Spoken language

• Ghoti


  Alternative phonetic spelling of a familiar word
• Gh = /f/, o = /i/, ti = /sh/
• Spoken Language


  Significant differences between spoken English and written text
• Differences between spoken and written texts

  • Close relationship between speakers in Text 1
  • Text 1 is unplanned
  • Text 1 is spontaneous
  • Text 2 is formal with conventions to follow
  • Text 2 can be altered and edited before sending
  • Text 2 has a specific desired outcome
• Transcribing conversation


  Purpose is to accurately reflect patterns of speech in written form
• Features of spoken language in transcripts

  • Utterances
  • Turn-taking
  • Adjacency pairs
  • Back-channelling
  • Non-fluency features
  • Tag questions
• Non-fluency features


  Unfilled pauses, filled pauses, repetition, hesitation, false starts
• Ellipsis


  Omission of words under the assumption the listener will understand
• Elision


  Omission or slurring of sounds or words together
• Deixis


  Words that only make sense in the specific context of the conversation
• Discourse Marker


  Word/phrase that returns conversation to a previous topic
• Back-channelling


  Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances used by a listener to show understanding
• Hedging


  Words that soften or weaken the force of speech
• Repair


  Resolves a problem or corrects something in a conversation
• Prosody


  Features of speech including intonation, rhythm, pitch, pace
• Discourse Markers


  Help the listener follow the conversation, mark turn-taking
• Discourse markers are also used in written discourse to structure writing
• Transcription conventions include: (.) micropause, (1.0) timed pause, // overlapping speech, = latching on, bold for stressed words, [inaud.] for inaudible words
• Transcription should include false starts, mispronunciations, and not be edited