The prosodic resource pause used in the speech of Brazilian politicians

Abstract

Pauses play a fundamental role in speech, Making the understanding of the message easier, furthermore they contribute  to argumentation and persuasion. Objective: To evaluate the use of the prosodic resource pause in the speech of Brazilian politicians, comparing their perfomance in the beginning of their careers to their current moment. Materials and methods: Data collection was performed through the selection of videos freely available on the internet. The study was approved by the research ethics committee,(opinion no. 6,152,685). Samples of electoral propaganda of four politicians were analyzed, with comparisons between the beginning of their careers and the present. The analysis included the literal transcription of the speeches, the auditory perceptual evaluation of the pauses and the acoustic analysis, using the Praat program. The pauses were classified according to their duration as short, medium and long; and in the auditory perceptive analysis, as adequate or inadequate (excessive, absent and not coinciding with the graphic score. To maintain confidentiality, politicians were identified as A, B, C and D. Results: Regarding the duration classification, politicians A and C used medium, long and very long pauses at the beginning of their careers, but currently limit themselves to medium and long pauses. Politician D maintained the use of medium and long pauses both in 2002 and 2022. Politician B used medium pauses, before and after. Although politicians D and B maintained the same pause classification, there was a reduction in the total pause time. All politicians analyzed, in 1989, presented excessive, medium, long and very long pauses. In 2022, politicians A, C and D increased the use of medium pauses and decreased the use of long pauses, while politician B started to use medium pauses of shorter duration. In general, it was observed a reduction in the total pause time among the four politicians analyzed. In the auditory perceptive analysis, the four politicians used inappropriate pauses. A and C used excessive and long pauses; D used inappropriate and excessive pauses, while politician B had no pauses at all. In 2022, politicians A, C, and D continued to use excessive pauses, but of shorter durations. Politician B, on the other hand, began to use pauses appropriate to the spoken content. The reduction in the duration and number of pauses suggests an approximation of political discourse with colloquialism. However, when comparing politicians with other voice professionals, such as television journalists, it was observed that politicians still use excessive, medium, and long pauses, which may be a characteristic of the speech of Brazilian politicians. The politicians analyzed in this study are characterized by the use of excessive, medium, and long pauses. The changes observed in the use of pauses over time suggest an evolution towards a more spontaneous, natural, and expressive political discourse. Nowadays, politicians speak more fluently, without appearing to be reading from a teleprompter, which increases trust and closeness with voters.