Conversation techniques (mode) Flashcards
Filler
Sounds or words spoken to fill gaps in an utterance (eg. er, um)
Repetition
Repeating a word or a phrase (eg. what what)
Adjacency pair
Two halves of an interaction between speakers - turn and response (eg. What’s the time? Half past three)
Paralinguistic features
Non-verbal communication - gestures, posture, facial expression (eg. the speaker frowns, smiles, points at something
Vague language
Words without precise meaning (eg. whatever, sort of, like)
Hedge
A word or phrase which softens the force with which something is said (eg. I hope you don’t mind me saying)
Pause
A speaker stops speaking momentarily (eg. 1.0)
Elision
Omission of sounds syllables - typically not used in writing (eg. Gonna, hafter, wanna)
Discourse marker
Words or phrase marking a shift in conversation (eg. Anyway, so)
Dialect
Specific words and uses of grammar associated with a specific region (eg. Stop ‘squinniying!’)
Tag question
A short interrogative structure attached to a declarative or imperative (eg. You’re Helen aren’t you?)
Contraction
The shortening or running together of words. An apostrophe replaces the missing letters (eg. can’t)
Taboo language
Language considered forbidden/inappropriate in certain social situations (eg. Oh god!)
Prosodic features
The way a speaker communicates through tone, pace, stress and volume (eg. speaking loudly, quickly, emphatically)
False start
Starting and then restarting an utterance to correct it (eg. Wha (.) that book is mine)
Colloquial language
Informal, everyday language (eg. cool and wicked)
Repair
Self-correction mid utterance (eg. I’m going to the Bal (.) vanilla cafe)
Ellipsis
The missing out of words creating an incomplete construction (eg. Want to go to the cafe?)
Phatic language
Utterances which have a purely social function (eg. Hi. How are you?)
Deixis/Deitic language
A term for ‘pointing’ words that rely on context to give them meaning (eg. This one here)
Back-channelling
A feature of speaker support: non-verbal utterances to show attention or agreement (eg. Mm, yeah, okay)
Skip connectors
A return to a previous topic of conversation, a type of discourse marker (eg. Anyway, coming back to our original discussion)
Non-fluency features
Non-verbal occurrences (eg. Pauses, hesitations and repetitions that occur in spontaneous speech)
