Speech Terminology Flashcards
Accent
A distinctive manner of pronunciation that marks a regional or social identity.
Adjacency Pairs
Structure of spoken language, sequence of utterances that form a recognisable structure.
Follow each other
Produced by different speakers having a logical connection.
Common Adjacency Pair Forms
Question & Answer Command & Response Greetings & Responses e.g. A: Hurry up! B: I'll be out in a minute
Backchannelling
Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances used by a listener to give feedback to a speaker that the message is being followed and understood.
Examples of Backchannelling
e.g. 'i see', 'oh', 'uhhuh', 'really', 'erm'
Chaining
The linking together of adjacency pairs to form a conversation.
Closing Sequence
The ‘wrapping up’ of a conversation where typical discourse markers of resolving an issue or making goodbyes takes place.
Co-operation
How people normally behave in conversation.
People who obey this make sure that what they say in the conversation furthers its purpose.
(Grice’s Maxims)
Dialect
A language variety marked by distinctive grammar and vocabulary, used by people with a common regional or social background.
Discourse
Any spoken or written language that is longer than a sentence.
Discourse Markers
Recognisable words or phrases which mark the structure of a conversation or signal that conversation is moving on from one topic to the next.
Examples of Discourse Markers
'to begin with', 'right', 'so', 'okay then', 'moving on', 'to sum up’
Elision
A feature of speech or writing, elision is the omission of a sound, letter or unstressed syllable from a word due to its pronunciation.
Words also ‘elide’ when they run into one another and blend, with the result being certain letters or sounds missed out.
Examples of Elision
‘fish n’ chips’,
‘ello’
‘shoulda’
Ellipsis
The omission of part of a sentence or structure, ellipsis is normally used for reasons of economy in speech, and create a sense of informality.
Examples of Ellipsis
A:’Going to the party?’
B:’Might be’.
(‘Are you…’, and ‘i’ are omitted.)
Elongation of Sound
A feature of pronunciation by which a sound is drawn out. Elongation of sound can signal that a speaker is unsure about, or are emphasising what they are saying, or are thinking about what to say next.
Recognising Elongation of Sounds
Marked in transcripts by a series of colons. e.g.
‘we::::ll’,
‘er::::m’.
End Clipping
A kind of elision whereby the end letter (usually a ‘g’) is omitted as a feature of pronunciation or informality.
Example of End Clipping
‘Goin’ to the pub?’
False Start
A non-fluency feature whereby a speaker begins to say something and changes it. This can be a result of not carefully planning what they wanted to say in advance or changing what they want to say as they are saying it.
Fillers
Words or sounds in spontaneous speech which do not carry any conventional meaning but which allow a speaker time to think and to pre-plan an utterance.
Examples of Fillers
'er' 'sort of', 'i mean', 'well', 'y'know'
Grice’s Maxims
Based upon the co-operative principle, the maxims are four rules that Grice posits are necessary for co-operative conversation to take place.
(‘Flouting the maxims’ is to purposefully break these rules for certain effects.)
The Four Rules of Grice’s Maxims
- quality (tell the truth),
- quantity (give the right amount of information),
- relevance (stick to the point)
- manner (present the material in an orderly fashion).
Hedges
Words and phrases which soften or weaken the force with which something is said.
Examples of Hedges
'kind of', 'maybe', 'perhaps', 'sort of', 'by any chance', 'as it were', 'admittedly'.
Interruption/overlaps
A speaker is ‘breaking conversational rules’ (see Grice’s maxim’s) by not allowing another to finish their turn, which could signal rudeness or lack or respect,
OR that speakers are relaxed and comfortable with one another and do not mind being overlapped or interrupted
Intonation
The rising and falling tones of spoken language which are often used to communicate emphasis or meaning and can be intrinsic elements in terms of communicating meaning in a particular language.
Example of Intonation
Rising intonation (at the end of a word or sentence) signals a question being asked
Liason
When two words are spoken at speed and the running together of these words creates a new sound.
Example of Liason
There ris someone at the door
Minimal Responses
Signals that a speaker is listening and participating in a conversation while the other speaker is talking most, or ‘holding the floor’. (See ‘back channelling’.)
Examples of Minimal Responses
'mm,' 'yeah', 'yep', 'yes', 'ok', 'mm-hm',
Non-fluency Features
These are common features of conversation that mark its spontaneous nature and structure. Fillers, false starts, repetition, hesitation and interruption are all non-fluency features.
Non-standard English
Any variety of language use that does not conform to the standard, prestige English: the form of English accepted as the norm by society.
(See ‘standard English’ and ‘received pronunciation’.)
Non-verbal Sounds
Any sound present in a transcript or sound recording which does not form a word. These can be laughs, coughs, splutters, murmurs, mumbles, burps, farts or background noise and often signal mood, or that some kind of activity is occurring during the conversation.
Opening Sequence
The preamble at the start of a conversation where greetings and introductions usually take place and the business of the conversation may be established.
Paralinguistic Features
Body language and facial expression which accompanies speech.
The non-verbal element of communication.
Examples of Paralinguistic Features
Posture,
gesticulation,
nodding etc.
Participants
The speakers involved in a conversation.
Pauses
Pauses are natural in conversation. They provide breathing time and time to think of what to say next. They are usually described as ‘micropauses’, which last for a second or less, and ‘timed pauses’ which last for a number of seconds.
Silences
Silence is and important element of conversation. It can signal that another activity is taking place and that talk is ‘subordinated to function’, or can have a deeper, pragmatic meaning.
Prosodic Features
Features such as stress, rhythm and intonation which are used by speakers to mark out key meanings in a message.
Received Pronunciation
An accent common to educated, upper class speakers. Often referred to as ‘Queens English’ or ‘BBC English, it is the only accent which is based upon education and class rather than region and has the highest social status of any accent.
Setting the Agenda
The act of establishing what the topic of the conversation will be. This has implications for who is in control of a conversation and is often done by the dominant speaker.
Side or ‘Insertion’ Sequence
Insertion sequences take place where the original conversation is suspended because of an interruption caused by a speech sequence from another source. When the interruption has been dealt with, the original speech sequence resumes.
Standard English
The form of English considered to be accepted as the norm in society and used as the medium of government, education, law etc. Language that differs from this standard is known as ‘non-standard’.
Stealing the Floor/Stealing a Turn
This occurs when a participant cuts in to a conversation when it is not their turn. It can signal a lack of politeness depending upon the relationship between the speakers.
Stress
Emphasis placed on a word, usually meaning it is spoken louder to emphasise its importance or the feelings of the speaker.
Tag Question
Strings of words which are normally added to a declarative sentence to turn the statement into a question. For example ‘It’s very expensive to live there, isn’t it?’.
Three Part Exchange
The idea that any piece of conversation requires three, distinct, ordered sections: an initiation or beginning utterance, a reply and a response to the reply, or feedback.
Topicality/Topic Management
In a loose sense, this simply means the subject of the conversation and who controls it. The topic of a spoken encounter is directly related to its manner and its participants. The topic can determine the level of formality.
Topic Shifts
Topic shifts can occur when speakers move from one topic to another. These mark key points in the discourse.
Turn-taking
Organisation of speakers’ contributions in a conversation. Turns may be fairly equal, or one of the participants may dominate.
Utterance
A piece of spoken language. Also used to describe a spoken ‘sentence’ since it can be difficult to apply the normal rules of a written sentence to speech.
Vague Language
Written language is usually precise. Vague language, such as ‘something’ or ‘whatever’, occurs deliberately in spoken language to soften the impact made by the speaker.
Voiced Pauses
Rather than silent pauses, voiced pauses often signal natural pauses which are filled with a non-verbal sound such as ‘er’, ‘um’ and ‘ah’. These can signal that a speaker is thinking what to say next.