Conversation techniques (mode)

Question 1

Filler

Answer 1

Sounds or words spoken to fill gaps in an utterance (eg. er, um)

Question 2

Repetition

Answer 2

Repeating a word or a phrase (eg. what what)

Question 3

Adjacency pair

Answer 3

Two halves of an interaction between speakers - turn and response (eg. What’s the time? Half past three)

Question 4

Paralinguistic features

Answer 4

Non-verbal communication - gestures, posture, facial expression (eg. the speaker frowns, smiles, points at something

Question 5

Vague language

Answer 5

Words without precise meaning (eg. whatever, sort of, like)

Question 6

Hedge

Answer 6

A word or phrase which softens the force with which something is said (eg. I hope you don’t mind me saying)

Question 7

Pause

Answer 7

A speaker stops speaking momentarily (eg. 1.0)

Question 8

Elision

Answer 8

Omission of sounds syllables - typically not used in writing (eg. Gonna, hafter, wanna)

Question 9

Discourse marker

Answer 9

Words or phrase marking a shift in conversation (eg. Anyway, so)

Question 10

Dialect

Answer 10

Specific words and uses of grammar associated with a specific region (eg. Stop ‘squinniying!’)

Question 11

Tag question

Answer 11

A short interrogative structure attached to a declarative or imperative (eg. You’re Helen aren’t you?)

Question 12

Contraction

Answer 12

The shortening or running together of words. An apostrophe replaces the missing letters (eg. can’t)

Question 13

Taboo language

Answer 13

Language considered forbidden/inappropriate in certain social situations (eg. Oh god!)

Question 14

Prosodic features

Answer 14

The way a speaker communicates through tone, pace, stress and volume (eg. speaking loudly, quickly, emphatically)

Question 15

False start

Answer 15

Starting and then restarting an utterance to correct it (eg. Wha (.) that book is mine)

Question 16

Colloquial language

Answer 16

Informal, everyday language (eg. cool and wicked)

Question 17

Repair

Answer 17

Self-correction mid utterance (eg. I’m going to the Bal (.) vanilla cafe)

Question 18

Ellipsis

Answer 18

The missing out of words creating an incomplete construction (eg. Want to go to the cafe?)

Question 19

Phatic language

Answer 19

Utterances which have a purely social function (eg. Hi. How are you?)

Question 20

Deixis/Deitic language

Answer 20

A term for ‘pointing’ words that rely on context to give them meaning (eg. This one here)

Question 21

Back-channelling

Answer 21

A feature of speaker support: non-verbal utterances to show attention or agreement (eg. Mm, yeah, okay)

Question 22

Skip connectors

Answer 22

A return to a previous topic of conversation, a type of discourse marker (eg. Anyway, coming back to our original discussion)

Question 23

Non-fluency features

Answer 23

Non-verbal occurrences (eg. Pauses, hesitations and repetitions that occur in spontaneous speech)