Language and communication lecture 1 Flashcards
Social psychology of language
Which situations can affect turn-taking? (3)
- informal conversation
- interviews
- ceremonies and rituals
How long did Walker (1982) find transition pauses to be?
Less than 200 milliseconds
What did Walker (1982) find about the completion of speech turns?
They are projectable - indicate that your speech is about to end
Which 6 signals did Duncan and Fiske (1972, 1985) find that represent the end of a speaking turn?
- rise/fall in pitch at end of clause
- drawl on final syllable
- termination of hand gestures
- stereotyped expressions, e.g., “you know”
- drop in loudness
- completion of a grammatical clause
What is an attempt-suppressing signal?
an attempt to stop the other person starting to talk, e.g. a hand gesture to prevent interruption
What did De Ruiter, Mitterer & Enfield (2006) find when looking into participants predicting the end of speaker turns for original, intonation synthesised (flat pitch) and content filtered speech?
- original = accurate
- intonation synthesised = accurate
- content filtered = bad performance
so content and syntax of speech is most important
What is a silent interruption?
Occurs without simultaneous speech - like beginning to speak when the other person has just stopped to think
What is simultaneous speech?
When a person begins to speak when the other is still talking, often as an interruption
When can simultaneous speech not be interruptive?
Listener responses - e.g. yeah, uh huh, mmm, wow, really
What are the two main dimensions of interruptions as suggested by Roger, Bull & Smith (1988)?
- single or complex (how much they attempt)
- successful or unsuccessful (does the person get to finish their utterance?)
What did Menz & Al-Roubaie (2008) find when looking into the assumption that patients will spend too long talking if doctor’s don’t interrupt them? (3)
- non-supportive interruptions (not helpful) are used more by doctors than patients
- patients failed more in interruptions than doctors, especially more senior ones
- more interruptions from doctors = longer interviews
What is manterrupting?
The unnecessary interruption of a woman by a man (Bennett, 2015)
What can manterrupting lead to?
A female’s frustration due to being ignored, silenced or side-lined in personal or professional conversation
What did Och (2020) find when looking into manterrupting in politics in Germany?
Women were 17.7% more likely to be interrupted than men but women interrupted men more than men interrupted women (so women were interrupting the women)
What is equivocation?
People make a conscious and strategic effort to avoid parts of a conversation - not necessarily lying, just saying a fact that may not be entirely relevant or answering the question being asked
What are the 4 dimensions of equivocation (4 ways in which a response can be equivocal)?
- Sender – speaker’s own opinion? - are you just stating a general fact instead?
- Content – clarity?
- Receiver – addressed to the other person in the situation? - more relevant in mass communication
- Context – direct answer to the question? - did they just answer some completely different question?
What does equivocation occur in response to according to what theory?
- a communicative conflict
- situational theory of communicative conflict (STCC)
What three kinds of equivocal response happened when participants were presented with conflictual situations (had to tell a bad presenter how they thought they did)? (Bavelas et al., 1990)
- Subtle changes in response
- Deferred replies - talk about it later
- Hints - how to improve instead
What is ‘face’?
- your prestige, honour or reputation
- other people thinking well of you
- generally we want to preserve this to maintain a positive image
What did Bello & Edwards (2005) find when people responded to a poor presentation in a public speaking class in terms of face preservation?
People protect their own face and others’ face at the same time by not hurting their feelings and not appearing mean
What is communication accommodation theory (CAT)?
People reduce dissimilarities between them and the specific people they are with by altering their communication style
What was speech accommodation theory initially concerned with?
Accent and how it affects how people are perceived
What is an accent?
- pronunciations
- part of a dialect
What is a dialect?
A distinct manner of speech that differs in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar
Can differ in the actual words used (e.g. ‘nowt’)
What did Fuertes et al. (2012) find when comparing standard and non-standard accents?
People with standard accents are rated as having higher status, more solidarity (can be trusted more) and more dynamism - so they are seen more favourably
What 2 directions can accent change take according to Giles (1973)?
Divergence - less similar to the other person’s accent
Convergence - more similar
What 2 directions can convergence in accent change take?
upward - more posh
downward - less posh (closer to original accent)
What did Willemyns et al. (1997) find when looking into how accents changed during a job interview in Australia? (2)
- Applicants’ accents were significantly broader with broader accent interviewers (convergence)
- They disagreed that their accents became broader, especially women
What did Bourhis & Giles (1977) find when looking into Welsh students’ accents in response to an English person questioning their reasons for studying (in an insulting way)?
Instrumental learners softened their accent (convergence)
Integrative learners broadened their accent (divergence)
What are instrumental and integrative language learners?
Instrumental = learning the language for job prospects
Integrative = learning to be more familar with their heritage
What is optimal convergence and why is it important?
It is possible to be over-accommodating and this may be seen as patronising so people need to do it just enough to be understood and accepted
When Giles & Smith (1979) accommodate with speech rate, content and pronunciation, which are the most favourable and least favourable combinations?
- Most favourable when he converged on speech rate and either content or pronunciation
- Less favourable when he converged on all 3 dimensions
