Analysing Spoken Texts

We have mainly focused on written texts so this page will explore spoken texts with an emphasis on the framework speech and interaction (adapted from teachit.co.uk)

TERM	Definition
Accent	The ways in which words are pronounced. Accent can vary according to the region or social class of a speaker.
Adjacency pairs	Two utterances that are linked together. It could be anything from a question and answer to two opinions. For example: ‘How are you?’/ ’Fine thanks’
Back-channel	Words, phrases and non-verbal utterances [e.g. ‘I see’, ‘oh’, ‘uh huh’, ‘really’] used by a listener to give feedback to a speaker that the message is being followed and understood
Deixis	Words such as ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘here’, ‘there, later, tonight’ which are only clear to those who are part of the conversation.
Dialect	The distinctive grammar and vocabulary which is associated with a regional or social use of a language. There are many words for bread roll.
Discourse marker	Words and phrases which are used to signal the relationship and connections between utterances and to signpost that what is said can be followed by the listener or reader. E.g. ‘first’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘now’, ‘what’s more’, ‘so anyway’, etc. Anything that signals a change in topic e.g. well etc.
Elision	The omission or slurring [eliding] of one or more sounds or syllables – e.g. gonna = going to; wannabe = want to be; wassup = what is up
Ellipsis	The omission of part of a grammatical structure or when words are missed out.  For example, in the dialogue: “You going to the party?” / “Might be.” – the verb ‘are’ and the pronoun ‘I’ are missed out. The resulting ellipsis conveys a more casual and informal tone.
False start	This is when the speaker begins an utterance, then stops and either repeats or reformulates it. Sometimes called self-correction.
Filler	Items which do not carry conventional meaning but which are inserted in speech to allow time to think, to create a pause or to hold a turn in conversation. Examples are ‘er’, ‘um’, ‘ah’. Also called voiced pause.
Hedge	Words and phrases which soften or weaken the force with which something is said – e.g. ‘perhaps’, ‘maybe’, ‘sort of’’, ‘possibly’, ‘I think’.
Idiolect	An individually distinctive style of speaking

Non-fluency features	Typical and normal characteristics of spoken language that interrupt the ‘flow’ of talk. Some examples: hesitations, false starts, fillers, repetitions [though can be used for emphasis], overlaps and interruptions.
Paralinguistic features	Related to body language – it is the use of gestures, facial expressions + other non-verbal elements [such as laughter] to add meaning to the speakers message beyond the words being spoken
Phatic talk	Conversational utterances that have no concrete purpose other than to establish or maintain personal relationships. It’s related to small talk – and follows traditional patterns, with stock responses and formulaic expressions: ‘How are you?’ / ‘Fine’; ‘Cold, isn’t it?’ / ‘Freezing’
Prosodic features/Prosody	Includes features such as stress, rhythm, pitch, tempo and intonation – which are used by speakers to mark out key meanings in a message. Essentially, how something is said.
Repairs	An alteration that is suggested or made by a speaker, the       addressee, or audience in order to correct or clarify a previous conversational contribution.
Tag question	Strings of words normally added to a declarative sentence to turn the statement into a question. E.g. “It’s a bit expensive round here, isn’t it?”
Turn taking	A turn is a time during which a single participant speaks, within a typical, orderly arrangement in which participants speak with minimal overlap and gap between them. The principal unit of description in conversational structure.
Three part exchange	Three utterances that are linked together-they can be anything from three opinions about the same subject or a question, answer followed by a comment.
Interruption	When someone tries to take control of the conversation so they ‘interrupt’ the other speaker.
Overlap	When someone speaks at the same time as the speaker but to show support-to agree with the speaker.
Minimal Responses	Signals the listener gives to show they are listening e.g. “yeah”
Mirroring	When one participant repeats and uses the same words that the previous speaker has used earlier in the conversation.
Emphatic Stress	When the speaker uses their tone or intonation to emphasize particular words.
Monitoring Device	Language used by the speaker to check that the listener is listening.
Micro-pause	A pause of less than a second. Anything more than a second is simply a pause.
Reformulation Hedge	When the speaker rephrases an utterance. Words or phrases used to soften requests or opinions and attitudes.

 

Identifying Spoken Features: 

Look at the text below from AQA (2008) Nelson Thornes 

Can you find these features:

1. Hedges/examples of hedging
2. Discourse marker
3. Reformulation
4. Deixis/vague language
5. Tail
6.       Any other features and how this shapes meaning-ideas in the text, attitudes of the speaker and how they try and convince others, how they try to shape the response of others?

A guide to analysing spoken texts

Follow the same process as written texts:

1) Identify the genre, mode, audiences and purposes of the text. If the spoken text is an interview e.g. a radio or television interview consider who the real audience is or main audience.

2) Comment on the register of the texts. What is the register of the text. Are there some features of the written mode?

2) List the ideas/attitudes and views in the text: in particular focus on participants' attitudes-how do they use language to create their identity and to show themselves as an authority or to communicate personal views or opinions without insulting.

3) Identify the lexical and semantic features. If the text is informal or has a low register, which is typical of spoken texts; look for idioms, cliches and hyperbole as well as high frequency, monosyllabic lexis.

3) Look for speech features-how do participants use speech features to control the conversation or to communicate particular attitudes and feelings-this links to number two in the list.

4) Can you link the speech features and other language devices to the theories of conversation? Consider the effects of phonology. Don't bring in theories for the sake of bringing in theories and to look clever! Instead, focus on whether the language they use act as evidence for particular theories e.g. are they diverging to express certain attitudes towards a particular topic. 

As you can see from the above-analysing spoken texts requires an additional framework, other than that the approach is almost identical to written texts. 

Here is an example essay plan for analyzing spoken texts.

Glastonbury interview essay plan (2) from kparuk

Here is the text from BBC radio 1 sourced from AQA January 2011 examination paper.

Theories of conversation

Remember don't bring in these theories to look clever! Ideally point them out if participants are using strategies to communicate ideas and opinions e.g. a participant may use a hedge to avoid insulting the person and to position themselves as friendly but to communicate a request at the same time.

Here is a PowerPoint exploring the theories of conversation:

Theories of conversation from kparuk

How you could apply the theories of conversation to the transcript below? 

Lady gaga and jonathan ross from kparuk

Here is a video of the interview

1. The Genre of the text is a televised celebrity interview.
2. The audiences are JR fans, LG fans, studio audience and the audience at home who are JR fans and LG fans.
3. The mode is mainly spoken.
4. The purposes are for Lady Gaga to promote herself, JR to inform the others about LG and her successes, to persuade the audience that she is a talented singer.

The register of the text is low as shown by monosyllabic, high frequency words such as great, fans and thing as well as the use of idioms-push the boat out.

Spoken features and theories of conversation

1. Compliments-JR when introducing LG states "doesn't she look spectacular, that's incredible, you've got to love Gaga-this reduces the distance between LG and JR-shows positive politeness. LG also describes her fans as "great" and "mesmerizing" again to perhaps reduce the social distance and the fans that are watching in order to present herself as caring of the fans. 
2. Hedges-I think people  (.) were coming to terms with who you are they were beginning to enjoy your music but you were sort of seen as a bit of an oddity (2) would that be fair do you think (.) I think and sort of seen are hedges. Jonathon Ross wants to state that people thought LG are weird but doesn't want to insult her so he uses " I think" to indicate his opinion but to avoid being brutally honest. For the same reason, sort of seen is an indirect way of implying people's opinions before she was famous. The hedges can be linked to two theories: sort of seen flouts Grice's maxim of manner because JR is not being obvious and stating exactly his opinion. However his opinion is implied which means the maxim is flouted rather than violated.
3.  Also the use of hedges is a negative politeness strategy. It respects the fact that LG could disagree with JR and avoids imposing his opinion that she was strange before. Further evidence for this is the fact that the utterance ends with the question "would that be fair do you think" where JR with this question is giving LG the choice to disagree.
4. thank you (.)  [to audience] he’s so nice this year [audience laughs]. The use of he's so nice this year can be analysed in several ways. First it seems to be a positive politeness strategy as it is a compliment to JR and the fact that he's made her welcome. However it can also be viewed as a negative politeness strategy as the words "so nice" could be masking or hedging a criticism as JR was unpleasant to her in a previous interview. It could be a use of sarcasm which flouts the maxim of manner.
5. When Lady Gaga talks into the phone she's flouting the maxim of relation-she's making it clear, her purpose is to entertain the audience and unusually opens up the interview: Hi Jonathan, how are you?-This is JR's role in the interview.
6. LG also flouts the maxim of quantity with I guess so yeah- She is agreeing with JR and is also using a hedge as she doesn't directly want to state that he's correct. Also JR asks several leading questions with the aim of starting a discussion but LG replies with short answers and utterances at least twice therefore she is flouting the maxim of quantity.

Can you find additional examples of linking conversation features to theories?