English Language U3AOS1 Revision

Standard English

The variety of English that a community has determined to represent that community's established variety of written and spoken English, and is formally codified in dictionaries and other official language resources.

Purpose of standard English

Used to create a common ground for understanding, ensuring that messages are conveyed accurately and effectively. It also enhances opportunities in global communication and professional fields as it makes texts accessible to wider audiences and assists in the creation of clear and effective communication.

Non-Standard English

Refers to dialects or ways of speaking that deviate from the accepted "standard" English.

What are the functions of Language?

They serve to communicate thoughts, ideas, and feelings, facilitating social interaction and the sharing of understanding.

• Poetic

• Phatic

• Referential

• Emotive

• Conative

• Metalinguistic

What are the connected speech processes

The various phonological changes that occur when words are spoken naturally in a continuous sequence.

• Assimilation

• Vowel Reduction

• Elision

• Insertion

Elements of Situational Context

The factors that influence communication in a specific situation, including the:

• Setting

• Mode

• Text type

• Tenor

• Field.

Cultural Context

Relates to the society where individuals are raised in and how the culture affects language usage and behavior. It incorporates values that are learned and attitudes that are shared among groups of people. It includes beliefs, meanings, customs, ideas, language, norms.

What are the vocal effects

• Whisper

• Laughter

• Breath

Prosodic Features

• Pitch

• Stress

• Tempo

• Intonation

What is the purpose of informal texts

• Encouraging intimacy, solidarity, and equality

• Promoting linguistic innovation

• Maintaining face needs

• Promoting social harmony

• Negotiating social taboos

• Building rapport

• Supporting in-group membership

What are the Word-Formation processes

• Acronym - NASA

• Conversion of word class

• Initialism - BBC

• Blending - “smog” (smoke+fog)

• Borrowing

• Neologisms

• Shortenings and reduction - “gonna”

• Affixation

• Compounding - Basketball

• Contraction

Non-fluency features

They indicate a speaker's thought process during spontaneous speech, convey uncertainty, and allow time to formulate ideas.

• Pauses

• Filled Pauses

• False Starts

• Repetition

• Repairs

Features of Spoken Discourse

• Openings & Closings

• Adjacency Pairs

• Minimal Response

• Interrogative tags

• Overlapping speech

• Discourse Markers/Particles

• Non-fluency Features

Purpose of Openings & Closings

They Help maintain rapport and demonstrate politeness by following social norms (E.g. Hello, how are you, welcome everyone")

Purpose of Adjacency Pairs

Help a conversation flow by signalling openings and closings or marking moves with a conversation. (E.g. Exchange of greetings, questions and answers, compliment and ackowledgement, apology and acceptance)

Purpose of Minimal Response

Indicates to the speaker that you are listening, and encourages them to continue with their turn (E.g. listening noises, backchanelling).

Types of Overlapping Speech

Cooperative overlaps - Speaker 2 doesn’t wait for speaker 1 to completely finish their turn before giving a response. Shows speakers are invsted in the convo and comfortable enough to speak over each other a little.

Uncooperative - Taking control by interupting or cutting off another speaker. Hostile tenor.

Functions of Discourse Markers/particle

• Signalling topic shift (‘So’, what should we do about dinner then?)

• Acting as a ‘hedge’ to soften the utterance (‘you know’, …)

• Connecting Ideas

• Rephrasing (‘I mean’, I think it was Kevin…’Actually, no, it was Dave’)

Strategies in Spoken Discourse

• Topic Management

• Turn-Taking

• Management of Repair Sequences (Correction by self or by others, which may challenge face if tenor is not close.

• Code-Switching

What are the stages of Topic Management

Refers to the way in which speakers determine the content of their conversation.

1. Initiation of the topic

2. Topic development (saying more about the topic)

3. Topic shift (changing the topic)

4. Topic loop (going back to the previous topic)

What’s involved in ‘Holding the floor’ in Turn-taking

• Use of conjunctions (e.g. ‘and then’), indicating intentions of continuation of speech.

• Openings that give an indication that an extened turn is required (e.g. “guess what happened today”)

• Use of pause fillers to hold space while constructing the next utterance (e.g. ‘um’, ‘you know’)

What’s involved in “Passing the floor” in turn taking?

• Asking a question (e.g. commencing an adjacency pair that needs to be completed by another speaker")

• Use of prosodic features like rising intonation, which indicates a question, or falling intonation, which suggests a finish in utterance.

• Directly addressing someone through a vocative.

What is Face and how can it be lost?

A person’s public self-image that’s projected onto others every time we interact socially. Face can be lost via humiliation or damage to reputation.

Politeness Strategies for ‘Maintaining positive face’?

• Praising & complimenting

• Showing interest in their experiences or ideas

• Adapting our language to accommodate others (e.g. avoiding swearing, using euphemisms, gender-neutral language)

Politeness Strategies for ‘Maintaining negative face’?

• Apologising

• Making indirect requests

• Using hedging expressions to soften the impact of our utterances

• Being general instead of personal

Negative face needs

The desire not to be imposed upon, to exert your own free will.

Self-effacement

Involves minimising our own importance to soften the force of our opinions, thus requires us to threaten our own face needs in order to maintain the face needs of others,

How can positive & negative face be threatened?

Positive

• Insulting

• Criticising

• Ridiculing

• Accusing

• Being sensitive to social or cultural conventions

Negative

• Making requests

• Giving advice

• Making promises or offers (can be seen to incur a debt)

Intimacy

Refers to the deep, personal closeness and emotional connection between two individuals

Solidarity

Refers to a sense of purpose or cause that is shared within a group which aids in bonding

Equality

Denotes a state where everyone has the same rights, opportunities, and status.