Unit 5 Flashcards
Oral communication’s by 3 different kinds of factors, which are…
Syntactic, pragmatic and semantic.
6 Communicative functions according to Dell Hymes
- Expressive: conveying feelings/emotions.
- Directive: to request or demand smth.
- Referential: convey meaning meaning/content, whether true or false.
- Phatic: convey empathy/understanding. No referential meaning, the meaning is the act of communication itself.
- Metalinguistic: referring to language itself.
Dell Hymes’ Speaking Model for the analysis of oral communication:
- S: Setting (physical surroundings) / Scene (psychological background, i.e. employer/employee or level of formality.
- P Participants: speaker and audience (addressee(s) and those who may overhear it).
- E Ends: purpose
- A Act sequence: conventional norms/ order followed.
- K Key: tone and manner.
- I Instrumentalities: channel through which the communication takes place, be it verbal or nonverbal.
- N Norms: expectations for the different participants (interrupt, ask questions, etc.)
- G Genre: textual categories (is it a joke? A story? A conversation?).
4 Pragmatic, conversational maxims according to Grice, in accordance with the cooperative principle:
- Maxim of QUALITY: speakers shouldn’t say what they know or believe to be untrue or share information the veracity of which they ignore.
- Maxim of QUANTITY: speakers should contribute the info needed for the aims of the convo, not more and not less.
- Maxim of RELATION: contributions should be as relevant to the convo as possible.
- Maxim of MANNER: keep contributions clear and precise, avoiding ambiguity or excessive length.
Does the theory of speech acts focus on what is literally said by people?
Not, but rather on the deeper intention or function of the utterance. I.e.: ‘it’s getting chilly in here’ may not be a simple comment on the temperature but an indirect request for someone to close the windows.
The perlocutionary force of a speech acts seeks to…
…cause a reaction on the part of the listener beyond what’s literally expressed in the words uttered.
Ex.: -We have a party tonight. -I’m not feeling well (won’t be able to go).
Who introduce the concept of illocutionary force?
American Philosophy professor John Searle
4 Categories of speech acts:
- CONSTATIVES: their function os to make statements (information, responses, predictions, etc.).
- DIRECTIVES: influence the listener (requests, advice, orders, suggestions, warnings, etc.)
- COMMISSIVES: they express action on part of the speaker (agreeing guaranteeing, inviting, offering, promising, pledging, etc.)
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: express recognition on the part of the speaker (apologies, condolences, congratulations, etc.)
Basic concepts about turn taking (by Sacks):
- There is a change of speaker, at least once in the exchange.
- Normally, only one participant speaks at a time.
- There should be no significant gap or overlap between one speaker and the next.
- No fixed length for a turn.
- Repair mechanisms: if two participants self select at the same time, normally one (or both) will stop to allow the other to continue.
What are linguistic routines?
Fixed structures with a given purpose which can be deemed single units. I.e.: have a nice day/ see you later.
What are adjacency pairs?
Utterances produced by two successive speakers, with the second expected to follow up to the first. I.e.: greeting/greeting; apology/acceptance; congratulations/thanks, etc.
5 Types of repair strategies in case communication breaks down:
- Non linguistic repairs: miming, gesture , nodding or facial expression to show understanding or lack thereof.
- Checking: are you with me? Got that? Are you following?
- Repetition: in case the speaker feels the listener didn’t quite understand what he meant. I.e.: in other words…
- Spelling out words or use of written language: when the situation permits. I.e.: I mean o as in the number, not O-H.
- Expansion of contracted language.
3 Formal features of oral communication:
- Less syntactically structured than written communication.
- Tends to contain less subordination.
- Tends to be informal and imprecise.
