Terminology

·         8am – Expressive interaction

·         10am – Referential

·         5.30pm -Transactional exchange

·         Phatic utterances- are short greetings or exchanges that show that we are being polite or that we want to begin a conversation. They don't contain much meaning in themselves – but as indicators of our feelings and intentions, they are very important. These featured in each conversation shown on the previous screen – but they differed in type.

·         Interactional exchange- These kinds of exchanges are primarily social. They allow us to share experiences with those around us and help us to develop our relationships.

·         expressive utterances

·         Referential utterances communicate facts, such as the passing on of information in the classroom, like in this snippet of Jean speaking to her English class about language change

·         Transactional exchanges- are to serve a particular, usually practical, purpose – often involving goods or services. Here is another example - a short transcript of an exchange between two people in a jeweller's shop – C=customer A=shop assistant

·         Permanence- When you have a normal conversation it's not usually recorded – so it remains only in the memory of yourself and those who heard it.

·         Expressing feelings- When we talk, we use facial expressions, different tones of voice and body language to convey our feelings. Whereas writing relies on expressive words, on punctuation and graphological features to try to convey feelings.

·         A moment in time- When you talk to someone, you do this during a particular time period – another way of expressing this is by saying that it is ‘temporally bound'.

·         Context- In addition to being temporally bound, speech is also ‘context bound'. That is, it takes place in a particular situation with all the participants aware of who is talking to whom about what.

·         unplanned speech- the register is informal, there's a lot of interaction, there are a number of deictic expressions and there are interruptions and overlaps

·         Planned talk is almost always written down first with the intention of being spoken later.

·         Rhetorical/Rhetorical question- A persuasive variety of language (speech and writing) often used in the public/political arena.

·         Hyperbole- Extravagant exaggeration. For example consider the following piece of football commentary: ‘...he kicked the ball so hard he knocked it into the middle of next week’.

·         Listing-

·         Emphasising-

·         Metaphors-
 

·         Register- A particular kind of speech. We often change our register many times during the course of a day depending on which we are speaking to and the situation. This is known as register switching.

·         Non-fluency features- Features which demonstrate that speech is spontaneous rather than planned such as hesitation, repetition, fillers.

·         Fillers- Fillers are words like ‘umm’, ‘erm’, ‘kind of’. They are used by speakers to ‘fill in’ pauses until they are able to articulate what they wish to say next.

·         Unvoiced pauses- silent pause in speech.

·         Deictic- deictic expression cannot be understood unless the context of the utterance is known. Examples are ‘here’ and ‘there’.

·         Overlap- Where two or more speakers speak simultaneously.

·         Non-fluency features- Features which demonstrate that speech is spontaneous rather than planned such as hesitation, repetition, fillers.

·         Colloquial- Characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation.

·         Adjacency- Two utterances that follow on from one another in a logical sequence. E.g. question and answer.

·         Adjacency pair- Two utterances that follow on from one another in a logical sequence. E.g. question and answer.

·         Insertion sequence- Where the original conversation is suspended for a short while because of an interruption from another source.

·         Repairs- A correction of a mistake made in speech – by the person speaking or another participant.

·         Back-channel- Feedback noises or brief utterances from a listener, showing the speaker that they are listening.

·         Chaining- Description the linking of adjacency pairs in a conversation.

·         Alliteration- Use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable. Often used in persuasive language like that of advertising or politics.

·         Collective noun- Collective nouns refer to groups of things such as ‘family’, ‘herd’ and ‘flock’.

·         Complex sentence- The subjective or personal part of lexical meaning – which may include individual emotional associations.

·         Compound sentence- A sentence made up of two or more clauses, where there is one main clause and the other clause, or clauses are dependent upon it.

·         Concrete noun- Concrete nouns are things that we can name such as people, places or things – ‘Robert’, ‘Sheffield’, ‘Mars bar’.

·         Jargon- Specialised technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject.

·       Verbs- are words of action. This includes straightforward actions such as ‘walk’, ‘eat’, ‘sleep’ and less obvious actions such as states of mind. In a sentence, a verb will usually tell you what the noun is doing.

Theories:

Grices Maxim The cooperative principle (CLA)

A linguist called H.P.Grice developed the idea that there are 4 maxims for successful conversation:

·         The maxim of quantity.

·         Say just the right amount for the situation.

·         The maxim of relevance.

·         What you say should be relevant to the topic being discussed.

·         The maxim of manner.

·         You should speak in a clear, orderly way.

·         The maxim of quality.

·         What you say should be truthful.

Robin Lakoff in the 1970s-

Lakoff was one of the first serious linguists to look into the social implications of the differences in men and women’s use of speech. She analysed the links between language, gender and power in her novel ‘Language and women’s place’, where she questions who holds the power and how they use it. Lakoff argued that language is fundamental to gender inequality and it could contribute to the lack of women’s power in two areas- Language used about women and the language used by women.  Lakoff claimed that there were certain features of women’s language that gave the impression women are weaker and less certain than men are. Women’s language was distinguished in a number of ways including

·         Hedging- uncertainty and lack of authority e.g. ‘sort of’

·         2.Super polite forms – ‘If you don’t mine please may you..’

·         3.Hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation- e.g. women avoid ‘ain’t’ or double negatives

·         4.Tag questions – show that women want approval from their utterances e.g. ‘I’m coming with you, all right?’

·         5.Speaking in italics – women use exaggerated intonation or stress for emphasis, expresses uncertainty e.g. ‘I am very frustrated with you’

·         6.Empty adjectives approval- Lakoff claims that if a man uses these terms he appears more feminine as it damages his masculine prestige e.g. ‘divine, lovely, adorable, delightful and sweetie’

·         7.Use of implication- Lakoff claimed women use this because they do not feel the authority to give orders e.g. ‘it’s cold in here, isn’t it’ instead of ‘shut the window’

·         8.Special lexicon- Lakoff states that such words are trivial and evidence of the fact that women have been allowed control over unimportant things e.g. purple of blue women would say ‘lilac’ or ‘violet’

·         9.Question intonations in declarative statements- women raise the pitch of their voice at the end of statements expressing uncertainty e.g. ‘Dinner’s in half an hour?’

·         10.  Sense of humour lacking- Lakoff argued that women don’t joke as much or understand jokes.

·         11.  Speak less frequently – men speak more often than women, proves women to be less certain of themselves.

·         12.  Indirect speech- ‘Wow, I’m so thirsty’ instead of asking for a drink.

·         13.  Avoid coarse language of expletives

·         14.  Apologies- ‘I’m sorry, but I think that… ’

 

Brown & Levinson in the 1980s-