English Language - Spoken Language

Dichotomy

When two things are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different (Good Vs Evil, Spoken Vs Written)

Stubb’s Dichtomy

Spoken: Casual, Private, Spontaneous, Participatory, Face-to-face, Non-Standard

Written: Formal, Public, Planned, Non-Participatiry, Not Face-to-face, Standard

Mode

How the text is produced (spoken, written, mixed mode)

Idiolect

The individual’s unique way of speaking

Sociolect

A social dialect or variety of speech used by a particular group such as working-class or upper-class speech

Register

A type of language used for a particular purpose or setting (about the speaker’s choice of lexis)

Accent

Ways in which words are pronounced. Can vary based on region and social class of speaker.

Adjacent pairs

Dual expressions that are normally ritualistic and formulaic socially and are an example of turn talking, usually working as a statement and a response e.g. “How are you?” “I'm good, you?”

Back-channel

Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances used by a listener to give feedback to the speaker that what they are saying is being understood (e.g. “yeah”, “I see”, “uh huh”, “really?”)

Contraction

E.g. cannot turns into can’t, she will turns into she’ll

Deixis/deictics

Words such as ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘here’, ‘there’ which act as a form of “verbal pointing”

Dialect

The distinctive grammar and vocabulary which is associated with a regional or social use of a language

Elision

The slurring of words e.g. going to to gonna, what is up to wassup

Ellipsis

The removing of a part of a grammatical structure e.g. “You going to the park?” “Might be”

False start

When the speaker begins a utterance then stops and either repeats or reformulates it (only happens at the start of speaking) (self-correction)

Filler

Used to create time to think, create a pause or hold a turn in conversation e.g. ‘er’, ‘um’, ‘ah’

Grice’s Maxims

Conversational ‘rules’:

Quantity (don't say too much or too little), Manner (speak clearly), Relevance (keep to the point), Quality (be truthful)

Hedge

Words and phrases which soften or weaken the force of something said e.g. ‘perhaps’, ‘maybe’, ‘sort of’, ‘possibly’, ‘I think’

Interactional talk

Language in conversation used for soclaisng or interpersonal reasons

Non-fluency features

Typical characteristics of spoken language which interrupt the ‘flow’ of talk (e.g. filler, hesitation, false starts, overlaps etc.)

Paralinguistic features

Body language (e.g. gesture, facial expression) and other non-verbal elements (e.g. laughter) which add meaning to the speakers message beyond the words spoken

Phatic talk

Small talk (has no concentre purpose other than to establish or maintain personal relationships)

Prosodic features

The music of speech (e.g. stress, rhythm, pitch, tempo and invitation), basically how something is said

Repairs

An alteration that is suggested or made by a speaker or the recipient in order to correct or clarify a previous conversational sentence

Tag question

A string of words often put at the end of a declarative sentence to turn the statement into a question e.g. “It's a bit windy, isn't it?”

Transactional talk

Language used to get things done or to transmit content/information

Turn taking

When a single person speaks and then the other person speaks in a typical, orderly arrangement with minimal overlap and gap between them.

Utterance

A complete unit of talk, bounded by the speaker’s silence

Vague language

Words/Phrases that sound imprecise and unassertive e.g. ‘and so on’, ‘or whatever’, ‘thingamajig’

Overlap

When two or more participants are speaking at the same time (Levinson says that only 5% speech stream is delivered in overlap)

Conversation Theory - Expectations

-Turn Taking (lack of overlap as that is seen as rude)

-With adjancey pairs, there is an expectation of how a person will respond (if they do not, it is seen as rude)

-Preference to allow the speaker to repair their own mistakes

-Lack of unacceptable conversation topics (sex, religion, politics, death, bodily functions etc) and lack of taboo words (swearing, slurs)

When conversational theory is broken…

Then the question is why and for what reasons (often in subtext)

Pragmatic Implicature/Implication

What you say isn't exactly what you mean

Pragmatic Understanding

The reader/listener understands what the writer/speaker is implying

Pragmatic Assumption

The writer/speaker is assuming the reader’s/listener’s values, interests, knowledge, beliefs etc

Linguistic Identity

How language is used to shape a person's identity (how they perceive themself and how others perceive them)

Politeness Theory - Basics

Politeness is a social construct and shapes how people perceive us

Politeness Markers Examples

-Sorry

-Thank you

-Please

Politeness Theory - Goffman

Believed that without politeness, conversation didn't work and that politeness is rooted in the need to be liked

Facework

Any linguistic strategy you employ to save face (positive reputation) in a conversation

Politeness Theory - Brown + Levinson

Two types of facework:

Positive Facework - people’s desire to feel positively about themselves

Negative Facework - appealing to someone's need to be respected

Face threatening act

A situation that can cause the listener to lose face (positive reputation) e.g. a teacher getting angry to a student who forgot their homework