Terminology - Interactive Features

Question 1

What is a declarative sentence?

Answer 1

An utterance where the speaker’s use of language makes a legal or social change in a situation

i.e. “You are under arrest”, “I now pronounce you man and wife”

Question 2

What is an imperative sentence?

Answer 2

Grammatical structure that gives an order to another person - there is no subject, and the verb action is fronted

i.e. “shut the door”

Question 3

What is a directive sentence?

Answer 3

Any utterance which attempts to get the listener to perform a particular action - not limited to a specific grammatical structure

“shut the door” and “were you born in a barn?” would both be directives

Question 4

What is an interrogative sentence?

Answer 4

Grammatical structure that asks a question of another person. Has a question mark at the end, and is structured with the verb or part of a verb phrase before the subject

Question 5

What is a commissive sentence?

Answer 5

An utterance which commits the speaker to a particular action

Question 6

What is an assertive sentence?

Answer 6

An utterance where the speaker asserts facts or give information

Question 7

What is an expressive sentence?

Answer 7

An utterance which conveys the speaker’s feelings about something

Question 8

What is a deixis?

Answer 8

Elements of spoken language which rely on the shared context of the conversation to be understood

i.e. here, there, we, now

Question 9

What is a dispreferred response?

Answer 9

Responses which are not what the speaker is hoping will happen in response to their speech

Question 10

What is a positive face?

Answer 10

The image of themselves which an individual projects; how they want to be seen

Question 11

What is a negative face?

Answer 11

An individuals ability to act as they wish too

Question 12

What is a face-threatening act?

Answer 12

Any act which threatens someone else’s face

e.g. questioning their truthfulness, insulting them, ordering them to do something they don’t want to, or refusing an invitation

Question 13

What are felicity conditions?

Answer 13

Conditions which must be met in order for the preferred perlocutionary act to occur

Question 14

What is Grice’s Maxims?

Answer 14

“Rules that we tend to follow in order to keep conversation flowing”

Quantity - talking the appropriate amount, not saying too much or too little
Quality - being truthful and sincere (or as sincere as the rest of the conversation)
Manner - being clear and comprehensible
Relevance - keeping your contributions relevant to the discussion at hand

Question 15

What is negative politeness?

Answer 15

Disguising a face-threatening act by appealing to an individual’s negative face - making the threat seem smaller by minimising inconvenience, adding the appearance of choice

“I’m sorry to both you but is there any chance you could…?”

Question 16

What is positive politeness?

Answer 16

Disguising a face-threatening act by appealing to an individual’s positive face - making them feel good about themselves

“You’re good at this…”

Question 17

What is a preferred response?

Answer 17

The way in which a speaker wants the listener to respond to their speech

Question 18

What are adjacency pairs?

Answer 18

Pairs of utterances which follow a predictable pattern

i.e. Thanks/You’re welcome
What time is it/Ten past three

Question 19

What is back-channelling?

Answer 19

Minimal responses made by the listener to show that they are listening

e.g. “mmm” or “yeah”

Question 20

What is colloquialism?

Answer 20

An everyday informal word

Question 21

What is a contraction?

Answer 21

Shortening of words of phrases, expressed with an apostrophe

e.g. can’t
won’t

Question 22

What is dialogue?

Answer 22

Text with multiple speakers

Question 23

What is an elision?

Answer 23

Shortening or blending of words in speech

i.e. going to/gonna
kind of/kinda

Question 24

What is an ellipsis?

Answer 24

When words are missed out of a sentence to save time or effort, but the meaning is still generally understood

i.e. “going to the shops?”

Question 25

What is a false start?

Answer 25

Where a speaker begins an utterance then stops and begins again

Question 26

What is a filler?

Answer 26

A word/phrase such as “like” or “you know”

Generally used to give the speaker time to think

Question 27

What is a hedge?

Answer 27

Word or phrase used to soften an utterance or show uncertainty

e.g. “sort of”
“like”
“a little bit”

Question 28

What is a micro-pause?

Answer 28

Pauses of less than a second, represented by (.) in a transcript

Question 29

What is a monologue?

Answer 29

Text with a single speaker

Question 30

What is an overlap?

Answer 30

Where one speaker begins talking before another has finished, but the original speaker is still able to finish their turn

Question 31

What is a phatic expression?

Answer 31

An expression which is designed primarily to create a positive atmosphere or relationship and does not convey much actual information

Question 32

What is a speaker agenda?

Answer 32

What a reader is trying to achieve within an interaction

Question 33

What is a tag question?

Answer 33

A question formed from a declarative and a tagged-on question

“this is nice, isn’t it”
“you like cake, don’t you”

Question 34

What is a timed pause?

Answer 34

Pause of longer than a second, indicated by a number of seconds in brackets (2)

Question 35

What is turn-taking?

Answer 35

Speakers take turns to speak, avoiding overlaps and interruptions

Question 36

What is an utterance?

Answer 36

An individuals “turn” in conversation

Question 37

What is a locutionary act?

Answer 37

The actual utterance

Question 38

What is an illocutionary act?

Answer 38

What is actually meant by the utterance

Question 39

What is a perlocutionary act?

Answer 39

The effect of the utterance