BIOENERGETICS OF SPEECH TIMBRE IN PECEPTION OF DIDACTIC INFORMATION

Abstract

The article deals with the role of speech timbre in perception of didactic information in English lecture discourse. It is an attempt to aproach the mechanisms of percetion through human voice timbre from a bioenergetic perspective which is a rather novel and interdisciplinary theme. The energetic perspective in language studies becomes particularly relevant and even urgent in the digital age, when technologies of synthesized speech reproduce the structural and acoustic parameters of communication but lack the authentic bioenergetic quality of the natural human voice. The study explores the correlation between emotions and speech perception through the timbral characteristics of the lecturer’s voice, viewing speech timbre not merely as an acoustic attribute but as a complex bioenergetic and perceptual category. The paper introduces the term “bioenergetics of speech timbre” which is not a standard fixed term in linguistics or phonetics. Thus, the bioenergetics of speech timbre is defined as the study of how the human body mobilizes, transforms, and distributes physiological energy to produce the perceptual quality of voice. It bridges acoustics, physiology, psychology, and communication. The proposed comparative overview, structured as a summary table integrating the main dimensions and parameters of speech timbre classification identified in phonetic and linguistic research, enhances the theoretical relevance of this study. The assessment of timbral perception in the context of didactic communication was based on the major-minor mode dichotomy. During the course of a complex perceptual experiment with elements of psycholinguistic analysis the emotional dychotomy was subjectively rated using the scale major/positive timbre and minor/negative timbre. The outcomes of the auditors’ evaluations within the framework of the emotional dichotomy confirmed the initial hypothesis that a positive, major timbre plays a significant role in the perception of oral didactic information. Thus, this experimental study confirmed the strong correlation between positive (major) emotions and the quality of perception of didactic information.