Spoken Language Terminology

The way words are pronounced depending on the region and social class of the speaker.

Ritualistic and formulaic pairs of utterances,

e.g. "how are you?"... "Fine thanks".

Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances that a listener will give to a speaker to show understanding and support

e.g. "yeah", "I know", "Uh-huh"

"Verbal Pointing" - an utterance that is context bound, such as "over there" or "here".

The words and phrases specific to a particular regional variety of English.

Words used to signal connections between utterances and to signpost changes in topic and the direction of speech.

The omission or slurring (eliding) of sounds in speech such as, "wanna", "gonna", "cos".

The omission of part of a grammatical structure ("you going to the party?" "Might do" - "are" and "I" have been omitted)

The speaker begins and utterance and then stops to refomulate it and start again.

Also self - correction or repair.

Items that do not carry conventional meaning but function to allow the speaker time to think, create a pause or hold a turn in conversation.

Grice's proposed four rules of conversation: quantity, relevance, quality and manner.

Words and phrases that soften or weaken the force of something being said ("perhaps", "sort of", "possibly").

An individuals way of speaking.

Language in a conversation that has the purpose of maintaining a social relationship.

A speaker interrupts another before they have finished their turn (often signifying dominance).

The collective term for features that disrupt the "flow" of conversations (hesitations, fillers, false starts, repetitions, overlaps, interruptions).

Body language (including facial expressions) that express meaning beyond that conveyed by words.

Small Talk

An approach to discourse analysis which focuses less on structures and more on contexts and purposes of people talking to each other (e.e. understanding sarcasm, implication, jokes).

Collective term for features such as stress, rhythm, pitch, tempo and intonation - which are used by speakers to mark out key meanings in a message. Essentially, how something is said.

A variety of speech used by a particular group, usually defined by class.

Words added to declarative statements to turn them into questions, e.g. "It's a bit cold in here, isn't it?"

Language to get things done or to transmit content or information.

The way in which interactions are structured to minimise overlap and unnecessary pauses.

A unit of Speech

Statements that sound imprecise or uncertain, e.e "whatsit", "whatever", "thingy".