Features of spoken language

paralinguistic features

gestures and accompanying facial expressions which contribute to the communications of meanings in speech

Prosodic features

the use of voice eg. Tone, stress,volume, pitch which contribute to meanings communicated in speech

False starts

Starting an utterance twice or rephrasing

deitic expressions (deixis)

words or expressions that rely on context to convey the meaning eg It, this, there

Ellipsis

the missing out (omission) of one or more words from a sentence which can be understood by context

Unvoiced pauses

a silent gap in speech, marked in a transcript by (.)

Voiced pauses

a gap in speech marked by a noice such as erm, um, er

Repetition

saying something more than once

Colloquial expressions

Informal expressions, common in speech

Minimal response

sounds or words indicating the listener’s positive attention

Minimal response

sounds or words indicating the listener’s positive attention

Tag questions

Short sentence forms eg. Isn’t it? Tagged onto the end of utterances

Monitoring feature

words and phrases that check the addresses is listening

Initiator

words that signal a person is about to speak

Fillers

a form of hesitation to fill the gap in speech eg ‘you know’, ‘like’

Hedge

linguistic forms that suggest uncertainty but you don’t want to be rude

Discourse markers

words like ‘actually’, ‘so’, ‘ok’, ‘right’ and ‘anyway’ all function as discourse markers as they help the speaker manage the conversation and mark when it changes

Interactional function

Used when speakers are socialising

Transactional function

Used when participants are exchanging services eg. Buying, going to the doctors etc

Transition relevance points

when turn taking, these are the points to look out for when the current speaker is willing to give up their turn eg. Change in pitch, change in intonation,. A momentary silence, the end of a syntactic unit of language, paralinguistic features

Turn determination

3 techniques: current speaker selects next (1st part of the adjacency pair is directed at another speaker), self- select (any participant looks for the transition relevance points then starts speaking at the next available time), or speaker continuation (the current speaker decides to carry on with their turn)

Adjacency pairs

conversational turn taking with paired utterances

Back-channeling

showing someone you are following what they are saying

Contraction

words shortened through the use of an apostrophe

Repair

when a speech error is corrected

Pragmatics

when words contribute to the meaning of speech Eg. You may feel comfortable saying ‘shut the door’ to someone you know but to someone you don’t know you may say ‘shut the door, it is cold in here’ depends on social and historical context

phatic talk

small talk

Elision

the missing out of sounds or syllables eg. What to be - wannabe

Euphemism

a word or phrase to avoid saying an unpleasant or offensive word

Dysphemism

replacing a neutral word with an unpleasant expression (makes the word sound worse) eg. Using nerd instead of geek

Collocation

two words that always go together eg. Thank you

Flouting

breaking eg. Flouting grice’s maxims

Face

the image of ourselves we present when we speak

Positive politeness

showing we like another person by valuing them in our conversation

Negative politeness

we try to avoid intruding on others eg. ‘Sorry to disturb’ or calling a superior by their formal title

Unequal power encounter

when talking to someone with a higher or lower status than you

What are the four Grice’s maxims?

maxim of quantity

Maxim of relevance

Maxim of manner

Maxim of quality

Maxim of quantity

not saying more or less than is required

Maxim of relevance

what is said should be relevant

Maxim of manner

be clear and avoid ambiguity

Maxim of quality

being truthful

Face threatening acts

ignoring positive and negative face needs

Positive face needs

claim common ground within the speakers eg. By hedging, showing interest, make jokes

Negative politeness

don’t assume anything, don’t impose on the other person eg. Be indirect, question and hedge, be pessimistic, be apologetic

Convergence

moving your attitude towards that of the other speaker (often signalling a positive attitude)

Divergence

Moving your language away from that of the other speaker (often signalling dislike)

Bald on the record

Being very direct

What are the functions of spoken language?

referential

Expressive

Transactional

Interactional

Phatic

Referential

utterances that provide information eg. The train leaves at half past twelve. This often follows a transactional (question)

Expressive

utterances that express the speakers feelings eg. I am really looking forward to tomorrow

Transactional

exchanges that focus on getting something done eg. Asking for something, questions

Interactional

normal social conversion that emphasises the social relationship between speakers

Phatic

small talk eg. Hiya, you ok?