Spoken Language Features I Flashcards
Adjacency pairs
Parallel expressions used across the boundaries of individual speaking turns. Usually ‘ritualistic’ and ‘formulaic’ socially. For example ‘How are you?/ Fine thanks’
Back-channel
Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances [e.g I see, oh, mhm, really] used by a listener to give feedback to show they are listening and understanding
Contraction
A reduced form often marked by an apostrophe in writing e.g cannot= can’t
Deixis
Words such as ‘this’ ‘that’ ‘here’ ‘there’ which refer backwards or forwards or outside a text, ‘a sort of verbal pointing.’
Dialect
The distinctive grammar and vocabulary associated with a regional or social use of a language
Discourse marker
Words and phrases used to signal the relationship between utterances (sentences) and to signpost that what is said can be followed by the listener or reader E.g. ‘First’, ‘now’, ‘so anyway’
Ellision
The omission or slurring (eliding) of one or more sounds or syllables- e.g. Gonna= going to etc.
Ellipsis
The omission of a part of a grammatical structure. ‘You going to the party?’ The word ‘are’ has been missed out
False
When a speaker corrects themselves by repeating or reformulating at the beginning of an utterance
Filler
Items that do not hold conventional meaning but they are inserted in speech to allow time to think, create a pause or hold a turn in conversation. E.g. ‘Um’ ‘er’ ‘ah’
Grice’s Maxims
Trice had four basic conversational rules for a successful conversation
Quantity- Don’t say too much or too little
Relevance- Keep to the point
Manner- Speak in a clear, coherent and orderly way
Quality- Be truthful
Hedge
Words and phrases which soften or weaken the force which something is said- e.g. ‘Perhaps’, ‘maybe’, ‘kind of’, ‘I think’
Idiots the
An individually distinctive style of speaking
Interaction talk
Language in conversation used for interpersonal reasons/ socialising
Non-fluency features
Typical and normal characteristics of spoken language that interrupt the flow of talk E.g.: hesitations, false starts, fillers, repetitions, overlaps and interruptions
Paralinguistic features
The use of gestures, facial expression and other non-verbal elements[such as laughter] to add meaning to speakers message beyond the words being spoken
Phatic talk
Conversational utterances that have no concrete purpose other than to establish or maintain personal relationship. Related to small talk, follows traditional patterns, with stock responses and formulaic expressions: ‘How are you?’/ ‘Fine’, ‘Cold, isn’t it?’/ ‘Freezing’
Pragmatics
Related to discourse analysis in which focuses more on contexts and purposes of people talking to each other.
Prosodic Features
Includes features such as stress, rhythm, pitch, tempo and intonation, used by speakers to mark out key meanings in a message.
Repairs
An alteration that is suggested or made by a speaker, the addressee or audience in order to correct or clarify a precious conversational contribution.
Sociolect
A social dialect or variety of speech used by a particular group, such as working class or upper class speech
Tag Questions
Strings of words normally added to a declarative utterance to turn the statement into a question E.g. ‘It’s a bit expensive round here, isn’t it’
Transactional talk
Language to get things done or to transmit content or information [used when the participants are exchanging goods/ or services]
Turn taking
A turn is a time during which a single participant speaks with minimal overlap and gap between them. The principal unit of description in conversational structure
Utterances
An utterance is a complete unit of talk, bounded by the speakers silence
Vague language
Statements that sounds imprecise and unassertive E.g.- ‘and so on’, ‘or whatever’, ‘thingummy’
Accent
The ways in which words are pronounced. Depends on the region or social class of a speaker
Synthetic Personalisation
is the process of addressing mass audiences as though they were individuals through inclusive language usage
