Key terms

spoken language

pathos

appeals to emotion

logos

appeals to reason and logic

ethos

establishes speaker’s credibility and authority

overlap

when two or more people speak at the same time in a conversation

speaker select

the way a speaker chooses and signals who will speak next in a conversation

discourse markers

manage the flow and structure of conversations

topic shift

transition from one topic to another

tag question

a phrase followed by a short interrogative

adjacency pair

two utterances one after the other

fillers

sounds, words, or phrases used to fill gaps or pauses often suggesting the speaker is thinking or hesitating

hedging

language to express uncertainty, caution, or vagueness. softening claims or opinions to avoid appearing overly confident or certain

pauses/filled pauses

pauses are brief moments of silence, filled pauses are a non-silent pause to fill the gap where they are thinking or deciding how to continue

examples of discourse markers

well, so, anyway, you know, I mean, but

example of topic shift

“So, we were talking about the weather, but I wanted to ask about your weekend plans”

example of tag question

“it’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

examples of adjacency pairs

greeting/greeting (hello/hello), question/answer, offer/acceptance

examples of fillers

um, you know, like, so, I mean

examples of hedging

might, seem, tend, appear to be, sort of, probably, I’d say

examples of filled pauses

uh, um, like

false start

speaker beginning an utterance then stopping often to rephrase or change direction before completing it

repair

where speakers or listeners address problems/errors in communication such misunderstandings, mishearings, slips of tongue etc

ellipsis

the commission of one or more words but the rest of he clause can be understood through context

non-standard grammar

grammatical features that aren’t considered standard English and is informal

examples of colloquial terms

sick, bruv, lit, gonna, head over heels, bite the bullet

example of a contraction

cannot - can’t

elision

omission of sounds

cliche

a phrase or idea that has become overused to the point that it loses its original meaning

phatic expressions

utterances used to establish or maintain social relationships rather than convey conversation (small talk)

examples of phatic expressions

how are you?, how’s it going?

deixis

words or phrases dependent on the context of the utterance, verbal pointing

example of false start

“she, uh, she asked me to leave”

example of repair

“I mean, i’m going to the shop on Wednesday”

example of ellipsis

“Sam is managing the club Friday, and Lily is Saturday”

examples of elision

want to - wanna

examples of non-standard grammar

we was, If I was you

examples of cliches

busy as a bee, last but not least, time flies, at the end of the day

synonyms of positive

pleasing, encouraging, cheerful, good, favourable, upbeat, approving, optimistic, bright, joyful, elated

synonyms of negative

pessimistic, gloomy, bleak, fatalistic, cynical, unenthusiastic, hostile

examples of deixis

you, us, here, there, now, today, next, before