SPID2: Language and Communication Flashcards
What are situations that affect turn taking?
- informal conversations
- interviews formal or informal
- ceremonies and rituals e.g. parliament
Describe Walker’s research into the organisation of speech?
- focused on informal 1-to-1 conversations
- finely timed changeovers between speakers
- transition pauses less than 200 miliseconds
- completion of speaking turns projectable
What did Duncan and Fiske find? (turn-yelling cues)
- rise and fall in pitch at the end of a clause
- drawl on final syllable
- termination of hand gestures
- stereotypes expressions
- drop in loudness
- completion of grammatical clause (display cues strongly associated with smooth speaker switch, hand gestures as an attempt to suppress signal)
Do interruptions involve simultaneous speech?
Not always
- silent interruptions occur without simultaneous speech for example stopping to think mid sentence
- listener responses - not all simultaneous speech necessarily interruptive -> termed back channels such as yeah, huh, mmmm
Describe the research by Roger, Bull and Smith into the microanalysis of interruptions
Two main dimensions
- single or complex
- successful or unsuccessful
Excessive interruptions can result in conversation breakdown - BUT interruptions are not always problematic
What did research into interruptions in medical consultations find?
-> non supportive interruptions used sig. More by doctors than patients
-> patients sig. Less likely than doctors to succeed in their interruptions and failed sig. More in interruptions with senior doctors than student doctors
What did research into manterrupting find?
Manterrupting in politics: more about opposition than gender (Och, 2020)
What’s equivocation? (4 definitions)
- Watzlawick et al., 1967 - the gentle art of saying nothing by saying something
- Bavelas et al., 1990 - non straightforward communication; it appears ambiguous, contradictory, tangential, obscure or even evasive
- Hamilton & Mineo, 1998 - intentional use of imprecise language
- Wodak et al., 2009 - calculated ambivalence
Describe the equivocation theory by Bavelas et al
Two main aspects
1. Situational theory of communicative conflict (STCC)
2. Multidimensional - 4 dimensions
STCC - equivocation occurs in response to a communicative conflict CC
-> all possible responses to a question may have negative consequences
-> a response is still expected
Dimensions
1. sender - speakers own opinion?
2. content - clarity
3. receiver - addressed to the other person in the situation
4. context - direct answer to the question
What are the 3 kinds of equivocal responses by Bavelas?
1.Subtle changes in responses
2.Deferred replies
3.Hints
Responses to CCs rated significantly more equivocal
What are the criticisms of equivocation theory?
- Role of face & face management
The term face is not easy to define:
Prestige, honour, or reputation
Other people thinking well of you
Bele & Edwards (2005)
Poor presentation in a public-speaking class -> protect both their own face and face of others
Bull et al. (1996): CCs in political interviews created by threats to face - Consequences of equivocation
As important as the causes - e.g. analysis of interview with princess Diana (Bull, 1997) - strategic advantages of implicit replies to questions and both regarded as forms of equivocation in the original theory
Describe Communication Accommodation theory (CAT)
- CAT evolved out of an earlier theory Speech Accommodation Theory
- SAT initially concerned with accent - affects how people are perceived
- Accent: refers to pronunciation, part of dialect
- Dialect: distinct manner of speech that differs in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar
Define the three types of accent prestige
- status
- solidarity
- dynamism
Define the two types of accent change
- divergence
- convergence - may take two directions given that accents vary in social prestige - upward and downward
Define the 6 basic emotions by Darwin as expressions that evolved as part of actions necessary for life
Disgust
Anger
Surprise
Fear
Sadness
Happiness
What other expressions are important but not named by Darwin
- crying and smiling
What are the results of Vacharkulksemsuk et al research into posture and dating
2 studies of expansive vs contractive body postures in romantic attraction
Results
- Expansive postures sig. Increased likelihood of a yes response from the speed dating partner and being selected on the dating app
- Nonverbal affiliation such as smiles and laughs not a sig. Predict of speed dating ‘yes’
- Sig. effects for both males and females - greater male benefit on app
Describe the study into facial action coding system by Ekman and Friesen
- all but one of the muscle actions visible in the adult identifies in newborn infants
-> capacity for facial expressions inborn
-> but not necessarily innately associated with particular emotions
-> Neuro-cultural model (NCM) -> debate against Darwin (innate is true but also environment)
What are the two types of facial expressions?
Innate/spontaneous & learned/posed
Supported by case studies of brain damage (Rinn)
Paralysis of:
- Voluntary facial movement
- Spontaneous facial expression
- Ps who cannot smile on request but can when amused
- Ps who can smile on request but no ability to be spontaneous
Conclusion: supports 2 systems of innate and cultural
What are micro expressions?
very brief expressions - may vary between 1/25th and less than half a second
What are subtle expressions?
fragments of an expression such as nose wrinkling (disgust) and brow raising (surprise)
What is deception detection?
Deception detection correlates with skill at perceiving
Subtle expressions (Warren, Bull)
Micro-expressions (Frank and Ekman)
As used in the American crime drama series ‘Lie to Me’
What’s the test of deception detection?
Warren et al
- encoders describe interests and hobbies
- they then lie or honestly describe both pleasant or unpleasant films
- videoclips judged by decoders
- objective criterion of accuracy
- science of lying video: micro expressions visible of liars
Results
- overall accuracy rate just 50%
- emotional lie detection sig. better than chance (64%)
- people are better at lying than spotting lies
What’s Atkinson’s analysis of RD
Qualitative practical -> how rhetorical devices (RDs) are used to invite applause (stems from Atkinson’s seminal research)
RDs
-> features of the construction of speech that indicate when applause is appropriate
-> projection is a completion point
-> evidence - close synchrony between speech and applause
2 particular devices: contrasts, three part lists
What are critiques of Atkinson’s RD?
Atkinson’s research based on selected extracts so may not be representative of political speech-making as a whole - How common are contrasts, lists etc?
Need for comprehensive sampling - is it generalisable
Define equivocation
the use of ambiguous language to conceal the truth or to avoid committing oneself (avoiding the question but not lying)
Do politicians equivocate? What did research find?
Bull analysed 33 interviews with leaders of the 3 main UK political parties
Assessment of reply rate - the proportion of questions that receive an explicit answer
-> mean reply rate: 46% of questions (Bull, 1987)
-> mean reply rate of different set of interviews: 39% (Harris, 1991)
-> mean reply rate: 38% (Waddle & Bull, 2020)
Bull and Waddle - typology of equivocation: 43 ways of not replying to a question
What’s judgement accuracy?
How well one can judge others
- Hall (1978) - review of 75 studies (posed and spontaneous expression)
- Posed: Ps asked to adopt expression
- Spontaneous: Ps watch videos which evokes a certain emotion. Decoder task: identify nature of film
- 24 sig difference
- 23 in favour of women
What is expression accuracy
- Many studies indicate women typically encode more clearly (their NVB is easier to read)
- Accuracy does not necessarily represent a social advantage - importance of situational context
What are the explanations for gender differences?
- social power
- socialisation
Describe what female speech is like
- hesitant, lower in authority
- higher in grammatical accuracy
- low in humour
- hedges (perhaps, kind of, I think)
Describe what male speech is like
- more direct and explicit
- more interruptions
- more foul language
- higher in humour
Describe main findings of studies in women’s language
- Hedges and tags used to convey uncertainty more by men (opposite to Lakoff)
- Hedges and tags other functions besides conveying uncertainty
- Basic problem with Lakoff’s analysis: the function of an utterance cannot be understood from an analysis of its linguistic form alone
- In defence of Lakoff: link between language use, gender and power, stimulated much research on gender and language
