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In-Depth Information
3.2 Descriptive Adjectives
Concerning the word questionnaire, global frequencies of the answers of all the
subjects are given in Table 3. As can be seen, the most common way to describe the
gesture is to associate it with the adjectives
unsure
and
uncertain
(more than half of
the subjects), and with
doubtful
and
lack of confidence
(about one third of the
subjects). There is a tendency to describe the gesture as expressing the speaker's
hesitation and lack of knowledge, but it is worth noticing that the adjective
hesitant
itself does not have especially high frequency (10 out of 42 subjects). On the other
hand, the gesture is also related to the speaker being
reserved
or
unconvinced
(9 out
of 42 subjects) or
perplexed
(8/42). Also the adjectives
ambivalent
,
indecisive
,
irresolute
, or
reluctant
were picked fairly often (7 out of 42), and the “confidence”
adjectives
sure
and
confident
have the same frequency (7/42). The latter can be
understood as supporting the above hypothesis that the interpretation of the gesture
can focus on both the speaker's willingness to continue the conversation and the
speaker's ability to say something: 7 (16%) of the subjects interpreted the gesture as
expressing the speaker's confidence rather than uncertainty.
We should bear in mind, however, that the selection of appropriate words from the
list of descriptive adjectives may be affected by the subjects' knowledge of English.
Most of the subjects were non-native speakers, and since their English ability was not
tested, the word-test need not accurately reflect their understanding of the situation.
Table 3.
Global frequencies (N=42)
hesitant
unhesitant
troubled
doubtful
distracted
3
10
4
15
confused
disturbed
puzzled
certain
uncertain
5
3
6
6
23
resolute
irresolute
perplexed
reserved
unconvinced
1
7
8
9
9
strong
wavering
weak
shy
incoherent
3
5
2
4
6
timid
bold
bashful
confused
unwavering
2
1
2
4
reluctant
sorry
afraid
baffled
ambivalent
7
1
4
7
sure
unsure
decisive
confident
indecisive
7
7
22
7
polite
impolite
apologetic
regretful
inconfident*
4
3
1
12
