Spoken Language

Turn-taking

The way participants take turns in a conversation:

E.g. Pete: I’m off on holiday tomorrow

Mandy: Oh, you lucky thing…

Adjacency Pairs

The way turn-taking often proceeds when it is co-operative

• question and answer

• Greeting and return greeting

• Statement and response

• Etc

Overlapping/Simultaneous Speech

When speakers talk at the same time:

E.g. Hello Majory |how are you

| sorry Betty can’t stop, got to pick up the kids

Speech Markers/ Discourse Markers

Words that show the structure of a speech by breaking it into separate chunks. These make clear the sequence of thought.

• Well

• Anyway

• Right

• Now

• Finally

Monitors

Words or phrases used to check or monitor that the listener is following what is being said.

• okay?

• Right?

• You see…

• Know what I mean?

  The question mark indicates that the words are spoken with a rising intonation that helps to maintain the interaction.

Back-Channeling/Speaker Support

A word, expression, or vocalisation used by a listener to indicate that they are listening

• yeah

• Right

• Oh I know

• I see

• Mm/uh-huh

Non-fluency Features

Features that reflect the fact that speech is spontaneous and ‘drafted’ as it is spoken

• repetition

• Incomplete utterances

• Reformulation

• Fillers

• Voiced pauses

• False starts

Filler

Either words or sounds that signal that the speaker is thinking and has not finished what they are saying

• words like ‘like’ or ‘you know’

• Voiced pauses or sounds (vocalisation) like ‘uhh’ or ‘erm’ or ‘ummm’

Pauses

Can be of varying length

• I just felt (3) well (1) shattered

Voiced Pauses

Type of filler

• err

• Erm

• Umm

Repetition

Of words or phrases

• well you you you have to don’t you

Vocalisation

Sound that has meaning but is not a word

• ‘uh oh’

• Sigh

• Gasp

• ‘Argh’

• ‘Ha’

Elision

Contraction of words so that parts of them are not pronounced; loss of sound without loss of meaning

• you’re

• Don’t

• Gain’

• Gonna

Self-correction/Reformulation

Speaker changes or corrects what they previously said -shows speaker is thinking as they talk

• I knew that. (.) I know now that he was a predator

False Starts

The speaker changes their mind about what they want to say

• Welcome every. (.) Hello everyone it’s good of you…

Hedges

Use language that causes something to seem less certain

• I think

• Kind of

• Sort of

• Perhaps

• Maybe

Vague Language

Imprecise language used often where someone is reluctant to give detail or when context or mutual understanding means precision or detail isn’t needed

• We went shopping and stuff…

• It was a bit too complicated and that…