Spoken language Flashcards
What does idiolect mean?
Your own unique way of using language. (E.g) your accent, the words you use, hand gestures.
What does filler mean?
A word or phrase that fills the gaps in conversation. (E.g) literally, like, you know.
What does non-fluency features mean?
A cover term to refer to all the features of spoken language that stop the flow. (E.g) fillers.
What does unvoiced pause mean?
A silent pause to allow thinking time in conversation.
What does voiced pause mean?
Noises that fill gaps in conversation. (E.g) erm, hmm.
What are prosodic features?
HOW something is said. (E.g) stress, volume, pace, pitch, intonation.
What does intonation mean?
The rises and falls of pitch of the voice. (E.g) rising intonation is often questioning.
What are paralinguistic features?
Non- verbal features. (E.g) body language, hand gestures, eye contact.
What’s CONTEXT in english language?
All the background factors that affect the language used. (E.g) time of day, unfamiliar environment, relationships to the person.
What does sociolect mean?
The kind of language we draw on to display our membership of specific social groups. (E.g) age, gender, social class, ethnicity, occupation, interests.
What does dialect mean?
The accent, lexis and grammar of a specific geographical area.
What does mode mean?
Whether a text is spoken or written. Text can be in the spoken mode, written mode, (or multi-modal).
What does multi-modal mean?
Text that contain features of both spoken and written language. (E.g) An interview in a newspaper, a play script, text messages.
What are connotations?
The associations we have with a word or concept. (E.g) Christmas (snow), Party (music).
What does denotation mean?
The dictionary definition of a word/ factual language. (E.g) Christmas (25th December birth of Jesus).
What does register mean?
The formality of the language used- texts can be of an informal, formal or mixed register.
What does colloquial language mean?
Chatty, informal language
(E.g) mate, cash.
What does slang mean?
Non-standard language, short-lived, used often by teenagers.
What does code-switching mean?
Changing our language to suit the situation.
What does euphemism mean?
Making something sound more pleasant. (E.g) use the bathroom, pass away.
What does dysphemism mean?
Making something sound more crude. (E.g) Six feet under.
What are taboo topics?
Topics we don’t like to talk about. (E.g) death, bodily functions, sex.
What does instrumental power?
The power gained through your status or position. (E.g) A headteacher, a parent.
What does influential power mean?
The power to influence through language or actions. (E.g) charity, advert, crying for sympathy/ to persuade someone to do something.
What is an interrogative?
A question.
What is a declarative?
A statement.
What is an imperative?
A command.
What is an exclamative?
An exclamation.
What does utterance mean?
the spoken version of a sentence.
What does elision mean?
Where we merge words together in fast speech. (E.g) Dunno, wanna, gonna.
What does face needs mean?
The need to be treated fairly. If you’re polite, you’re respecting someone’s face needs.
What does address terms mean?
The way in which we address people. (E.g) Sir, mate, geezer.
What is a disguised imperative?
A command that is disguised as a different sentence type. (E.g) That cake looks really nice, (disguised imperative), Actually might mean “I want some cake”.
What does pragmatics mean?
Hidden meanings - we don’t always say what we really mean.
What does idiom mean?
A widely used metaphor.
What are lexis?
Words
What are high frequency lexis?
Words that are commonly used
What are low frequency lexis?
Words that aren’t used very often.
What is monosyllabic lexis?
A word with one syllable (E.g) drunk, snag, help
What is polysyllabic lexis?
Words that have more than 2 syllables.
What is bi-syllabic lexis?
Words that have 2 syllables
What does glottal stop mean?
Used in a lot of accents and involves missing out the ‘t’ (e.g) water- wa’er
What does multi-cultural london english (MLE) mean?
A british non-standard, dialect often used by young people, originated in London and is a multi-ethnolect.
What does ethnolect mean?
The language of an ethnic group.
What does slang mean?
A way of identify differently (Embarrassed of their parent’s slang)
What does jargon mean?
Technical language, often associations with an occupation (E.g) medical jargon
(low frequency)
What does field specific lexis mean?
Words that belong to a topic. (E.g) Oak, pine, birch
What does semantic field?
A topic (e.g) computer, laptop, word, (semantic field of IT)
What does transcript mean?
A written down version of a conversation that has already taken place.
What does script mean?
A written, carefully planned text intended to be spoken.
What does turn taking mean?
The idea that we generally take in turns to talk.
What does a turn mean?
When someone is talking, they are having a turn.
What does the floor mean?
The conversation
What does holding the floor mean?
Being the one who is talking.
What does passing the floor?
Getting someone else to speak (E.g) using an interrogative
What does taking the floor mean?
This could involve an interruption.
What does topic shift mean?
A change in topic
What does discourse marker mean?
A word or phrase that changed the topic. (E.g) Anyway, moving on, so.
What does pre-closing signal mean?
Phrases used to show the conversation is about to end (e.g) paralinguistic features, it was nice chatting you, I will see you soon.
What does closing signal mean?
Showing the conversation is over (E.g) bye, have a nice day.
What does phatic talk mean?
Small talk, (E.g) the weather (safe topics), ;how are you?’, ‘I’m good and you’
What does false talk mean?
Starting an utterance and making a mistake, so abandoning it. (E.g) yester-
What is self-correction/repair?
When you correct a false start (E.g) yester- I mean last week
What are tag questions?
A declarative (statement) followed by a short question (E.g) It’s a nice day isn’t it?
What is a minimal response?
A short response to a question.
What is back-channeling?
Noises and words used to show you’re listening. (E.g) Ah, really? No way, Oh ok.
What does overlap mean?
Natural and supportive simultaneous (co-operative speaking at the same time) speech
What does interruption mean?
Speaking over someone shows dominance (competitive)
What are monitoring features?
Phrase to check the person is listening (E.g) Do you get me?
How many general functions does conversation follow?
2
What are the two general functions in a conversation?
Interactional and transactional function
What is interactional function?
When speakers are socialising
What is transactional function?
When the participants are exchanging services, buying,, going to the doctor, etc…
What are openings?
Conversation starters such as ‘excuse me’. Can be a sequence
What are adjacency pairs?
Two part exchanges that follow a predictable pattern (E.g) How are you?/ I am fine
What does topic, topic shifts, topic starters and topic looks mean?
All terms concerned with what people are talking about.
What is a three part exchange?
Another familiar way of organising conversation. (E.g) Teacher-Student interaction: Teacher- what’s the capital of Vietnam?, Student- Hanoi, Teacher- that’s right.
What does pre-closing mean?
Ways of indicating the conversation is ending.
What are closing sequences?
Signing off
What does feedback mean?
Can be verbal or non-verbal, but shows that you are listening
What is a phatic communion?
Phrases which have a merely social function
What does deictic expressions mean?
Need the reference point of the conversation to make sense, over there, tomorrow etc…
What does Received Pronunciation (RP) mean?
The prestige accent of the UK, the Queen’t English.
What does standard English (SE) mean?
The prestige dialect of the UK (words and grammar)
What does non- standard English mean?
Language that doesn’t conform to the standard rules (E.g) Slang ‘it were good’
What does hedge mean?
Word or phrases that softens a statement (E.g) I kind of like it, sort of (I can show uncertainty)
What does warranting mean?
Showing certainty (E.g) Obviously, definitely, of course.
What does linguistic accommodation mean?
Adjusting our speech to suit others (we do this through code-switching)
What does convergence mean?
Moving our language closer to the person we’re speaking to (E.g) Using slang with friends.
What does divergence mean?
Moving our language away from the person we’re speaking to.
What does politeness mean?
Respecting someone’s face needs
What does positive face needs mean?
We want to be liked and approved of (using formal language)
What does positive politeness mean?
Involves showing we like and value another person. (E.g) (giving compliments, good work- teacher)
What does negative face needs mean?
We are polite in requests and apologise if needed. We respect someone’s status (E.g) would it be okay if? Excuse me?
What does negative politeness mean?
Involves avoiding intruding others, apologising if necessary and using formal titles. (E.g) Not talking over someone, using phrases like “sorry to bother you”
What is an accent?
The way we pronounce English
What does accommodation mean?
The ways that individuals adjust their speech patterns to match others.
What does CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication) mean?
Refers to text-based synchronous and asynchronous communication.
What is synchronous?
Written “in real time”: when users are online at the same time.
What does asynchronous mean?
When users are not communicating online at the same time (perhaps responding later in the day) and thus have more time to plan
What does contraction mean?
Abbreviation of words, often marked by an apostrophe, (e.g) cannot= can’t, she will= she.ll
What does ellipsis mean?
The omission of one or more words from a sentence, (e.g) ‘Do you want one?’ Please’; not ‘Yes, please I do want one’.
What does Elucidation mean?
When a speaker clarifies a point of information. (E.g) “What I mean is…” or “I think what Sarah means is..”
What does evaluating mean?
When a speaker offers judgement by supporting or opposing what another speaker has said, (e.g) ‘yeah, you’re right’ or ‘that’s rubbish’
What does familect mean?
A style of language used within a family
What does formality mean?
Vocabulary styles including slang, colloquialisms, taboo, formal and fixed levels.
What does framing mean?
The idea that speakers mark their understanding of the context they are in. For example, by smiling or laughing to show that they are being playful.
What does genderlect mean?
A style of language thought to be distinctive of either men or women.
What does initiators mean?
Words such as “well”, “OK”, “right” used to signal that a person is about to speak.
What does interlocutors mean?
People engaged in a spoken interaction.
What does isogloss mean?
A geographic boundary indicating where a certain items of language are used.
What does latch-on mean?
Occur when the second speaker leaps in immediately after the first speaker has completed an utterance without even time for micropause.
What does minor sentence mean?
Sentences which are grammatically incomplete, but which make sense in their context, (e.g) Nice day.
What is non-verbal behaviour?
Communication that takes place via the body (gesture and facial expressions)
What is paralanguage?
Aspects of an individual’s vocal expression, such as whispering, laughter and breathiness.
What are personal pronouns?
Used instead of nouns (e.g) I, we, she and more common in speech than in writing.
What does phoneme mean?
The basic unit of sound. (e.g) /pit/ and /put/ vary by just one phoneme
What does recycling mean?
Similar to repetition but involves a hitch in production where the initial sounds of a word are repeated before the speaker managed to get the word out.
What does referent mean?
The thing or person being referred to.
What does repertoire mean?
The range of language forms or styles used by a speaker.
What does redundancy mean?
When a speaker gives more information than is strictly necessary.
What does rhetoric mean?
The study of persuasive language
What does simultaneous speech mean?
Occurs when two or more people are speaking at the same time.
What are social networks?
A network of relations between people in their membership of different groups.
What does vague completers mean?
Used to round off an utterance such as “and all that” or “and everything”
What does acronym mean?
lol- laugh out loud, lmao, LASAR
What does homophones mean?
number homophones, letter homophones.
What are number homophones?
A number used to replace a sound. (e.g) 2- to, m8-mate, 4-for
What are letter homophones?
Letter used to replace the sound (e.g) r u- are you
