Spoken Language Features Flashcards
Photic expressions
‘hello’, ‘pleased to meet you’ etc.
Vocabulary
Less informal than written texts, with colloquialisms, slang and contractions
Deictic expression
Utterances that cannot be understood out of context such as ‘now’ and ‘there’.
Interrupted constructions (false starts)
When one construction is abandoned in favour of another- ‘but don’t you think… Well I suppose so’
Disjointed constructions
Amending your speech midway through in a way that you wouldn’t in written language- ‘he knows about computers- how to fix them’.
Incomplete constructions
Incomplete because words or grammar elements are missing- ‘seen Tony?’
Non-standard grammar
Reflects informality of speech- ‘I don’t know nothing’.
Fillers
Words or expressions with little meaning that are inserted into everyday speech- ‘you know’, ‘like’, ‘I mean’.
Why might fillers be used?
Give the speaker time to think, can soften the force of a statement, can be a way of involving the listener
Filled pauses
Pauses filled with ‘um’ and ‘er’
Unintentional repetition
Self-explanatory
Digressions (discourse structure)
Deviations from the main topic
Topic loops
Returning to an earlier topic
