Spoken texts

Lejla Zejnilović, PhD

Introduction
 Text:
 ‘a continuous piece of spoken or written language’.
 Reasons for emphasizing the spoken dimension:

 language originates in speech, both historically and in terms of an

individual’s own linguistic development;

 most day-to-day language use is spoken;
 there are a number of ways in which the boundary between

spoken and written language is rather blurred, which suggests

that to discuss one apart from the other may distort our
understanding of how speakers and writers create and interpret
text.
(Thornbury 2005: 6; 63)
Differences between written and spoken
texts
 Discover activity 4.1
 Skim the extract and note at least five features that
characterize the text as being an instance of spoken language
(p.63).
 Features of spoken language: hesitations, false starts,
repetitions, incomplete utterances, relatively simple
connectors (and, but and because), informal register (the guy,
you just chuck’em out), the frequent use of expressions like
you know, well, oh and mmm, as well as several instances of
vague language (sort of, or something, and stuff).
 (Thornbury 2005: 64)
Spoken texts

 Spontaneity

 Interactivity

 Interpersonality

 Coherence

(Thornbury 2005: 64)

Spontaneity
 Most speech is produced ‘on-line’, that is to say in real
time and with little or no time for much forward
planning.
 Performance features:
 filled pauses
 repetitions
 false starts and backtracking
 incomplete utterances

(Thornbury 2005: 64)

Spontaneity
 ‘One-clause-or-phrase-at-a-time’ construction
 Speech tends to be produced in smaller ‘runs’, each

‘run’ representing a unit of meaning.

 The guy+sort of+ looked at me+ and said + how old is

this? + And it’s about four years old + but + of course +

you know + in computer terms + that’s … ancient.
 Sentence ‘tail’:
 I’ll take the computer over because I’ve got my work

stuff on computer so.

(Thornbury 2005: 64)
Interactivity
 The asking and answering of questions:
 Greta Have you got an analogue phone?
 Alice No no
 Rhetorical questions:
 Claire … but what d’you do with them you just
chuck’em out
 Back-channelling:
 Claire … but what d’you do with them you just
chuck’em out
Alice Mmm. No.
Interactivity

 Interruptions and overlapping turns

 Discourse markers:

 Claire Well. Yeah. I mean um. But it’s just it’s you

know like all these analogue phones.

(Thornbury 2005: 66)

Interpersonality
 Group solidarity
 Hedges (yeah but)
 Vague language (sort of, and stuff)
 Shared knowledge
 Question tags
 Repetition of utterances
 Exaggeration
 Strongly evaluative language
 Swearing
 Expletives (Thornbury 2005: 66-67)
Coherence
 Coherence is conversation = collaborative enterprise
 Failure to co-operate →conversational breakdown
 Doctor What is your name?
 Patient Well, let’s say you might have thought
you had something from before, but you haven’t got it
anymore.
 Doctor I’m going to call you Dean.

(Thornbury 2005: 68)

References
 Thornbury, S. (2005). Beyond the Sentence:
Introducing Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Macmillan.