AS English Language and Literature KEY TERMS

The key terms for AS English Language and Literature

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  • Created by: Lydia
  • Created on: 29-04-13 15:52
What's an Accent?
A distinctive manner of pronunciation that marks a regional or social identity.
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What is an Term of Address?
The manner with which people address each other, usually identifying status, age, gender, social class. For example 'mum', 'sir', 'you lot'
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What's an Agenda?
The subject of the conversation. This is not always a formal thing, but there is always an underlying or open point to any particular conversation.
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What's Backtracking?
Interrupting what you are saying in order to introduce further information that maybe would of made more sense at an earlier point
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What's Back-Channeling?
A co-operative signal that provides feedback to the speaker to maintain the conversation. E.g. 'mmm', 'right'
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What's a closing sequence?
The way in which a speaker eases out of a conversation through arrangements to meet again and farewells.
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What does Colloquial mean?
An every day or non-formal quality of speech or writing, often characterised by the use if slang or non-standard features.
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What are co-operative signals?
Signals (Usually from listener to speaker) which indicate that they agree or want to hear more. Examples include 'okay', 'go on', 'yes', 'mmm'
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What's Deixis?
The reference to the speaker's position in space or time, such as the use of the pronouns 'you' or 'I'; the reference to objects such as, 'this', 'that', 'here', 'there'; and the use of temporal words such as 'tomorrow', 'now', 'yesterday'
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What's Dialect?
A distinctive grammer and vocabulary that marks a regional or social identity.
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What's a disagreement?
In conversation we do not always explicitly disagree. Apart from saying 'no' directly, we can say ''yes but...' or 'on the other hand'
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What's a discourse marker?
Words and phrases that signal the relationship and connections between utterances. Examples include: 'first, 'now', 'anyway', 'on the other hand'
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What's Elision?
Omission of sounds in connected speech. E.g. 'dunno', 'we'll'
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What's Ellipses?
Missing out words. E.g. 'Not sure' instead of 'I'm not sure'
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What's a false start?
A non-fluency feature common in spontaneous speech where the speaker begins with an utterance then self corrects and rephrases. 'I'll (.) I might go'
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What's a filler?
A non-fluency feature where an often meaningless word is inserted into speech from habit or thinking time. E.g. 'like', 'right', 'well', 'you know'
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What are Hedges?
Linguistic forms such as 'I think', 'I'm sure', 'you know', 'sort of', 'perhaps' which express the speakers uncertainty about a topic under discussion or is avoiding a taboo or rude matter e.g. 'you kind of wear a lot of make up'
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What's Idiolect?
A person's individual language system: their unique pronunciation, grammatical forms and choice of vocabulary.
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What's an Insertion Sequence?
An interruption that requires speaker's immediate attention, such as a knock at the door or a ringing of a telephone.
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What's latching on?
Smooth taking over of turns between speakers with no overlapping or pause between turns.
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What are micropauses?
A short unvoiced pause for breath in an utterance, usually labelled (.)
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What's a monitoring device?
A way of checking your own communicativeness (e.g. 'do you see what I mean') or commenting on someone's speech (e.g. 'you didn't say that earlier') and reviewing the conversation at any given point (e.g. 'we're getting nowhere')
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What are non-fluency features?
Features of spontaneous speech, showing its unplanned, hesitant nature. Includes: False starts, fillers, repetition, voiced pauses, hesitations.
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What's an opening sequence?
The initial interactions between speakers which eases them into conversation. Common inclusions are are greetings and phatic communication or small talk.
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What's overlapping?
Two speakers speaking at the same time. Typical of spontaneous speech.
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What are Paralinguistic Features?
Features which are non-verbal, but accompany speech, e.g. gestures, facial expressions
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What's Phatic Talk?
Formulaic utterances with stock responses used to establish or maintain personal relationships. Examples included 'How are you?', 'Fine thank you'
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What's recycling?
A non-fluency feature that is similar to repetition but involves the repetition of the initial sound(s) of a word, but is not considered stammering or stuttering. E.g. 'th the hairs'
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What's Repetition?
Repeating a word or even just a letter as the speaker is searching for the right word, is unsure what to say next or for emphasis. E.g. 'her pillow her pillow is right there'
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What's scripted speech?
Prepared speech, written in script form but to be spoken aloud. E.g. Play scrips, situation comedies, soaps.
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What's self-correction?
The instance where the speaker realises he/she has made a mistake and corrects it, generally after a false-start. E.g. 'you've got to get the stirrups and (.) I mean the girth'
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What's a side sequence?
Distinct from an insertion sequence because it is part of the conversation. Lasting for a number of utterances, it may effect topic or elucidate, explain or clarify something previously uttered.
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What's simultaneous speech?
Occurs when two people say the same thing at the same time, usually in the form of overlap.
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What's Spontaneous Speech?
Unscripted speech. I.e. authentic conversation which is unplanned and usually contains non-fluency features
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What's a tag question?
Familiar questions, sometimes rhetorical, that appear at the end of statements that indicate that it is the listeners turn to talk. E.g. 'Isn't it', 'right?' or to check that the listener has been listening.
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What's a timed pause?
An unvoiced pause, which can be timed in seconds. Usually transcribed as (2), indicating a two second pause.
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What's a topic shift?
The introduction of new topics in a conversation that may reflect the speaker's superior status. (e.g. a teacher deciding the content of a lesson)
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What's a transcript?
An authentic or real conversation that actually took place written down with no editing to make the speech clearer. Transcripts, as accurately as possible, represent what they actually said.
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What is Turn-Taking?
The process by which adjacency pairs take place in a conversation with speakers talking in turn.
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What are utterances?
A unit of spoken English similar to the sentences in written English but distinguished by the lack of written punctuation and written grammatical structure.
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What's an unvoiced pause?
Pauses of silence that allow the speak time to consider their next utterance.
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What's a voiced pause?
A non-fluency feature, also considered a hesitation marker, allowing thinking time in spontaneous speech. E.g. 'um', 'er'
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What is an Term of Address?

Back

The manner with which people address each other, usually identifying status, age, gender, social class. For example 'mum', 'sir', 'you lot'

Card 3

Front

What's an Agenda?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What's Backtracking?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What's Back-Channeling?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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