to establish first, what is to be considered polite in a specific cultural environment (beyond the obvious "please" and "thank you") and how politeness marker can be successfully included in a dialogue strategy for spoken dialogue systems.

1 Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass (1996): The Media Equation.

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Furthermore people like identifiable personalities, even if they might not like the personality once it’s identified. Psychologists had shown that personality can be reduced to a basic set of categories, like dominant, submissive, friendly or disagreeable. The way people talk, can be an indicator for their personality. The same occurs when computer talk: dialogue designers can easily model the computer “personality”, to make it speaking in a dominant, submissive or friendly way. The personality design also depends on product goal. If the system is designed to be an active helper then its “personality” should be dominant but friendly. If the computer is supposed to learn from the user, then the personality should be submissive and friendly. Further evaluations of simulated dialogue situations may show best matches between personality features and tasks. 2. Research question Personality and culture dependent speech behavior rules may also be a way to segment the market of interactive speech-based systems. The costs of a dialogue design appropriate to user’s personality and culture are very low: personality can be determined by a very short series of questions while culture dependent speech behavior implies minimal expenses related to socio-linguistic research. The dialogue strategy, once designed can be easily changed. The advantage that can be earned is huge: an amiable relationship between user and computer, based on personality and speech customs similarity can make users to be more sympathetic in situations in which the machine fails, i.e. to tolerate simple recognition mistakes or other small flaws. This paper will only focus on the conversational aspects of a dialog such as politeness and linguistic closeness. Considering the result above our hypothesis is that users will appreciate more a dialogue system using their typical language patterns and showing a polite “behavior” compared with a system using normal standard prompts. To determine whether our prediction is correct we will design an experiment, in which a dialogue system will interact with a group of users. Our test group will be composed by Singaporean users, who use English as secondary communication language. We will design for the same system two different kinds of prompt: in Singaporean English (using typical Singaporean slang expressions and having due regard to verbal politeness forms in Asian cultures) and in Standard English. The users will be informed they are going to interact with two different speech dialog systems. In fact they will interact with the same system: the only difference will be in the prompt formulation. Each user will get after the test a questionnaire to evaluate the quality of both systems. The users will interact with the system according to a specific scenario; in this way the uniformity of the experiment can be ensured. The interaction should be limited to a certain number of tasks, like sms writing or picture editing. Therefore there is no need to develop an entire application but only the modules required by the scenarios. Due the importance of accurate prompts design, the paper will also present an overview about the main linguistic features of Singaporean English and the phenomenon of politeness in the spoken language focusing the Asian culture. 3.Features of spoken Singapore English Singapore is a complex network of multi-ethnic, multilingual speech communities, using English to understand each other. But every newly arrived, in Singapore realizes pretty soon that the varieties of English spoken here are not all Standard English. From the situation in which there was an Indian English, a Malay English and a Singapore Chinese English there has developed a distinctively English, which shows influences from the major speech varieties spoken here. In the following a summarization of the main differences between Singapore English and Standard English regarding the pronunciation (phonological shift), the grammar (syntactical shift) and the vocabulary (semantic shift, word creation, morphemes addition, etc) will be presented. a). Pronunciation (phonological shift) Vowels The main difference between Singapore English and many other varieties of English is that the Singaporean variant doesn’t make any distinction between long and short vowels. Singaporeans are inclined to shorten the long vowels considerably: “see” would be pronounced [sI] The following pairs or sets of words would be homophones in most varieties of Singapore English:

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1. Marry /merry [{] 2 2. pull / pool [U] 3. cot / caught [V] 3. come / calm [Q] 4. sit / seat [I]

Many speakers will make a distinction between long and short in the case of no. 4, but almost none in the case of no. 1. If speakers do make a distinction between “pat” and “pet”, it is usually by lengthening the vowel ("pat” = [pE:t]] and “pet” = [pEt]), in imitation of American English, and not by having a lower vowel for “pat” , as in most varieties of British English and Australian English. Diphthongs Singaporeans have the tendency to pronounce diphthongs, “ou” or “ei” for example, like a single vowel, like [o] or [e] / [{]. This kind of variation occurs in words as

“home” , “so” , “hope” for “ou” and

“take” or “made” , for “ei”. Fairly pure vowels ([o] and [e]) are used in “snow” and “play” , as in many varieties of English. [o] is seldom a diphthong, although the diphthong [ei] is often heard. The diphthongs are usually:

my [aI]

boy [OI]

now [aU]

near [I@]

poor [U@]

Consonants 1. Some speakers lack a distinction between the following initial and finally pairs (technically known as voiceless and voiced respectively): Initially pairs

a) “p” and “b” sounds (both sounding like [p]), in words like “park” / “bark” b) “t” and “d” sound (both sounding like [t]) , in word like “tan” / “Dan” c) “k” and “g” sounds (both sounding like [k]), in words like “come” / “gum” d) “ch” and “j” sounds (both sounding like [ch]), in words like “cheap” / “jeep”

Finally pairs

a) “p” and “b” sounds (both sounding like [p]), in words like “rip” / “rib” b) “t” and “d” sound (both sounding like [t]) , in word like “seat” / “seed” c) “k” and “g” sounds (both sounding like [k]), in words like “pick” / “pig” d) “ch” and “j” sounds (both sounding like [ch]), in words like “rich” / “ridge” d) “f” and “v” sounds (both sounding like [f]), in words like “leaf” / “leave” e) “s” and “z” sounds (both sounding like [s]), in words, like “rice” / “rise”

2. Most speakers lack a difference (or at least a clear distinction) between the following initial and final sounds: Initial sounds a) “t” and “th” (both sounding like [t]), like “taught” / “think” b) “d” and “th” (both sounding like [d]), like “day” / “they” . Final sounds a) “th” and “f” sounds (both sounding like [f]), in words like death and deaf.

2 See SAMPA- computer readable phonetic alphabet: http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/home.htm

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b) “th” and “v” sounds (both sounding like [v]), in words like breathe and brave .

3. Many speakers omit the following final sounds a) “l” sound, so that “drawl” and “temple” sound identical “to draw” and “temper” b) “n” sounds, so that “brown” resembles “brow” c) simplification of final consonant cluster: for three consonant clusters, like in “plants” , or

“camps” – the tendency is a general reduction of the cluster to two or one consonant. d) “t” and “d” sounds. This has obvious consequences for”–ed” endings: “supposed to…” becomes

“suppose to…”. Singapore English speakers adopted in some cases pronunciation features of American English. The following features can be considered to be American influence on SgE.

1. the pronunciation of “r” in words like “harder” 2. many SgE speakers pronounce words like “student’” or stupid without any [y] sound after [t]

(like “stoo-dent”, stoo-pid) 3. Some SgE speakers pronounce a “t” sound very like a “d” when it occurs between vowels, as in

“later” “h” sound = is usually pronounced as “haitch” b). Grammar (syntactic shift) Platt (1980) identifies some variable syntactic-semantic structures which are employed by Singaporeans speakers of English: 1. Variable non-marking of 3rd person singular: “That radio sound good” 2. Variable lack of copula (SgE speakers often omit the verb “be”): a). before an adjective: “I damn naughty.” b) before –ing form of verbs: “I still finding.” c) before a noun: “My parents also Cantonese”. d) before locatives describing place: “Another brother in the U.S.” e) before passives: “She punished.” f) before clauses: “That what they are trying to do.” g) before temporal describing time: “Break time [is] in the morning.” 3. Lack of plural: “How many bottle?” 4. Use of “got”: “Here got people” 5. Use of “should “instead of “if”: “Should you change your mind?” 6. Variable non-use of subject/object: “Is very big, you know?!”, “If by bus is very convenient […]” 7. Variable lack of marking the past tense: “My father bring my mother over”, “Yesterday we play tennis.” 8. Articles are often omitted, as they do not exist in the local language. 9. In informal StE speech, yes/no question can be expressed using the same word order as statements: “You can swim?”, ”You like hot food?” c). Vocabulary The differences between Standard and Singaporean English vocabulary divide into the following tree categories: 1). Abbreviations 2). Words used with a different meaning from Standard English 3). Words overused

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4). Word “creations” 5). Morpheme Addition. 1). Abbreviation Singaporeans like to reduce words to initials: J.P. (Jurong Point); J.B.(Johor Bahru), air-con (instead of air-conditioning), contacts (used as abbreviations for contact lenses). 2). Words used with a different meaning from Standard English 1. alphabet = with the meaning of “letter” 3. as such = often replaces “therefore”: “He is the head of the department. As such [as head of department] he has the authority to issue cheques.” 4. avoid = used to express prohibition: “Avoid smoking in this area!” 5. back = used with the meaning of “home” : “ Are you going back?’ 5 a) buy back = buy something in order to bring home: “ I’m going to bring some food back”. 6. bath = cold shower 7. to call = often used instead of “to ask” or “to tell” : “My mother called me to open the windows”. 8. to chop = means “to stamp”: “Please chop this form.” 9. to find = some Chinese Singaporeans confuse “to find” with “ to look for” (“to search”), because in Chinese there exists only on their mother tongue it exist a between these verbs 10. to follow = means often to accompany: “ I’ll follow you to the airport” 11. medical hall = is a pharmacy, drugstore 13. next = “next Monday” usually means Monday of the next week. The immediately upcoming Monday would be called this Monday. 14. not so = instead of “not very”: “I found that the activities in the textbook were not so interesting” 15. on = is the most overused preposition in SgE. It is virtually always used when the meaning is “on the subject of”: cover on, dispute on, emphasize on, research on, review, stress on, study on, test on: “The company is very concerned on this matter”. 16. one = very often tagged on the end of exclamations in informal SgE speech. It doesn’t have the same meaning like the English “one” , it seems to function much like particles (lah): “ So funny one!” 17. one kind = is used to mean “bad” : “ Her dress is so one kind” 18. open = may be used in sentences such as : “ He opened the light” (turn on), “ She opened her shoes” (take off) 19. packet = can also be used in SgE to mean a plastic bag. 20. quite = used in expression like “not quite good”, meaning “not very good”: “ It’s quite impossible, just very difficult”. 21. say again = is a common SgE expression meaning: “I beg your pardon, please repeat”. 22. show = used for “movie” . 23. spend = “Let me spend you“ means ”Let me treat you”. 24. stay = “Where do you stay?” = “Where do you live?” 25. tackle = if a SgE man tries to start a relationship with a woman, he can say that he tackles her. This may amuse foreign listeners, as the verb “tackle” is used of a physical challenge rugby. 26. take = “Do you take hot food?” means “Do you eat..?” 27. wet = a “wet noodle soup” means that water is added, as opposed to dry. 28. win = sometimes SgE speakers confuse “win” with “beat” : “I won him at tennis.” 29. you = used in imperative construction like: “You hold on!”. 30. bring , take, send and fetch seem to be virtually interchangeable: “I will bring you home” means somebody will accompany you to your place. “I will sent you to the airport”: implies to accompany somebody to the airport 3). Words overused 1. so 2. already = speaker from Singapore tend to insert it to imply completion. 3. Also, Can, Also can, Cannot = common especially in replies to questions:

A: “Can I take this road?” B: “Cannot”

4. since young = is a common set phrases in Sg E.

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* please = rarely used (!) 4). Word “creations” 1. awared = does not exist in St. English – comes from “aware” (Adj.) “I was not awared that there was a new supplier”. 2. smoothen = in SgE has extended the suffix -en , usually added to many adjective to give corresponding verbs- wide –widen , high-heigthen 5). Morpheme addition 1. Ah, lah = it occurs very frequently at the ends of sentences or parts of sentences in discuss. The meaning of “ah” may be compared with the meaning of English “eh?” and is used to convey attitude or to indicate the value of what you are saying. In Singapore English it’s very important to take note of how the word “ah” is said. The main distinction is between a rising on high tone (shown as “áh” ) and a low one (shown as “àh” ) a) High tone is used: 1. for questions when the speaker feels the proposition questioned is probably true: “Anyway when the kids start working that will lighten you load, áh?” 2. for friendly self-introduction on the telephone: “Doris here áh?” b) Low ton is used 1. in rhetorical questions in which the speakers utter information new to themselves or assert understanding of what the addressee has said:

A: “Got to turn right now.” B: “ Got to turn right now àh.”

2. in utterances in I which new information is given.

Diner: “And two beers.” Waiter: “Three beers, áh” Diner: “No, I said two beers!” Waiter: “Oh, two beers àh.”

It seems that high ton “áh” gives more friendly quality and politeness form to the utterance then a falling “àh ”. Singapore English Standard English 1. I won him at tennis! 1. I beat him at tennis! 2. If you see Chee Sing, wish him for me! 2. If you see Chee Sing, give him my wishes. 3. You hold on! 3. Hold on, please! 4. Let me spend you! 4. Let me treat you! (i.e. I will pay) 5. My keyboard is spoilt. 5. My keyboard is broken/not working 6. A: Can I call you later this afternoon? B: Can. A: What about in the evening? B: Also can.

6. A: Can I call you later this afternoon? B: Yes, of course. A: What about in the evening? B: That would be O.K. too.

7. Avoid smoking in this area! 7. No smoking! 8. I’m going to buy some food back. 8. I’m going to buy some food to take home 9. I will send you to the airport. 9. I will give you a lift to the airport/ I will drive

you to the airport. 10. My mother call me to open the windows 10. My mother asked me to open the window. 11. He opened the light. 11. He turned on the light. 12. She opened her shoes. 12. She took off her shoes. 13. Where do you stay? 13. Where do you live? 14. This soup is sio, boy! 14. This soup is hot! 15. Don’t ask me to go and kwa meetnite. 15. Don’t ask me to go for a midnight movie.

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16. Let’s go for makan! 16. Let’s go to eat something! 17. Today is my off day. 17. Today I’m on leaf / I have a day off. 18. Where you now? I Bishan oreddy.

18. Where are you now? I am in Bishan.

19. Got other size? 19. Do you have any other sizes? 20. This one got discount. 20. These items are discounted. 21. Go where? 21. Where are you going? 22. Wha’ppen? 22. Is there a problem? 23. MRT also better. 23. Next time I’m taking the MRT 24. You what time can come? 24. What time would you like to come? 25. Don’ mention! 25. You’re welcome! 26. Lai, go concert 26. Let’s attend a concert. 27. Off your handphone, lah 27. Please turn off your mobile phone! 28.Your plane, how? 28. Did you have a pleasant flight? 29. Wah! You now damn big time, hor? 29. I heard you are doing well. 30. Damn kayu driver! 30. What an incompetent driver! 31. Man clothes, where? 31. Can you direct me to the mensear section? 32. Must support a bit a bit, mah. 32. I suppose I should still give them some

support. 33. You got early-early call, not? 33. Do you have a reservation? 34. Ticket ex or not? 34. Were the tickets expensive? 35. Piang eh! How come so ex? 35. Wow, the bill is really high! 36. How come you stop here? 36. Why are you stopping here? 37. Ai, yah, say so lah! 37. Why didn’t you say so? 38.Lisa got expensive taste, you sure you still want to tackle her?

38. Lisa has expensive taste, are you sure you still want to court her.

39. His mother early-early si liao, loh. 39. His mother died very early. 40. I can’t catch you 40. I can’t understand you. 41. A: How did you know the right answer? B: I just hentam.

41. A: ----- B: I just guessed.

42. I’m just looking up the dictionary! 42. I’m just looking up a word in the dictionary! 43. Do you take hot food? 43. Do you eat hot food? 44. Please give him chance! 44. Please give him a second chance! 45. I don’t friend you any more. 45. I don’t be your friend any more! 46. Be cool! Don’t gabra! 46. Be cool! Don’t be nervous! 47. That ger quite chio hor. 47. That girl’s quite pretty, isn’t she? 48. He was the incharge of the speech day. 48. He was in charge of the speech day. 49.Yesterday I was very boring. 49. Yesterday I was very bored. 50. When I hear people do this sort of thing, ah, I get damn geram!

50. ……. … I get very annoyed!

4. The phenomenon of politeness 4.1. What is Politeness? The use of politeness formulas is universal in human societies, but the way people express it varies from culture to culture and changes through time. During a social contact there are conversational presumptions a speaker can be expected to meet. The speaker will exercise those rights and fulfills those expectations that the relationship with other speakers requires. In such context politeness will be one of those expectations. What is generally considered to be polite? Lakoff, (1975) define politeness as a device used to reduce friction in personal interactions. In accordance with his theory, politeness should comprise the following: 1. No imposition 2. Provision of option

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3. Ensuring goodness of feelings – being friendly and using pleasant and tactful utterances in a moderate tone, appropriate to context, role and task of interlocutors. 4.2. Politeness markers 1. Greetings One of the most important politeness markers is the greeting. The greetings have besides their semantic aspect the function to open a conversation being important strategies for negotiation and controlling social transactions and relationship between interlocutors. The lack of greetings means impoliteness and reluctance to communicate. Abbreviations of greetings like “Morning!” are welcome only with the consent of the interlocutor. 2. Conversational aspects: the question-answer sequences The notion of politeness not only encompasses greetings and farewell but also conversational opening, negotiation process, responding to speech acts, conversation-intercepting procedure and conversational endings, which are expressed during the conversation along question-answer sequences. In other words: politeness doesn’t reside in words alone; it also involves the manner in which communication is carried on like turn-taking, topic introduction and topic change. The questions-answer sequences mostly occur in pairs. A question necessitates an answer and the answer must fit into the question. The response, however could take the form of another question. A question can be a request for information, clarification or complaint and it can have typically a question form (“Do you know…?”) or a statement form (“My telephone has not been working for four days now” – which underlay a question while at the same time request attention to it (“Why hasn’t your telephone not been working four days. Will you send someone to repair it?”). There are closed questions (whose answer is a “yes” or a “no ”) and open questions (whose answer is a whole phrase). In principle utterances, which display a willingness to communicate are the basis of a polite communication. A polite response should tell the enquirer exactly where his request could be fulfilled and should not be abrupt. Close-ended responses to a question can be interpreted as being abrupt and impolite, especially for occasions, where people have presumptions, that they will get more information. In the most of the closed question types the context of interaction plays an important part on the perception of politeness. While a “yes” or “no” answer would be sufficed, in so far as information seeking or clarification was involved, the context of the exchange necessities a lengthier sequence as utterance and where this is not forthcoming the exchange appears impolite because is displays an unwillingness to carry on the interaction. 4.3 Concept of politeness in Singaporean English The samples collected during accomplishment of a Bachelor Thesis by Mahalakshmy Sripathy, from the Faculty of Social and Art at NUS, in 1985, show that the perception of the politeness by Singaporean English speakers is likely to be different from the general point of view. The samples consist of several conversation fragments between Singaporeans and foreigner visitors in Singapore, who were English native speakers. The conversations were recorded in shopping centers, in hotels, by the Immigrations Department, etc. The analysis of these conversations shows that Singaporeans (from a Western point of view) seem to have a general reluctance in engaging a conversation. They answered to various questions in monosyllabic or using two- words utterances. In many cases the responses didn’t provide the enquirer with clear answer and were abrupt. The initiative in conversations almost always had to come from the foreign person. No use of “Please” or “Excuse me” or of modal forms “would” and “could” was found. Expressions like “Thank you” or “ I’m sorry” were also very rarely used. The various ethnic Singaporeans origins (Chinese, Malay and Hindu) have cultural norms and expectations that are deeply steeped in deference and politeness, which proves that impoliteness, is not a cultural manifestation. The problem therefore may be socio-linguistic rather then cultural. The short responses in Asian culture are usual: it’s considered impolite for anyone (especially for a young person!) to talk unnecessarily. Children are in fact trained from early ages to speak only when spoken to and reply only to what is asked of them. Free conversation with strangers is considered extremely impolite; hence not to talk is considered not impolite (!). According to that Singaporeans speak only when an answer is required. In Asian countries the word “no” is rarely used, for its use would result in listener losing face.

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The gratitude expressions are also different from Westerners. The universal “Thank you” is signalized rather non-verbal. In local languages either “Thank you” or “Excuse me” exist but the use is different. Normally Asians will thank in situations where special favors have been accorded. It is not a mark of good breeding to apologize for any mistake, only when very serious misdeeds have been committed. While exchanging greetings and expressing emotions, appreciation and gratitude are essential indicators of affability, such displays when used inappropriately are negative marks in Asian culture. A very friendly and casual manner of speech is considered to be rather impolite. Another Bachelor Thesis (written 1991 by Tan Seok Bee from the same Faculty of NUS) about politeness forms in Singapore English studied the forms of request for information, which have been collected from spontaneous speech. Respondents from America, Singapore and United Kingdom are asked to rank whether each request form is “least polite, “polite“ or “most polite” and if the request is ranked as “least polite”, to indicate alternative polite forms. The results were analyzed alongside the context in which the request are made and ordered by the question type. a) Modal auxiliaries The presence of modal auxiliaries give each hearer the option either to allow for the imposition on his negative face if he is willing and able to comply with the request, or to reject answering the request. Examples of request which have modal auxiliaries are as follows:

1. “Can you tell me what the usual causes of these symptoms are?” 2. “May I know where is the Information Center?”

Politeness in these two requests in achieved by the conventional indirectness in which each of the request is made. Sentence No.1 is considered as being more polite then sentence No. 2 because the former request is hearer oriented and the latter is speaker oriented. Indirect requests that are formed by modal auxiliaries are considered as “most polite” and are commonly used when the conversation participants are strangers. Especially the conditional forms “would” and “could” are more tactful than “will” and “can” . The request is even more polite by adding “excuse me, may I […] “ and “please”. The use of “please” in a request tones down the interrogative force of a request. What is more interesting is that the used of “please “ seems to be related with a higher degree of education: asking two different groups of subjects (one composed of undergraduate students of NUS and the other one a group of Singaporean workers), none of the working Singaporean respondents suggested the adding of “please” in their alternative request. They felt that conventionalized indirect requests are already polite forms on their own and the addition of a “please” would unnecessarily enlarge the request. b) Wh- elements in Wh- interrogatives In Singaporean English the use of questions like “Alexandra Hospital, how much?”, “Where? Your lab?” in informal context is very frequent. This kind of request may appear rather abrupt and impolite. It is interesting that this request has been rated generally as “polite”. The abruptness can be attributed to the circumstance in which the interaction takes place. In situation, where economy is much appreciated, the more polite forms would be regarded as time –wasting. In this case the speaker has to make his request short. c) “Or Not” in Polar Questions Requests which requires only a yes/no answer, the finite element is always placed in the clause initial position as follows: “Do you all depart everyday?”. This request has generally been rated as “polite”. Another kind of polar question that is typical of colloquial Singapore English (and Malayan English) is the use “or not” to request for affirmation or negation: “That ice-cream got jackfruit ice-cream or not?” The “or not” tag is used after utterances that would otherwise be declaratives of any intonational marking of interrogation. This form of request is almost always used between friends and family members in informal contexts. The probability of it being seen as an impolite form of request is not high. As it is, it may in fact be seen as polite when the request is made in this way because it is an indication of friendliness. “La” particle Singaporeans use this particle to mark a communicative style. The use of “la” , the short form which is unstressed (in contrast to “lah” , the stressed, long form) “softens” the meaning of an utterance, introduces

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a degree of warmness into the interaction. The use of “la” in a falling tone signals intimacy, friendliness, and decrease of social distance between the interlocutors. “Ha” particle “Ha” is a pragmatic particle usually placed at the end of a clause to either indicate that the speaker is asking a question, or as a marker to emphasis the question. This particle is a borrowed term from Southern varieties of Chinese and is similar to the “la” particle. It is generally used in informal situation as a marker of familiarity and it is considered in such context as polite. “Can, remember uncle and aunty they all, ha?” “Good afternoon. I want to enquire for two days Malacca trip, how much is it, ha? Even if the second phrase belongs to a formal conversation with a travel agent is seen as being “polite”. “Eh” particle “Eh” is similar to “hey” in the Western cultures and serves as an attention-getter. It is considered to be one of the less polite forms in the ranks of attention –getter. Intonation Intonation makes a great impact on whether a request is perceived by the hearer as polite or otherwise. It also plays an important role in marking request. A statement said with rising tone becomes a question: “Looking for wállet?” A rising tone expresses uncertainty and can be considered being more polite since the hearer has the option to heed or to ignore the question. If a question is delivered in a rather flat tone the request will appear less polite. Typical Singaporean English Politeness Forms - Summarization The words that signal politeness in Singaporean English are the much discussed “la”, ya”, “aha”, “ha” . The use of ungrammatical structure such as “where got” (“How can this be possible?”) are specific markers of politeness. Tag questions like, “You want to eat here, is it?” is considered to be very polite. Also the use of “what“ at the end of a statement is another example of politeness expression in SgE: “You know the price already what?”. “ What” reduces in this case the impact of a statement issued as challenge. 5. Experiment Design For our experiment we need a mobile phone (Motorola A338) and a very simple dialogue system having the following components: speech understanding module, data base, speech output module and a connection to a simulated phone line. The speech recognizer component is not required: the speech input will be typed in by the Wizard. The speech understanding module doesn’t require a grammar or a parser: the “understanding“ process consists in matching a key-word with a database entry. The speech output can use a synthesis or a recorded voice on the tape. 5. 1. Experiment layout For an accurate experiment realization we will use three rooms. The user (U) will evaluate in room 1 (R1) the first system. Afterwards the user will move to room 2 (R2) to evaluate the second dialog system. In the room 3 (R3) will be located the computer, on which the two dialogue applications will run. The door of room 3, from where the wizard (W) conducts the experiment (using the computer) will remain during the whole experiment closed in order to prevent test users to get behind the experiment. The computer will be connected to a simulated phone line. The user will interact with the system through the simulated phone line, i.e. in fact the user will interact with the Wizard.

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Ground view

U

W

R 3

2 7 0 c m 8 5 c m

5 6 5 c m

R 1

R 3

5. 2. Wizard-of-Oz Technique The Wizard-of-Oz technique derives its name from the character of the children novel with the same name written by Lyman Frank Baum. The technique refers to an experiment in which an user interacts with what appears to be a computer system but is in fact a simulation provided by either a human (referred to as the wizard) or the combination of a human and a computer. The technique is very useful as it allows testing prototypes in early stages of development. Against the Wizard of Oz method can be argued with ethical reasons since the user will be “cheated”. The test person will be told he/she is going to interact with a speech computer not with a human. This deceit is necessary from psychological point of view: the test persons will react differently if they know they are interacting with a computer. This ethical problem can be solved by informing the test person after the completion of the test that they have in fact interacted with a human. 5. 3. Experiment steps 1. The test person will get the cell phone (Motorola 388) for a few minutes in order to become more familiar with it (Important: every test person must be a novice user of a Motorola 388 cell phone!). Then the test user will get the cell-phone manual, which is a complete guide of almost 300 pages. The investigator will ask the test-user to imagine the following situation: The test-user has just acquired the cell-phone and needs to use it immediately. There is no time to consult the user manual. The test user should think on what question he/she would ask first, in which functions he/she would be interested and which aspects of the cell phone appear to him/her unfamiliar. The test user will be asked to write down questions related to all unknown issues. These questions will be later used to refine the data base entries. 2. During the second part of the experiment the subject will be confronted with the dialogue system, which will provide him /her information about how to use the cell phone. For a uniform experiment realization

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each person will get two or three scenarios. The scenarios will be identical for each test person. The dialogue strategy should be the same for both prompting variants. To remove any potential bias from being exposed to one system before the other the test subjects will be organized into two groups. One group will be asked to evaluate the standard prompts system and then the local prompts version. The second group will do the opposite. After completing the test the participants will be asked in a questionnaire to rank on a five-level rating scale voice quality, politeness, dialogue easiness and trustworthiness for each system. They will also be asked to estimate on a three-level rating scale the future use of the voice animated virtual help desk assistant and to make improvement suggestions if any. 3. In the end the subjects will get a set of typical Singaporean phrases, selected from the system prompts. The test subjects should decide whether the statements are polite and friendly. In case the statements are considered less polite or friendly the test users should indicate a more appropriate formulation. 5. 4. Dialogue design The following prompt configuration should be regarded as a design suggestion. At a later date it can be changed conform to the indications offered by the test subjects. During the experiment it is essential that the wizard role remains strictly limited to speech recognition simulation: this means, the Wizard has to enter in short form exactly, what the test person uttered. This can be considered trivial, however it may happen, that the wizard feels tempted to “make” the dialogue work and type a keyword, he knows the system will recognize. The wizard might be inclined to modify the input provided by the test person especially after a long series of testing feeling probably bored. However this situation should be avoided at all costs. 5.5. Prompts configuration a). Reminder Alarm and Sms

USER

SYSTEM A Prompts Singapore English Standard English

Hello I’m your handphone guide. Can I help you?

Hello I am your personal cell phone user’s guide. How can I help you?

1. Keywords 1. How can I set a

reminder? 2. How can I set up

my date book? 3. I want to set up a

new event 4. I want to

schedule an event

1. O.K. [Pause] Tap the Date book icon. [Pause] You must go into the month view. You see the icon?

1. O.K. [Pause] Tap Date book icon. [Pause] You must enter the month view screen. Did you find the icon?

2a. No 2.a Cannot? O.K. la. Your screen have three icons on the right hand side. [Pause] See the paperclip? This is the Application Group. [Pause] Press it and the Date book icon will appear. [Pause] Can you see it now?

2.a.O.K. Your screen shows three Menus arranged as tabs on the right hand side. [Pause] Tap the clip icon, which represents the Application Group. [Pause] You will find the Date book icon there. [Pause] Did you find the icon?

2b. Yes 2b. Good, good! Now press in the current month.

2b. Good! On the screen you’ll see a view of the current month.

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[Pause] Press the event day you want. [Pause] The day and month come on top in the bar. [Pause] Scroll and choose the hour you want for your appointment. [Pause] Then press around Title, Location and Note to write your details for the event. [Pause] Then say “yes” when you finished

[Pause] Select the event day. [Pause] The day and the month appear in the title bar on the top. [Pause] Use the scroll bar to select the correct hour for your appointments. [Pause] Now tap the field around Title, Location and Notes to enter necessary details of the event. [Pause] Say “yes” when you have entered all the information.

3. Yes 3. O.K. la. If you want to set the finish time of your event, just press the pull down selection box on the right hand side. [Pause] Press the “on time” icon and choose the time you want. [Pause] Say “yes” when you are finished.

3. O.K. If you want to set the end time of your event, just press the pull down selection on the right hand side. [Pause]. Tap the end time. Say “yes” when you have set the time.

4. Yes 4. O.K. Now you press the pull down selection on the right hand side. [Pause] Click the time you want. [Pause] Then say “yes” when you finished.

4. O.K. Now tap the pull down selection box to set the Reminder alarm. Press the “on time” icon and select the time. [Pause] Say “yes” when you have finished.

5. Yes 5. You got any more questions?

5. Do you have any other questions?

6. Keywords 1. I want to send a sms

to remind my friend about our meeting

2. How can I sent a automatically remind message?

6. O.K. Now you have two choices: you can send a sms now or later on. Which one do you want?

6. O.K. You have two options: you can send the sms now or at a later time. What would you like to do?

7.a) Now 7.a. If you want wanna send sms now press the two up arrow and choose “send sms”. [Pause] Now you are in the New Message Display Screen. [Pause] Tap on the empty space after the word “to” [Pause] Then key in the phone number.

7.a) If you want to send a reminder sms now press the two up arrows and choose “Send sms”. [Pause] You are now in New Message Display. [Pause] Tap the field around the “to” square. [Pause] … and enter the phone number.

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[Pause] If you tap on the word “top” you will see all the phone numbers in your handphone address book.

[Pause] If you tap the “to” square the screen will show all your cell phone numbers stored in your Address book.

7.b) Later 7b) If you wanna send the sms later, press the handset icon [Pause] and go to the sms icon. [Pause] Can you see the icon?

7.b) If you want to send the sms later, tap the handset icon [Pause] and go to the sms icon. [Pause] Did you find the icon?

8. No 8. Press the handset icon on the right. Then in the main menu, you will see the sms. [Pause] You see the icon?

8. Tap first the handset icon top right. [Pause] In the main menu you will see the sms icon. Did you find the icon now?

9. Yes 9. O.K, fine , you are now in the Message Centre screen . Press “Compose” on the bottom right hand side. [Pause] Then put the phone number you want to send sms to into the empty field next to the word “to”. [Pause] Say “yes” when you are finished.

9. O.K. You are now in the Message Center Display. Press now “Compose”. [Pause] … and tap first the field alongside “To” to enter the phone number. Say “yes” when you have finished.

10. O.K. 10. Write your message on the empty space next to the “message” field. You can use keypad or handwriting. Which one you wanna use?

10. Tap alongside the message field. You can use the keypad to enter your message or handwriting mode. What do you prefer?

11.a) I want to use the keypad

11.a) O.K. la . Type your message and then press O.K. Say “yes” when you are finished.

11.a). O.K. Enter your message and press the O.K. icon. Say “yes” when you are finished.

11.b) I want to use the handwriting mode

11.b) O.K. Press the two up arrows and choose “handwriting” [Pause] First choose the character you want to use. [Pause] Then use the stylus to write this character into the handwriting space. When you finish writing the message, click O.K. [Pause] Say “yes” when you finished.

11.b). O.K. Press the two up arrows downside the screen and select “handwriting”. [Pause] Select first the characters you want to use. [Pause] Use the stylus to enter information in the handwriting area. After you entered the message tap the O.K. icon. [Pause] Say “yes” when you are finish.

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12. Yes 12 O.K. Now press the two up arrow on the buttom of the screen and click send later. [Pause] Select the hour you want to send and click O.K.

12. O.K. Press the two up arrows, downside the screen and select send later. [Pause] Select the correct hour and press O.K. [Pause] [Pause]

You got any more questions? Do you have any other questions? 13. No Thank you very much for using

the guide! Thanks for using the personal user guide!

b). Storing a number from a sms & EMS Editor USER

SYSTEM A Prompts Singapore English Standard English

1. Keywords 1. How can I store a number from a received sms?

O.K. Open the sms Menu first and then select the sms number you want to store. [Pause] Press the two up arrows and click “save address” [Pause] Choose whether the received number is home number or a handphone number. [Pause] Click O.K. when you have chosen the type. [Pause] The number is now stored in your address book. [Pause] You got any more questions to ask?

1.O.K. Open first the sms menu and select the sms number you want to store. [Pause] Press the two up arrows and select “save address”. [Pause] Choose the number type, Home phone or Mobile and tap O.K. [Pause] Enter the contact name and tap O.K. [Pause] The number is now stored in your address book. [Pause] Do you have any other questions?

2. Yes Keywords

1. How can I edit my own pictures?

2. How can I insert pictures in a sms?

3. How can I send pictures and music?

If you wanna send pictures or music click the EMS –Editor. [Pause] Can you see the icon?

2. To send pictures, press EMS-Editor. [Pause] Did you find the icon?

3 a) No O.K. lah. There are three icons on the right hand side of your screen. [Pause] You see the paperclip? This is the Application Group [Pause] Click on this icon

3. a). O.K. Your screen shows three Menus arranged as tabs on the right hand side. [Pause] Tap the clip icon, which represents the Application Group. [Pause] There you will find the EMS

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[Pause] Then you will see the EMS –Editor [Pause] You see it now?

Editor icon. [Pause] Did you find the icon?

3.b) Yes O.K. Click New and you will get a empty board to do editing. [Pause] Before you start drawing you must give the size of the picture. [Pause] Press the pull down selection on top center. [Pause] Press the two up ward arrows and choose whether you want to switch to the rubber, to the pencil or to other things [Pause] The pull down selection box will show up. You can choose pencil a line, a square or a circle. [Pause] When you finish, press O.K. and say “yes”

3 b). O.K. Now press “New” and a blank editing board will appear. [Pause] Before you start drawing, you should determine the size of the pictures by pressing the pull down selection top central. [Pause] Tap the two upward arrows to choose the following functions: Switch To eraser or to Pencil or other functions. [Pause]. A pull down selection box will appear. You can choose as pencil a line, a square or a circle. [Pause] When you have finished press O.K. and say “yes”. [Pause]

4. Yes What else do you want to do now, eh?

4. What would you like to do now?

5. How can I attach to a sms picture and melody?

You got to go into the sms first. [Pause] Then add the picture and melody when you writing the sms. [Pause] Go back to the sms menu and say “yes” when you finished.

5.You have to write the sms first and then you can insert pictures and melody. [Pause] Go back to the sms menu and say “yes” when you have finished.

6. Yes Now you can see icons onthe top of your screen. Tap the first one with a teddy bear head. [Pause] Then tap the next icon you want to put in [Pause] To add a melody tap the note and select the music you want. [Pause]

6. Now, on the screen top you will see various icons. Tap the first one, which represents a teddy bear head. [Pause] Tap next the icon you want to insert. [Pause] [Pause] To insert a melody tap the note and select the melody you want. [Pause]

You got any more questions to ask?

7. Do you have any other questions?

7. No Thank you and Good bye 8. Thanks for using the personal user guide! Good bye!

If none of the keywords appears in the user’s input the system should initialize a repair strategy:

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USER

SYSTEM B Prompts Singapore English Standard English

Any question containing none of the keywords

Sorry –lah, I cannot understand your questions! Can you say that again? Please lah, ask one question at the time

Sorry, can you repeat your question? I didn’t understand! Try to ask only one question at the time.

Any question containing none of the keywords

Please see the info in the scenarios Please refer to information contained in the scenarios.

Any question containing none of the keywords

Aiya, sorry -lah I’m only a test prototype. I don’t have the answer for this issue

Sorry this application is only a test prototype, which doesn’t contain information about this issue.

ANNEX 1. Scenario 1 Imagine yourself being a busy manager of one of the most prestigious companies from Singapore. Your best friend Sammy from New York is coming to Singapore for two days and you want to have lunch together. You already fixed an appointment with him for tomorrow but because you are a very busy person it could happen that you might forget about it. You secretary is on leave and you need desperately a reminder. You just bought the new Motorola 338 and you want to use it for this purpose: you want the hand phone to remind you about the lunch with Sammy one hour before and to send Sammy at the same time a sms to remind him the lunch time with you. Because you don’t have the hand phone manual and you are not sure how to do it you will ask your personal voice user guide. Sammy’s HP: 938 1010 Scenario 2 Your little sister Jennifer has her birthday today and you want to send her a nice sms. You decide to draw your own picture (a small smiley ☺☺☺☺) and to send it together with a flower icon, which is already preset in your picture editor. Besides you want to add a “happy birthday” melody to your sms (the melody is already preset). Because you just bought your hand phone you don’t know how to do all this and you ask your personal user guide to help you. Jennifer’ s HP: you don’t have it stored in your address book but Jennifer sent you a sms last week. Before you start editing the picture ask your user guide how to store the number from that sms.

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ANNEX 2. No.:_________ Date: Questionnaire 1 1.0 Gender: 1.1. ���� female 1.2 ���� male 2.0 Age: 3.0 Mother tongue: 4.0 Profession/ Field :

4.1 Do you have any technical background? 4.2.1 ���� yes 4.2.2 ���� no 5.0 Are you using a PDA?

5.1 ���� yes 5.2 ���� no 6.0 Have you used the service of an automatic telephone service? 6.1 ���� yes 6.2 ���� no

6.1.1 If yes indicate which kind of service you used: ________________

6.1.2 How can you describe your experience? excellent ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very poor

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Questionnaire 2 7.0. Having seen the Motorola hand phone, is there any function that is difficult to understand and use? 7.1 What more information do you expect from these functions for easy use?. 7.2 Please help to formulate the right question for each such function!

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Questionnaire 3

8.0 Please evaluate the quality of both speech engines, comparing their global performance3: (mark with a cross) System A

System B

3 The rating scale originated from (Jekosch, 2000)

awful

bad poor So-so o-so

good excellent perfect

awful

bad poor So-so o-so

good excellent perfect

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9.0 How do you appreciate the speech quality of both systems? System A excellent ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very poor System B excellent ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very poor 10. 0 How do you appreciate the systems’ voice? System A excellent ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very poor System B excellent ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very poor 11.0 How do you appreciate the interaction speed with both of systems?

System A very fast ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very slow System B very fast ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very slow

12.0 Was it easy to follow the systems instructions? System A very easy ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very difficult System B very easy ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very difficult 13.0 How do you appreciate the systems explanations? System A excellent ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very poor System B excellent ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very poor 14.0 How do you appreciate the friendliness of both systems?

System A very friendly ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very unfriendly System B very friendly ���� ���� ���� ���� ���� very unfriendly

15.0 If you have the option to choose between these two systems, which one would you prefer? System A ���� System B ���� No preference ���� 15. Do you think that speech based instructions mode for electronic appliances, like hand phones, TVs, microwaves etc, could be in the future an alternative to the present information sources? Yes ���� No ���� I don’t know ���� 16.0 Please feel free to do other comments about your experience with both of these systems: - - - - -

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Literature Brown, Adam, (2000) , Singapore English in a nutshell: an alphabetical description of its features. Singapore, Federal Publications. Choo, Toh Paik Sylvia (2002), Coxford Singlish Dictionary. Singapore.Angsana Books. Fraser, Gupta Anthea, Singapore English For Speech Language Pathologists, www.leeds.ac.uk. Jekosch, U. (2000). Sprache hören und beurteilen: Ein Ansatz zur Grundlegung der Sprachqualität. Universität/Gesamthochschule Essen. Lakoff, Robin (1977). Politeness, pragmatics and performatives. Proceedings of the Texas Conference on performatives, presupposition, and implicatures, 79-106. Mahalakshmy Sripathy (1985): Forms of politeness in Singaporean English Bachelor Thesis NUS. Nass, Clifford & Byron Reeves (1996): The Media Equation, Cambridge University Press. Niculescu, A.(2002). A recipient-centered study on the identification and evaluation of factors influencing the quality of natural language human-machine dialogue. M.A Thesis, Ruhr University Bochum. Tan Seok Bee (1991): Politeness in Singaporean English the case of requests for information. Bachelor Thesis NUS. Platt, John & Heidi Weber (1980), English In Singapore and Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: OUP.