Spoken Language exercise

"In pairs write mini-scripts for the following situations. Be aware of the degrees of formality and / or difficulty depending on the context. You can include gestures and hesitations in your scripts"

Telephoning to ask for an application form for a job.

Maxim of relevance- communication, doesn’t go off topic

Not as direct,

Positive face, ‘I was just wondering..’ and politeness, ‘please’ ‘thank you’

Non-fluency features- ‘um’ fillers, hesitation, nervous.

Agreement- ‘yeah, sure’

Paralinguistic features- nervous laughter

Adjacency pairs and preferred responses.

Direct address terms by name.

Telephoning a friend to arrange to go out together.

Rising intonation- “hello?”

Informal register

Non-fluency features- pauses, fillers suggests nervous

Voiced pauses

Adjacency pairs

Elision- “wanna”

Maxim of quantity flouted- short utterances, awkward

Phatic talk

Discourse marker

Asking a stranger to give you directions.

Positive face needs-Stranger is being polite

Paralinguistic features

Preferred response-Stranger answers by giving directions

Adjacency pairs

Quality Maxim-Stranger gives true directions

Informal register-“Mate”

Dialect-Bristolian-“Cribbs”

Direct-“Oi mate”

Stranger adapts his language to the drivers language

Giving directions to someone who does not understand English well.

Maxim of quantity.

Direct- One word utterance.

Deixis- Paralinguistic features.

Rising intonation to signify question

Fillers/pauses-stilted- corrupt Grice’s Maxims.

     

Explaining to a police officer why you were doing 45 mph in a 30 mph zone.

Formal register – police officer has authority, influential power

Non-fluency features – hedges and pauses

Implied that the police officer is not charging him

‘So’ is a discourse marker

‘Sir’ appropriate address terms

Avoiding eye contact – paralinguistic features

Telling a parent that you are pregnant (you’re not married or in a stable relationship) or that your girlfriend is pregnant.

Address terms – ‘darling’ to ‘young lady’

Phatic talk – adjacency pairs, preferred response, avoids intended conversation

Non-fluency features – hesitations, fillers, pauses, reluctant to speak

Paralinguistic features – nervous laughter

Interruption – dispreferred response

Grice’s maxim of quantity – parent talks a lot more than the daughter

Grice’s maxim of manner – flouted by mother who asks a series of questions, interrogative syntax