Perceptions of inter-turn silence after requests in standard and colloquial Singapore English

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This study explores how ‘formality’ distinctions affect interactional norms. We investigated whether features associated with Standard and Colloquial Singapore English influence listeners’ perceptions of delay in response to requests. Because silence after requests has reliably been shown to engender a sense of hesitancy, we examine whether speaker guise (in formal versus colloquial styles) affects listener perceptions of willingness to help a friend. A total of 140 Singapore English-speaking university students listened to audio recordings of telephone dialogues between two friends. Each dialogue, recorded in both standard and colloquial guises, included a request, followed by a silence of 200 ms, 600 ms, or 1200 ms, and then a positive response. Results revealed a significant difference between registers: delayed responses were perceived as more acceptable in the colloquial guise than in the standard one. These findings suggest that social meanings associated with formality—like distance or intimacy—shape how conversational pauses are interpreted..