spoken language features

Question 1

definition of topic

Answer 1

a conversation should require participants to focus on one topic at a time

Question 2

what is a topic shift

Answer 2

change in topic in the conversation

Question 3

what indicates a topic shift

Answer 3

discourse marker

eg well anyway so

Question 4

adjacency pair

Answer 4

indicate the back and fourth nature of a conversation

illustrates a transactional feature of conversations

Question 5

structure of adjacency pairs

Answer 5

1st person makes statement which has desired response

2nd person either provides response (preferred 1st) or doesn’t (disprrferred 2nd)

Question 6

feed back

Answer 6

phrases that encourage the speaker that you’re listening

eg ‘really’ ‘tell me more’

Question 7

minimal response

Answer 7

show weaken indication of interest

eg ‘mhm’ ‘yes’

Question 8

what is an unsuccessful conversation

Answer 8

when speaker doesn’t get the response they want

Question 9

tag question

Answer 9

question at the end of a statement to encourage participation

Question 10

what is degreeting

Answer 10

when speakers agree to discontinue the conversation

eg ‘bye’ ‘see you later’

Question 11

non-fluency feature

Answer 11

when people need time to think or are under pressure etc they become less fluent

Question 12

3 non-fluency features

Answer 12

pauses
false starts
fillers

Question 13

2 types of pauses

Answer 13

voiced pauses => eg ‘um’ ‘er’ etc

unvoiced pauses => marked by (.)

Question 14

false start

Answer 14

when you start to say something then change your mind

Question 15

filler

Answer 15

words such as ‘like’ ‘you know’ ‘sort of’

Question 16

dominance / discourse rights

Answer 16

when the conversation is structured around one dominant speaker

Question 17

what makes someone a dominant speaker

Answer 17

may have discourse rights

Question 18

what does a dominant speaker do

Answer 18

lead discussion of topics and control topic shifts

often have higher MLU

Question 19

what are paralinguistic features

Answer 19

sounds which aren’t words and are universally understood

eg laughter, tutting etc

Question 20

what is the accomadation theory

Answer 20

suggests we adjust our speech to accommodate the person we’re addressing

eg word pronunciation, voice pitch

Question 21

who developed the accommodation theory

Answer 21

Giles in 1970s

Question 22

what is convergence

Answer 22

moving speech closer to that of the other speaker to decrease social distance

Question 23

what is downward convergence

Answer 23

in informal context slang is used more as well as taboo and relaxed pronunciation

Question 24

upward convergence

Answer 24

in formal context may use standard voice and avoid slang

Question 25

mutual convergence

Answer 25

2 regional speakers after being apart exaggerate their accent to match each other

Question 26

divergence

Answer 26

moving speech further apart to emphasise difference

Question 27

face theory

Answer 27

the image we present to the world

we have 2 face needs

Question 28

who developed the face theory

Answer 28

Goffman

Question 29

2 face needs

Answer 29

positive face needs

negative face needs

Question 30

positvie face need

Answer 30

the need to be liked and approved and not to ‘lose face’ and be mocked

Question 31

negative face need

Answer 31

need not to be apposed upon

Question 32

face threatening act

Answer 32

when someone does something that doesn’t meet your face needs

Question 33

what is the co-operative principle

Answer 33

co-operation is underlying fundamental in conversations

people tend to try and understand each other

Question 34

who created the co-operative theory

Answer 34

Grice 1975

Question 35

what was the name of the 4 identified rules

Answer 35

4 maxims

Question 36

what are the maxims

Answer 36

maxim of quantity, relevance, mannor, quality

Question 37

mode

Answer 37

a way or mannor in which something occurs or is experienced, expressed or dome

Question 38

what is blended / mixed mode

Answer 38

combine spoken and written modes

Question 39

archaic words

Answer 39

words we may not recognise but are old and rarely used

Question 40

obsolete words

Answer 40

words never used and have been forgotten

Question 41

low frequency words

Answer 41

may just be a word you don’t know but still used