Spoken Language Useful Terminology

Turn-taking

The way participants take turns in conversation

Adjacency Pairs

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

Overlapping/Simultaneous Speech

When speakers talk at the same time

Speech Markers/Discourse Markers

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

Monitors

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

Back-Channelling or Speaker Support

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

Non-Fluency Features

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

Filler

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

Pauses

Can be of varying length.

Voiced Pauses

Type of filler

Repetition

Of words or phrases

Vocalisation

Sound that has meaning but is not a word.

Elision

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

Self-correction or Reformulation

Speaker changes or corrects what he/she previously said-shows speaker is thinking as they talk.

False Starts

The speaker changes their mind about what they want to say.

Hedges

Use language that causes something to seem less certain.

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.

Colloquialisms

Informal register that can also include slang expressions.

Ellipsis

Omission of words that would normally be included in the composition of a grammatically standard sentence but which do not prevent the meaning being clear.

Minor Sentence

An incomplete sentence in which a sentence elements are missing. Common in speech.