Discourse Flashcards
Repetition
Spontaneous- unintentional repetition
Planned/edited- deliberate for effect (anaphora or tricolon)
Non-fluency features
Spontaneous- typical
Planned/edited- usually edited out
Unvoiced pauses
Spontaneous- to breathe or think or maybe in response to a contextual cue
Planned/edited- speaker may plan pauses for a dramatic effect (let the information sink in)
Fillers
Spontaneous- give speaker time to think what to say eg “like”, “kinda”, “sort of”, some fillers are purely fillers, others may also function as hedges and some words such as “well” may be discourse markers
Grammatical blends
Spontaneous- this occurs when a sentence begins one way and ends in another eg. an utterance starting as a declarative statement and turning into a question “I thought you might want to go out, do you?”
Backtracking
Spontaneous- returning to a topic which had earlier been dropped
False start
Spontaneous- a change of thought reflected in the start of a new sentence in mid utterance
Vague completed
Spontaneous- “… and stuff”
Slip of the tongue
Spontaneous- the use of the wrong word, maybe one which sounds similar that was on the speaker’s mind (Freud)
Planned/edited- in literature these are sometimes linked to what are called malapropisms
Adjacency pair
Spontaneous- most conversations are structured by these consists of first part that raises the expectation of a response- the 2nd part (usually a question or prompt)
Planned/edited- in an edited interview the pairs may still be included or the interviewer’s part MIT be edited out into headings
Insertion sequence
Spontaneous- a sequence of conversation which intervenes between two parts of the adjacency pair, this may develop, comment or extend the implications of the initial move in the adjacency pair
Interruptions
Spontaneous- can occur frequently (can signal desire of a speaker to dominate conversation- either because of interest or rudeness)
Planned/edited- likely to be edited out in edited speech
Overlapping
Spontaneous- speakers talking at the same time as others, unlike an interruption this may not be an attempt to take over but more of a cooperative chiming in which each other
Interjection
Spontaneous- an abrupt remark made as an aside assumption
Topic management
Spontaneous- the way in which speakers in a conversation negotiate and organise the development and changes in their dialogue
Planned/edited- under the complete control of the single speaker, it may be organised by paragraphing as the speech is composed, in written text topic management is also organised by paragraphing
Discourse markers
Spontaneous- these mark boundaries eg. “well”, “so”, might initiate a topic “anyway”, might signal a topic shift or signal the end of a topic
Planned/edited- may appear in prepared speech to help organise and present the argument eg. conjunctions
Topic shifts
Spontaneous- points at which speakers move from one topic to another, how this is achieved is part of topic management, discourse markers have an important role
Planned/edited- will be planned an controlled, can be signalled by linking words and phrases
Topic loops
Spontaneous- reintroducing an earlier topic in order to move from a disruption in a conversation
Repairs
Spontaneous- practical move in a conversation aimed at restoring a conversation because the topic has become difficult or the responses have not been forthcoming or because one speaker is not clear or is not understood
Cohesion
The grammatical and lexical devices such as repetition and the use of pronouns, ellipsis, that link the parts of written or spoken text
Anaphoric reference
A feature of cohesion where a pronoun, noun or noun phrase points backward to something mentioned earlier in the speech or writing “‘the film’ was breathtaking and the audience watched ‘it’ in silence” or “‘it’ was totally brilliant (.) ‘the film’ I mean”
Openings/initiators
Spontaneous- strategies by which conversations begin
Planned/edited- consider how the speaker grabs the audience’s attention in their opening utterance and how it is designed to get the audience thinking/ feeling a particular way that will serve the message the speech is designed to communicate
Closings
Spontaneous- strategies by which conversations end
Planned/edited- consider how the closing utterance is designed to reinforce the main message or point of the speech and make it memorable for the audience
Back channeling
Spontaneous- “uhuh” “mmmm” “yeah”- signal that participant is listening or agreeing
