English Language Unit 3 Outcome 1 Glossary of Terms

fixed phrase

a standard form of expression that has taken on a more specific meaning than the meaning itself, e.g. "all of a sudden"

back-channelling

also known as minimal response, backchannels are listener responses in a primarily one-way communication to show attentiveness

non-verbal feedback

communication without the use of spoken language, e.g. facial expression, body language

metaphor

conceptual (mental) operations reflected in human language that enables speakers to structure and construe abstract ideas of knowledge and experience in more concrete experiential terms

repair

correcting something that might have been understood in a conversation

falling intonation

describes how the pitch of a voice falls during speech

non-fluency features

featrues of spoken language such as repetition, pause, etc. that render speech less coherent that spoken text

prosodic features

features that appear when we put sounds together in connected speech. PISTV

turn taking

general rules regarding when it is appropriate for a new speaker to begin in a conversation

non-standard grammar

grammar that breaks the prescriptive syntax of language

reflexive pronouns

indicates that the person who is realising the action of the verb is also the recipient of the action, e.g. we, us as reflexive = ourselves

rapport talk

informal chatty conversation, e.g. small talk, gossip, weather chit chat

disfluency

interruptions in the regular flow of speech, such as "uh" and "um", repeating words, pausing, etc.

minimal response

listener responses in a primarily one way conversation to show attentivenessq

reduction

reducing a sound either in length or by making it more similar to the sounds around it

deixis

refers to words or phrases, such as "me" or "here", that cannot be fully understood without additional contextual information

topic loop

returning to a prior topic and how, occurs when a speaker returns to a topic they were discussing earlier on in the conversation

overlap

simultaneous talk by two or more conversational participants

false start

speaking an utterance and repeating as a self-correction "I..I mean, we.."

maintain the floor

speech strategies to continue speaking

take the floor

speech strategies to interrupt/begin speaking

negative politeness

strategies of communication oriented towards ones negative face

negative face

the desire to not be imposed upon, intruded, or otherwise put upon

ellipsis

the emission of words from an utterance, resulting in non-grammatical structures, e.g. "John can play the guitar; Mary ((can play the guitar)), too"

other-initiated other-repair

the listener both initiates and carries out the repair

postive face

the need to be accepted and liked by others, to be treated as a member of the group

reduplication

the rhyming pattern that produces expressions such as "nice-schmice" or "mumbo-jumbo"

self-initiated other-repair

the speaker may try and get the listener to repair the trouble or signal they're having difficulty and the listener will repair

self-initiated self-repair

the speaker who produces the trouble source initiates and carries out the repair

other-initiated self-repair

the trouble source is initiated by the listener but carried out by the speaker

cede the floor

to give up your turn to another person in spoken conversation

adjacency pair

utterances produced by two successive speakers such that the second utterance is identified as related to the first one as an expected follow up. e.g. "See ya" "Bye"

repetition

when a speaker repeats a phrase as they are thinking

echoing

when one participant in a conversation repeats something the other person said

addition

when sounds are added to speech, e.g. "the idea of it" = "the idea rov it"

topic avoidance

who avoids a current topic, why they might do this, and how they achieve it

topic change

who changes a topic and how, new topic must be completely different

topic development

who develops a topic and how, can be achieved in infinite ways

topic initiation

who initiates a topic and how, can tell us quite a lot about the power and authority of a speaker

topic shift

who moves the topic from one topic to another closely related topic, and how

diminutive

words shortened to one syllable and either -o or -i is added, e.g. "bottle-o" or "mozzie"

elision

a characteristic of fast and furious speech; it refers to slurring or the omission of vowels and consonants, e.g. interesting -> "intresting"

closing conversation

a conversation of some sort to bring the conversation to an end

rising intonation

a feature of some variants of English when declarative sentence clauses end with a rising pitch intonation, until the end of a sentence where a falling-pitch is applied

interrogative tag

a grammatical structure in which a declarative statement or an imperative is turned into a question by adding an interrogative fragment (the "tag") e.g. "You're leaving, aren't you?"

pun

a joke exploiting the different possible meaning of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings

hedging

a mitigating word, sound, or construction used to lessen the impact of an utterance, e.g. "ALL I KNOW is that smoking is bad for you."

pause

a moment of silence in conversation, illustrated by (...)

pre-closings

a pre-sequence that precedes a closing phrase

pre-question

a pre-sequence that precedes a question

filler

a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal others a pause to think without giving the impression they have finished speaking, e.g. "uhhhhh" or "ummm"

term of address (honorific)

a title that conveys esteem or respect when used in addressing or referring to a person

idiom

a type of informal English phrase that has a different meaning from the words in the expression, e.g. "hold your tongue"

slang

a type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as informal, e.g. "whip" = car

deference

a type of politeness used when speaking to a higher authority

colloquialism

a word or phrase that is not formal or literary and is used in ordinary and familiar conversation

discourse particles

a word or phrase that plays a role in managing the flow and structure of discourse, e.g. "so" "well" "you know"

assimilation

reducing a sound by making it more similar to sounds around it, e.g. handbag = "hæmbæg"

paralinguistic features

the aspects of spoken communication that do not involve words

shortening

the clipping of words into a reduced form, e.g. "radical" -> rad