Features of Spoken Language Flashcards
Back-channeling
Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances used by a listener to give feedback to a speaker that the message is being followed and understood
Adjacency pairs
A pair of utterances in a conversation that go together eg. greeting and reply, or question and answer
Turn-taking
A turn is a time during which a single participant speaks, within a typical, orderly arrangement in which participants speak with minimal overlap and gap between them
Utterance
A complete unit of speaking, bounded by silence or a change in speaker
Discourse marker
Words and phrases used to signpost what is being said so that the listener can follow along easily
Repairs
An alteration that is suggested or made by the speaker or listener to correct or clarify a previous conversational contribution
Clashes
When two people talk at the same time
Non-fluency features
Characteristics of spoken language that interrupt the flow of conversation eg. hesitations, false starts, fillers, repetitions, overlaps and interruptions
Prosodic features
Features used by speakers to mark out key meanings in a message eg. tone, pitch, volume, speed, rhythm and emphasis
Paralinguistic features
Related to body language - it is the use of gestures, facial expressions and other non-verbal elements to add meaning to the speaker’s message beyond the words being spoken
Pragmatics
A discourse analysis approach which focuses less on structure and more on the contexts and purposes of people talking to each other
Tag question
Phrase that is added to a declarative sentence to turn the statement into a question
Accent
A regional variety of speech that differs from other varieties in terms of pronunciation
Deixis
Words such as ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘here’, ‘there’ which refer to a feature in the contextual situation of the conversation, and which cannot be understood by someone who is outside of that situational context
Elision
The omission or slurring of one or more sounds or syllables
