Informal Langauage Flashcards
What are phonological features of informal language?
- Onomatopoeia
- Assimilation
- Insertion
- Phonemic substitution
- Elision
- Vowel reduction to schwa sound
What are informal morphological features of written language?
- Contractions
- Shortening
- Formation of neologisms from:
- blending
- compounding
- abbreviation
- acronyms
- affixation - Hypocorisms and diminutives
- Commonisation (proper noun to common noun)
What are lexical and semantic features of informal language?
- Slang
- Colloquialisms
- Informal lexemes
- Nicknames and informal terms of address
- Swearing/expletives/profanity
- Borrowings and code switching
What are syntactic features of informal language?
- Simple sentences
- Parataxis
- Conjunctions
- Sentence fragments
5: Truncated sentences - Subject verb discord
What are some non fluency features?
- Voiced hesitations
- False starts and dummy subjects
- Pause fillers
- Pauses
- Repetition
- Rephrasing
- Overlaps and mistakes
What are functions of informal language?
- Promote linguistic innovation
- Reduce social distance
- Build rapport
- Demonstrate Australian values of friendliness, egalitarianism, laidbackedness and mateship
- Meet positive face needs
- Entertain, humour, advertise, shock
- Increase intimacy
- Supports in group membership and adheres to covert norms
What are the prosodic features used in spoken language?
- Pitch
- Stress
- Volume
- Intonation- falling, level or rising
- Tempo
What are problems and repairs in informal spoken Language?
- Accidental offence- justify, apologise, excuse
- Offence- brush it off
- Overlap- relinquish floor, reduce volume
- Misunderstanding: clarify, rephrase
- Long silence: change topic, fuel topic, interrogatives
- Embarrass/loss of face: compliment, humour, self deprecation, apologise
What are typical features of the spoken mode?
- ephemeral/ temporary
- delayed/ no feedback
- unscripted
- non spontaneous
- informal
- less regarded/ low prestige
- non fluency features
What are the 4 conversational strategies?
- Opening and Post opening
- Topic management and overlaps
- Turn taking and Floor management
- Pre closing and closing
What are the 4 features to look out for in conversational openings?
- Introductory particles
- Use of nominals/ terms of address/ vocatives
- Prosodic features
- Paralinguistic features
What is the one thing you do post opening?
Adjacency pairs and interrogatives:
- Compliment/comment- response
- Question- response
- Complain- response
What do you look for in topic management and overlaps? What are the 4 types of overlaps?
How the topic is developing
- fuel or propel topic (interrogatives, share something)
- initiate a topic loop
- change topic (topic shift marker)
Overlaps:
- Interruptive: raised volume, repetition, pause filler- rude, to take hold of floor
- Back channeling: minimal responses to show you’re listening, appeal to positive face, discourse particles
- Collaborative: intimacy, appeal to positive face
- Timing problems: unintentional, shows spontaneity
What do you look for in turn taking and floor management
Who is developing the topic?
- adjacency pairs, interrogatives, hedging? Involving interlocutor?, HRT?
Floor management:
1. Hold floor: HRT, level intonation, repetitions, pause fillers, pauses, conjunctions parataxis
- Pass floor: interrogatives, falling into nation, address person using vocative/ nominal, concluding particles, paralinguistic
- Take floor: overlap, raise volume, paralinguistic, introductory particle, false start, repetition
What are features that indicate a conversation is closing and has closed? (Pre closing and closing)
Pre- closing:
- topic shift marker
- make excuses
- apologise to interlocutor
- intention to continue relationship concretely or vaguely
- silence or pause
Closing:
- paralinguistic- wave
- say bye using term of address
- prosodics- falling intonation
