Speech Terminology Flashcards
What are adjacency pairs?
= two part exchanges in a conversation (e.g. question/answer).
What are hesitations?
= moments of uncertainty in speech.
What are false starts?
= when a speaker starts an utterance, then corrects themselves.
What is a minimal response?
= short response from a speaker.
What is a face threatening act?
= when a speaker is impolite to another speaker.
What is a topic shift?
= when a speaker changes the topic of conversation.
What is a hedge?
= hesitation or uncertainty.
What is idiolect?
= a character’s particular way of speaking. (Stanley = non-standard English)
What are imperatives?
= a way in which characters try to assert their authority. (‘try to’, ‘sit down’).
What is Grice’s maxim of quality?
= saying the truth. Blanche continually breaks this, as lies in order to protect the Southern Belle image of herself with traditional values.
What are politeness strategies?
= approbation. Stella uses to reassure Blanche who is insecure.
What are interruptions?
= a character interrupting another character’s turn can be seen as an assertion of their power in the relationship.
What are proxemics?
= the use of space/distance between characters on stage
What is dramatic irony?
= a literary technique, originally used in Greek tragedy, by which the full significance of a character’s words or actions is clear to the audience or reader although unknown to the character.
What is dramatic tension?
= tension is a growing sense of expectation within the drama, a feeling that the story is building up towards something exciting happening.
