2L2 Spoken&Written Discourse

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Discourse Analysis

LECTURE 2

Types of Discourse: Written and

Spoken Discourse


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Types of Discourse

There are many ways to classify discourse:

Written/spoken discourse.

Classification of discourse according to the

register (level of formality).

Classification of discourse according to genre(communicative purpose, style, audience).

Monologic (one speaker/writer produces an entirediscourse)/ dialogic/ multiparty (two/moreparticipants interact/ construct discoursetogether).


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Distinction between Written and

Spoken Discourse

The distinction between speech and writing

is often referred to as channel(D. Hymes)

ormediumas speaking and writing involvedifferent psychological processes.


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Spoken Discourse

Spoken and written discourse differ for

many reasons. Spoken discourse has to be

understood immediately, written discoursecan be referred to many times.

M.A.K. Halliday. Spoken and Written

Language. (1989). Singled out the

characteristics of spoken discourse.


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Spoken Discourse

Spoken discourse:

Variations in speed, but it is generally faster thanwriting.

Loudness/quietness.

Example

Announcer: an the winner iz:s (1.4) RACHEL ROBERTS.

For YANKS.

A: who is she going out with.

B: Um (.) Peter.


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Spoken Discourse

Spoken discourse:

Gestures/ Body language (Mr. Bean)

Intonation.

Pitch range: - the shift to the higher pitch; - the shiftto the lower pitch, V - a fall rise.

Stress: underlined words in transcription: good.

Rhythm.

Pausing and phrasing: (.)a tiny gap, difficult to bemeasured, (7.1)a pause of 7.1 seconds,a longer pauselike (..)


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Which Discourse is More

Complex?

Grammatically?

Spoken discoursefewer subordinate

clauses, fewer that/to complement clauses,fewer sequences of prepositional phrases,

fewer attributive adjectives, more active

verbs.


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Complex? Lexical characteristics?

Spoken discourselonger, more repetitions.Spoken discoursethe percentage of different

word is below 40%, written discourseabove40%.

Spoken discourseshorter, less complex wordsand phrases (less contractions, fewer

nominalizations, more verb-based phrases, morewords that refer to the speaker, less abstractwords, more quantifiers).


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Complex?

Lexical characteristics?

Spoken discourse has:

More verb-based phrases:having treatment (W)being treated (S)

hospital care (W)go to the hospital (S)

More predicative adjectives:

misleading statistics (W)statistics are misleading (S)

frightening news (W)news is frightening (S)


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Which Discourse is More Complex?

Lexical characteristics?Spoken discourse has:

More pronouns (it, they, you, we).

more lexical repetitions/ refinements

This man + this chap she was going out with

More first person references.

More active verbs.

Use of indeterminate agents

Oh everything they do in Edinbourgh+ they do it fartoo slowly

(predetermined) fillers


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Complex?

Structurally?

Spoken discourse is more fragmented. It

contains more simple sentences andcoordination words (and, but, so, because,

etc.)

Written texts exhibit a bewildering varietyand richness of different structural forms.


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Complex?

Haiku, a Japanese form of poetry, wheresyllables are the form of writing:

Example 3

line 1- 5 syllables: Beauty and color

line 2- 7 syllables: Butterflies dance in thesky

line 3- 5 syllables: Flying high and free.


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Shape poems usually describe an object being writtenabout

Example 4

A spider


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Representation/ reproduction of text:The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.

Written discourse can be divided into chapters,

sections, units, headings, subheadings, quotations,

etc.

Where the original text exploits typographical

variety, a reproduction of the same text may lackthe qualities of the original.

Queen Victoria: he gave mesuch a kind, and may I

say,fatherly look (Thursday, 28 June 1838)


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Complex?Hallidaycompares a sentence from a written text with a typicalspoken equivalent:

Written form:

The use of this method of control unquestionably leads to safer and

faster train running in the most adverse weather conditions. A typical spoken variant:

If this method of control is used trains will unquestionably (be able to)run more safely and faster (even) when the weather conditions aremost adverse.

A more natural spoken version: You can control the trains this way and if you do that you can bequite sure that theyll be able to run more safely and more quicklythen they would other wise, no matter how bad the weather gets.


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Complex? Other equivalents:

Every previous visit left me with a sense of thefutility of further action on my part (W).

Whenever Id visited there before, Id ended upfeeling that it would be futile if I tried to doanything more (S).

Task 1

Can you re-write examples of classical writingdiscourse on your HO transferring it into atypical spoken version?


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Complex? Functionally?

Spoken and written discourses serve differentfunctions. The written language has two main

functions (Goody): the storage function which permits

communication over time and space;

shifting language from the oral to the visual

domain, which permits words and sentences to beexamined out of their original contexts.


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Complex?

(Brown and Yule). We use speech largely

for the establishment and maintenance of

human relationships (or we use it forinteraction), whereas we use written

language for working out and transference

of information (primarily for the purpose

of transaction).


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Interrelation of Written and

Spoken Discourse

Writing and speech interrelate (e.g. the

doctor writes your symptoms, you write a

telephone number). We can have written discourse that is

intended to be spoken, and spoken

language that is designed to be read.

Marginal discourses: e-mails, SMS, chats


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Interrelation of Written and

Spoken Discourse

SPOKEN WRITTEN

ORATE e.g.conversation

e.g. informalletters, drama,

poetry

LITERATE e.g. lectures,

sermons,

speeches

e.g.

expository

essays,

articles


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References:

Brown, G., Yule, G. (1983).Discourse

Analysis. Cambridge, etc.: Cambridge

University Press. pp. 1226 Van Dijk (1997).Discourse Studies,

Volume 2: Discourse as Social Interaction.

London etc.: Sage Publications.Ch 1.pp.1-

38. (esp. p.4)

2L2 Spoken&Written Discourse

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