Chapter Two: Discourse Mode PDF

19 Chapter Two: Discourse Mode 1. Introduction The word mode in discourse refers to the medium of communication, i.e., spoken or written. This medium of communication has its linguistic effects on the discourse. Linguists examined written and spoken discou...

19 Chapter Two: Discourse Mode 1. Introduction The word mode in discourse refers to the medium of communication, i.e., spoken or written. This medium of communication has its linguistic effects on the discourse. Linguists examined written and spoken discourses and highlighted several features that distinguish these types of discourse. These features do not indicate that one medium is superior to the other. Each medium has its significance and importance in achieving different functions in communication. 2. Discourse Modes Since any language is a means of communication, there are three possible ways that humans can use to communicate. A. Spoken Mode: People can communicate through speaking, producing language in its oral form. Examples of data using the spoken mode include conversations, lectures, radio advertisements, interviews, debates, business negotiations, monologues, songs, stand up comedies, etc. B. Written Mode: The second medium that people can use to communicate is writing, producing written texts such as newspaper articles, letters, stories, novels, reports recipes, instructions, notices, comics, billboards, leaflets, brochures, books, etc. C. Nonverbal Modes. The third way of communication for humans is that involving non-verbal mediums such as drawings, colours, or sounds. Usually, the nonverbal mode of Chapter Two Discourse Mode  20 communication is not used separately from the spoken and written modes. However, there are instances of achieving communication through nonverbal modes only; consider the use of traffic lights that only use colours, or raid’s warning sounds that used to inform people during wars to hide in safe shelters. D. Types of Data In light of these three mediums of communication, there are three possible types of data that discourse analysts can investigate. The first is spoken data that uses the spoken medium of communication. Second, there is the written data that is communicated through writing. The third type of data is multimodal data; these are texts that use mixtures of the three modes of communication. Some data can include in addition to the spoken medium or the written medium some nonverbal elements such as drawings, videos, music, etc. For instance, a movie that is accompanied by subtitles of its original language includes both spoken and written data in addition to the plenty visual nonverbal elements such as the actors’ appearance, their costumes; the settings, and the audio nonverbal elements such as background music. Similarly, TV ads represent multimodal data as they use voiceover accompanied with visual nonverbal elements, and sometimes they can be accompanied with a text written on screen. Children stories that include some illustrative drawings with the story text are also examples of multimodal data. If a researcher is interested in considering all the different modes involved in producing a type of discourse, they conduct what is known as a multimodal analysis. When analysing only the verbal medium, they conduct spoken discourse analysis or written discourse analysis. This course would only focus on presenting concepts and examples of spoken or written discourses. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  21 3. Functions of Spoken and Written Discourse Historically speaking, spoken discourse is prior to written discourse since all languages existed first in their spoken forms and written languages only started to appear after the invention of writing. Leech, Deuchar, & Hoogenraad (1982) argue that no form is more important or superior to the other since each of them achieves different functions that complement each other in the process of human communication. This section summarizes the main functions Leech, et al. (1982) identified, but it also highlights the effects of modern technology on these functions. A. Social Functions Firstly, spoken discourse has a very important social role for an individual to be integrated into a certain group. Oral communication allows for quick direct communication with immediate feedback from the addressee which allows an individual to quickly develop social ties with members of the society. Moreover, spoken discourse is used more frequently than written discourse. Almost everyone all over the world would normally speak every day, but he may not need to write anything. However, social media platforms and mobile applications such as Facebook or WhatsApp gave the written language, to an extent, some of these functions. Individuals on these social platforms can have direct and immediate communication and feedback if both parties are active at the same time. Thus, the use of written discourse developed to integrate an individual into a virtual community. B. Legal and Intellectual Functions. Written discourse on the other hand has the advantage of being permanent. This permanence gave two distinctive functions for written discourse. Firstly, permanence gave legal power to written discourse; important information such Chapter Two Discourse Mode  22 as constitutions, laws, contracts, different types of certifications, etc must be kept in a written form. Secondly, the permanence of written discourse allowed for keeping records of history, literature, and scientific discoveries which participated significantly in the intellectual development of mankind. Recording these various types of information independent of the limited human memory allowed people to accumulate human knowledge discovered earlier and hence helped humanity to develop in different fields. Although modern technology nowadays can make some spoken discourses permanent by recordings, such invention is rather recent in human history that it cannot be argued that it affected general human intellectual and scientific development. Moreover, tracing information in written data and scanning these data is technically possible, while audio discourses cannot be automatically scanned. Search engines can find spoken data only based on the file name, but they can search the content of written texts in addition to their titles. Thus, despite modern technology and the ability to make some spoken data permeant; still written discourse is the main source for human knowledge development. C. Reprocessing Possibilities Another distinctive feature of written language is that it is visible and can be carefully planned. Writers usually take their time to organize their thoughts and choose their words and forms of expression carefully to make their writings as clear as possible to the readers. Readers also have a chance to reread and reconsider a piece of writing to get the most of it. Again, modern ways of recording spoken discourse can make some of them carefully planned and listeners can relisten to them, but this is only possible in few, not all, spoken records. Moreover, still reprocessing a text visually is less time consuming as it takes almost no time to get back to a line, while rewinding a recording to relisten to an utterance or a section can take some time. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  23 D. Mass Long Distance Communication Finally, writing was the first medium that allowed for communication over a great distance by letters, telegrams, newspapers, books, etc. and to larger numbers of people simultaneously. Modern technology has given the same function to spoken discourse. Telephones, radio, and television broadcasting have given the ability to spoken discourse to be communicated over a long distance and to reach millions of people at the same time, maybe even more effectively than written language has ever done. 4. Formal Features of Spoken and Written Discourse Similar to having different functions in communication, spoken and written discourses have different forms. Each of them has formal features that are not shared by the other. Firstly, spoken discourse has phonological features such as rhythm, prominence, and intonation. These features are very significant in distinguishing the meaning of an utterance. For example, an utterance such as ‘he is coming” said with a falling tone will be a statement, but with a rising tone will be a yes-no question. Also stressing one of these words more than the others would give different shades of meaning to the listeners. Secondly, speech can include non-linguistic or non-verbal features such as noises, sighs, laughter, gestures, and facial expressions which are all significant in the process of communication. All these features are normally absent from written discourse. Some writers may attempt to give similar effects to these features using some graphological devices, but they are never as accurate as they are in speech. On the other hand, writing includes paragraph marks, punctuation marks such as full stops, commas, and question marks, and graphological devices such as capitalization, Chapter Two Discourse Mode  24 font type and size, charts, and drawings. An interesting fact about the formal differences between spoken and written discourse is that written discourse is more easily rendered to a spoken form than speech is rendered into a written text. 5. Linguistic Characteristics of Spoken Vs. Written Discourse Leech et al. (1982) identify eight linguistic differences between speech and writing. They argue that typical speech has linguistic characteristics that are different from typical writing. Most of the linguistic differences between spoken and written discourse are connected to their way of production; spoken discourse is spontaneous, unplanned, and cannot be edited, while written discourse is planned, revised, and edited. However, this should not imply that all authentic written or spoken data sharply follow these eight distinguishing features. Leech et al. highlight that different types of actual discourses can reflect an overlap of these features. Below is a list of the features that reflect significant linguistic differences between spoken and written discourses. A. Explicitness The first linguistic feature that reflects differences between spoken and written discourse is their level of explicitness. Explicitness refers to the clarity of all the references made in the text; in other words, everything in the text is explicit and clear to the receiver. Thus, it is argued that writing is more explicit than speech. In a piece of writing, all the needed information to understand the written text is available to anyone reading the text. For example, when writers use pronouns, the reference to these pronouns is clear. In example 1. Below, the reader can easily identify what the pronouns refer to. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  25 Text 1. 1 The boy saw a little cat. He wanted to take it home. Reference in the above text is clear to any reader; the pronoun he refers to the boy and the pronoun it refers to the cat. Moreover, good writers are keen to identify characters, places, and concepts clearly in their writings. They don’t assume much shared background knowledge with their readers. Consequently, when someone reads a complete piece of writing, they normally find it explicit. On the other hand, when someone hears a conversation between two people, even if the conversation is complete, they don’t necessarily get all the information clearly. Even if the spoken language is addressed to a specific receiver, there are certain features or factors of spoken discourse that can lead to its ambiguity or inexplicitness. They include: 1. Speakers can convey extra information by body language or facial expressions that only they can know. This extra information is only accessible to people physically present and paying attention. 2. Speakers may refer (i.e., by pointing) to elements in the immediate physical environment. 3. Speakers build on their shared knowledge. For example, they may use pronouns frequently without mentioning directly what they refer to in the conversation. Thus, they are interpretable only for the participants. 4. Finally, the opportunity to get immediate feedback, clarification, or repetition makes the need for explicitness less vital. Consider text 2 below. 1 From now on, all examples that are adopted from other books or sources on the internet are accompanied by a footnote clarifying the source. Examples with no footnotes are either invented by the author or are extracts of authentic data recorded by one of the authors. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  26 Text 2. A: I am really tired. Can you give me this? B: The blue one? A: Yes. B: You’re taking much of those recently. You need to stop. It’s dangerous. A: I know. What did you do with your friend? B: didn’t have a chance to talk A: oh! too bad. Note that it is not clear to an outsider what the words in bold refer to, but to the speakers they are explicit. The pronouns “this”, “one” and “those” obviously refer to some entity in the speakers’ shared physical environment. Therefore, they are interpretable only to them or to someone who is physically present with them. Similarly, the explicitness of the expression “your friend” is known only to the participants because it builds on their shared background knowledge. As outsiders, we don’t know who this friend is, and we even don’t know if he is a male or female friend. It is worth noting that the absence of the first two factors (i.e., body language and shared physical environment) as in conversations over the phone leads the spoken text to be more explicit. Activity 1 Consider the mode and the explicitness in the following texts. Text 3.. 2 A. How did it go? 2 Adopted from Leech et al. (1982: p. 136) Chapter Two Discourse Mode  27 B. Not too bad. I'm just glad it's over. A. Was it the last one? B. Yes, for the time being. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Text 4. 3 If you'd like to give someone a phone for Christmas, there are plenty to choose from. Whichever you go for, if it's to be used on the BT [British Telecom] network, make sure it's approved - look for the label with a green circle to confirm this. Phones labelled with a red triangle are prohibited. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ B. Sentence Boundaries The second linguistic characteristic that distinguishes between spoken and written discourse is related to sentence boundaries. In written language, sentence boundaries can be identified easily because of punctuation marks. A sentence beginning is marked by a capital letter and its end by a full stop, question mark, or an exclamation mark. On the contrary, in spontaneous speech, sentences are often difficult to delimit. Therefore, the task of rendering 3 Adopted from McCarthy (1991: p.25) Chapter Two Discourse Mode  28 a spoken text to a written one is quite challenging. Sometimes delimiting sentence boundaries can even be impossible simply because they may not be finished in the first place. Sometimes speakers do not finish a sentence for several reasons. They may rely on their shared knowledge with the addressee; they may even get distracted or loose concentration and simply do not finish their thoughts. Also in spontaneous speech, speakers frequently use phrases and short answers rather than sentences, and even when producing full sentences, they might stop in the middle to repair what they have said and start a new sentence. These factors make sentence boundaries in spoken discourse unclear. Consider how difficult it is to identify sentence boundaries in text 5 below. Text 5. 4 (Dashes represent pauses.): and he was saying that erm - you can go to a nightclub in Birmingham - and watch Tony Bennet for about thirty bob - something like this a night with Tony Bennet - have a nice meal in very plushy surroundings very nice warm pleasant – However, it is noted that scripted texts such as news bulletins, stand-up comedies, talk shows, speeches, movies, etc. have clear sentence boundaries to a great extent that is similar to written discourse. Consider the following excerpt from a stand-up comedy by George Carlin 1992 Activity 2 Try to identify sentence boundaries. Text 6. 5 4 Adopted from Leech et al. (1982: p. 136) 5 Script of George Carlin 1992 stand-up comedy show, retrieved from https://youtu.be/SoqcDPiVxJ8 on 17 July 2023 Chapter Two Discourse Mode  29 We like war because we're good at it and you know why we're good at it because we get a lot of practice this country's only 200 years old and already we've had ten major wars we average a major war in this country every 20 years so we're good at it and it's a good thing we are we're not very good at anything else anymore. We can’t make a decent car can't make a TV set or a VCR worth the **** got no steel industry left can't educate our young people can't get health care to our old people but we can bomb the **** out of your country alright. Note that it is generally easy to insert punctuation marks in the above extract. This is mainly because it is a preplanned text, the speaker, a stand-up comedian, goes on stage already knowing exactly what he is going to say and have actually rehearsed it many times. C. Sentence Structure Complexity As for the complexity of sentence structure in both written and spoken discourse, Leech et al. (1982) state that “in general, speech is simpler in grammatical structure than writing” (p.137). This is basically because of the short time available to produce, and process spoken discourse, while writing can be re-drafted and re-read at leisure. They offer three criteria to measure the complexity of structure. C.1. Clause Structure The first criterion is related to clause structure. Complexity is identified based on the number of elements the clauses contain and the number of levels of subordination it includes. The more words there are in a clause, the more complex the clause will be. They refer to this complexity as “horizontal” complexity. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  30 a. I met a boy. b. I met a very interesting boy yesterday. Though both (a) and (b) are simple sentences, based on the number of elements, (b) is more complex. Also, Clauses that include subordination and embeddedness are more complex than clauses which do not. This reflects 'vertical' complexity. Note that (b) and (c) below are more complex than (a). a. I met a boy. b. I met a very interesting boy when I went to school. c. I met a very interesting boy who wanted to win the Nobel Prize. C.2. Noun phrase structure The second criterion of complexity is related to the Noun phrase structure. Noun phrases that include more modifiers are more complex than those that don’t include modifiers (horizonal complexity) and noun phrases that include embedded phrases are more complex than those which don’t (vertical complexity). Consider the following phrases. a. A book b. An [interesting] book [about science fiction]. c. An [interesting] book [about science fiction [in the twentieth century]] [in my room] d. An [interesting] book [about science fiction [which is trending for many years now] Chapter Two Discourse Mode  31 Note that (b) is more complex than (a) because it includes pre and post modifiers, and (c) is more complex than (a) and (b) because it includes pre and post modifiers and it also includes a prepositional phrase embedded in another prepositional phrase. (d) is the most complex because it includes pre and post modifiers where the postmodifying prepositional phrase includes an embedded clause that post modifies the object of this prepositional phrase. C.3. Location of Vertical Complexity The third criterion for complexity is related to the location of vertical complexity in clauses and in noun phrases. Subordination or embeddedness at the beginning is more complex than at the end. Consider the following sentences 6. a. [The man [who is a friend of the woman [who lives in the house [which used to belong to us]]] came to see us yesterday] b. [Yesterday we saw [the man [who is a friend of the woman [who lives in the house [which used to belong to us]]]. c. [my sister's [husband's [brother’s [ friend]]]] d. the friend of the brother of the husband of my sister Note that (b) and (d) are simpler to understand than (a) and (c) because embedding is located at the end. 6 These sentences and phrases are adopted from Leech et al. (1982, p.138). Chapter Two Discourse Mode  32 Activity 3 Read the following pairs of sentences and decide which is more complex and the type of complexity. 1. a. Studying the brain is a complex activity. b. Studying the brain is complex and involves understanding different regions and functions, as well as neural activity at different levels." 2. a. Launching a new product involves designing and testing prototypes which will be used as samples in the future. b. Launching a new product involves many steps. 3. a. John went for a run after finishing his homework. b. John went for a run after finishing his homework, but had to go back home for his shoes because he forgot them. 4. a. Mary went to the gym after work, even though she was tired and hungry, because she hoped exercise would make her feel better. b. Mary exercised after work to feel better, even though she was tired and hungry. It is important to note that complexity and simplicity of avtext is usually identified on a scale from very simple to very complex depending on the structure of most sentences. In the previous activity, some pairs were both complex, but still one of them was more complex than the other. D. Repetitiveness Chapter Two Discourse Mode  33 The next feature that distinguishes the language of spoken and written discourses is repetitiveness. Speech, unlike written discourse, is characterized by inexplicable repetitiveness. Many speakers, especially in naturally occurring conversations, may repeat some insignificant words like “I, I” or “that, that”. Such kind of repetition occurs mainly because speech is spontaneous, and people are normally thinking while talking. Another form of repetitiveness in speech is repeating the same information whether in the same way or in different ways. People usually do that to make sure their listeners understand or follow what they mean. Actually, if you think of the people you communicate with on a daily basis, you may remember a relative, a colleague, or a neighbour who is characterized by being over-repetitive in their conversations. You may even comment on their being boring because they keep repeating and repeating what they said. Such people are noticed, not because they are the only ones repeating parts of what they say, but because they do it more than necessary, in other words, more than most people do. In writing, on the other hand, such kind of repetitions that occur in spoken language are not allowed. If they occur, it is a deficiency in the text that should be amended. However, it must be pointed out that repetition is possible in written texts to serve text unity. Writers are allowed to repeat some vocabulary words whether directly by repeating the exact word or indirectly by using a pronoun or a synonym to make their writing cohesive. Also, writers are allowed to repeat their main ideas or points in the concluding section. This repetition serves the organization of the text and makes it more cohesive and clearer to the readers. Leech et al. (1982) argue that this repetitiveness is particularly common in conversations and TV ads. Though their observation is true, it must be pointed out that repetition in TV adds is quite different from repetition in daily Chapter Two Discourse Mode  34 conversations. In conversations, repetition is spontaneous and does not have a specific function, while in TV ads advertisers use repetition to strengthen their message and confirm or stress an important point in the ad. Consider the following ad. Text 7. 7 How do you become America's number one? Start by taking care of families for 70 years. Earn the trust of 32 NFL teams. Be there for America's toughest and help when help is needed. America's number one isn’t a status earned overnight. It’s earned in every wash and re-earned every day. Tide America's number one detergent. Notice in this ad, the repetition of “America’s number one” and the verb “earn”. This repletion confirms that the advertised product is number 1 and that this status is earned. Repetition here is similar to that done in written discourse; it serves a function. This similarity is normal since TV ads are preplanned spoken texts just like written texts. Activity 4 Compare the repetition in the following excerpt from a naturally occurring data to the previous example. Text 8. Speaker 1 So, thank you Rania, I I like the presentation, and I like the effort you put into it, and aaa like I said I am proud of you” 7 Script of Tide’s add retrieved from https://youtu.be/LReIPWUe3BY on December 6, 2022. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  35 Speaker 2 ‫ شكرا يا دكتور على راسي شكرا‬thank you Speaker 3 ‫ احنا كمان‬proud ‫يا دكتور رانيا‬ Speaker 2 ‫ وجودي أصال معاكم دع إضافة كبيرة ليه‬، ‫دا انا على راسي و هللا كل الكالم ده‬ ‫إضافة حقيقي‬ Speaker 3 ‫ربنا يخليكي ربنا يخليكي‬ aaa ‫ بصي‬I have a question ‫ و عندي يعني‬I have two questions actually Speaker 2 ‫اتفضلي‬ Speaker 3 ‫أول حاجة‬ It’s it’s clarification request ‫بالنسبة يعني لما‬ when you said that passion is a form of uh passivation or Passivaization. ‫ فا‬that was not clear to me ‫يعني‬ E. Fluency Level Fluency level differs between speech and writing. Writing is prepared at leisure. Writers have a chance to edit their texts. Therefore, it reflects features of fluency. It goes smoothly with no interruptions. Similarly, scripted spoken discourse like stand-up comedies, speeches, and fictional conversations also show high levels of fluency. On the other hand, un-prepared spontaneous spoken discourse/conversations demonstrate normal non-fluency. There are some linguistic features that reflect this non-fluency, and they occur usually because speakers are still thinking of what they would like to say while they have the floor. People do not prepare their daily spontaneous interactions; they are thinking simultaneously while speaking. These linguistic features include pauses, unintended repetitions (e.g., I I), fillers (e.g., Um, er), false starts, grammatical blends, and repairs. False Chapter Two Discourse Mode  36 starts occur when a sentence is broken off and another is produced as in “you must tell – I can’t tell you what to do”. Grammatical blends occur where a sentence begins one way and ends another. “For example, in Would you mind telling me what's the time. The sentence begins as an indirect question but ends as a direct question” (Leech et al., 1982, p. 139). Repairs occur when the speaker realizes that he said something wrong and corrects himself. For example, I need to tell John, Jack, I meant. Consider the following text and identify any features of non-fluency. Text 9. 8 A friend of mine who (19). was ea/er she was (1).. three things happened to her in the military. three things happened simultaneously any one of them would would be difficult but all three of them happened during the same time. she was promoted to senior management. She became lieutenant Colonel. She was deployed for 13 months. 12 months and she was given her very first command. Okay. So, any one of those things is a is a is a trial and all three happened at once. Okay…... First, the is a hesitation pause marked by (1) between parentheses in the first sentence indicating that the speaker paused for a second as he was still thinking of what to say. The first sentence also includes a repetition “who was” and “she was”. It is not exact, but it refers to the same person and can also reflect a repair where the speaker clarifies that he is talking about a female friend. This sentence also includes the filler “ea/er” which marks that the speaker is Script of an extract of a video retrieved from https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFqecPcp/ om December 23, 2022 9 the number written between parentheses in the transcription of a text refer to the number of seconds the speaker pauses. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  37 thinking of his words. Moreover, the first sentence marks a false start; the speaker starts the sentence, but in the middle, it is broken and he starts a completely different sentence. “would would” and “is a is a is a” are examples of unintended repetitions. They also mark that the speaker is actually thinking of what he wants to say. “13 months. 12 months” give an example of repair as the speaker corrects the information he said at the beginning. Activity 5 Now reconsider the following text (text 8 above) and identify any features of non-fluency. Speaker 1 So, thank you Rania, I I like the presentation, and I like the effort you put into it, and aaa like I said I am proud of you” Speaker 2 ‫ شكرا يا دكتور على راسي شكرا‬thank you Speaker 3 ‫ احنا كمان‬proud ‫يا دكتور رانيا‬ Speaker 2 ‫ وجودي أصال معاكم دع إضافة كبيرة ليه‬، ‫دا انا على راسي و هللا كل الكالم ده‬ ‫إضافة حقيقي‬ Speaker 3 ‫ربنا يخليكي ربنا يخليكي‬ aaa ‫ بصي‬I have a question ‫ و عندي يعني‬I have two questions actually Speaker 2 ‫اتفضلي‬ Speaker 3 ‫أول حاجة‬ It’s it’s clarification request ‫بالنسبة يعني لما‬ when you said that passion is a form of uh passivation or Passivaization. ‫ فا‬that was not clear to me ‫يعني‬ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Chapter Two Discourse Mode  38 ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ F. Monitoring and Interaction Features According to Leech et al. (1982), these two linguistics features are generally confined to spoken discourse and they almost appear only in conversations. However, modern chat platforms such as Facebook, Messenger or WhatsApp can include some of them because in these platforms people have conversations in written forms. Also, they might be present in personal letters where people may write in a way similar to their speech. “MONITORING features indicate the speaker’s awareness of the addressee's presence and reactions, and include expressions such as well, I mean, sort of, you know” (Leech et al.,1982, p.139). They reflect the speaker’s keenness to make sure that his listener(s) is/are following what he is saying. They often include expressions that mark paraphrasing such as well and I mean or rhetorical questions, such as you know or you know what I mean, that check the receiver’s understanding. In Arabic, speakers use words or expressions such as “‫”يعني‬, “‫”قصدي‬, “‫ ”أقصد‬and “ ‫اللي عايز‬ ‫ ”أقوله‬and questions such as “‫”فاهم قصدي؟‬, “ ‫ ”انت فاهم؟‬or “‫”فاهم حاجة؟‬. Listeners usually respond to these monitoring features by what is known as a backchannel. They are verbal or nonverbal expressions that listeners use to show their speakers that they are following what they say like nodding or a Chapter Two Discourse Mode  39 sound like “mmm” or short words like “yes” or “yeah”. In Arabic speakers can use words such as “‫ ”أه‬and “‫”أيوه‬. “INTERACTION features invite the active participation of the addressee, as in questions, imperatives, second-person pronouns, etc.” (Leech et al.,1982, p.139). For example, if one of the participants asks a question, it is an invitation for the other participant(s) to take the floor and participate in the interaction. Activity 6 Now, consider the following excerpt from Ellen Show10. Note the bold and shaded sections. Try to decide what is the linguistic feature they reflect. Text 10. 10 Part of an episode hosting Leonardo DiCaprio retrieved from https://youtu.be/fNJI2A0v8yI?t=48 on 18 May 2023. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  40 Leonardo: So, it is one of the worst experiences of my life and I'll never do it again. - Ellen And did you break your legs? Leonardo - I did not break my legs. - Ellen Wow that’s is horrible, so what's the scariest thing you've ever done? Leonardo: I was on a plane to Russia, and the engine exploded. I was looking out the window, and the entire engine just turned into a fireball. it was right after sully had that incident happened to him with the geese flew into both engines, Ellen: right, and he landed on the river. Leonardo: yea, this happened in one of the engines, and I was the was I was the only person, that seemed to see this, but it was a flaming fireball, there were all Russian passengers, and I kind of felt like I'd already died and gone to heaven because no one said anything, [Audience laughter] And I screaming at the top of my lungs, and “what the hell is going on there?” and these people just kind of look back to me, and the and the stewardess came out and (imitating a female voice speaking very calmly) “we seem to have a slight problem here” [Audience laughter] Russian guy finally said “what is the problem?” and said (imitating a female voice speaking very calmly) “well we we lost one of our engines” [Audience laughter] and he said hhh “how many engines did we have?” [Audience laughter] (imitating a female voice speaking very calmly) “well we had two, now we have one [laughing, Ellen laughing and audience laughing] and aa he proceeded to say “that is not good , it's not good” and we basically dump fuel for 45 minutes, and an emergency landing, and all our tires exploded, and there was 100 different ambulances there, it was on CNN, and - that was another bummer11 Chapter Two Discourse Mode  41 Ellen: wow Oh my God that's incredible! Leonardo I feel like I should write a book now. Ellen: yeah well Leonardo right? Ellen: No, I'm gonna write it Leonardo hhh Note that the parts written in bold are examples of interactional features. They are questions; they are directly calling on the receiver to take the floor and interact. The shaded sections, mark examples of backchannel. Note that they are neither interactional nor monitoring features, they reflect the receiver’s follow up/feedback in a conversation. Note that all instances of laughter whether by the speakers or the audience are considered incidents of backchannel since they reflect the feedback of the listeners to what is being said. It is also noted that the above extract does not include any monitoring features. The speaker does not paraphrase anything; does not use expressions like “you see, you know, I mean, etc.”. This is very significant as it shows that not all linguistic features commonly identified in conversations have to be present in a particular conversation. Some people tend to use some features more than others. It is usually a matter of personal differences between people. For example, smart people who think fast and have a lot of knowledge and good memory normally would not make many pauses, repetitions, or hesitation; they would speak more fluently than others. G. Formality Level (Tenor) 11 a disappointing or unpleasant situation Chapter Two Discourse Mode  42 The last linguistic feature that marks a distinction between spoken and written discourse is formality level. Leech et al. (1982) argue that speech is generally less formal than written discourse. Though generally true, it must be noted that the formality level of a text reflects it tenor which generally refers to the relationship between the participants involved in a discourse. Tenor and its effect on formality will be discussed in detail in the following chapter. H. Overlap of Linguistic Features The previous sections present the basic linguistic differences between spoken discourse and written discourse. However, it must be highlighted that these linguistic features do not necessarily exist with this sharp distribution in authentic spoken and written discourses. They can be viewed as a continuum of the distinction between “typical speech” and “typical writing” as summarized in table 1 below. TYPICAL' SPEECH 'TYPICAL' WRITING − Inexplicitness − Explicitness − Lack of clear sentence boundaries − Clear sentence boundaries − Simple structure − More complex structure − Repetitiveness − Non-repetitiveness − Normal non-fluency − Fluency − Monitoring features − No monitoring features − Interaction features − No interaction features − Informal − Formal Table 1: linguistic features of typical speech and typical writing (adopted from Leech et al., 1982, p. 139). Chapter Two Discourse Mode  43 In authentic discourses, there is some overlap. For instance, reconsider the script of the tv ad for Tide detergent. (It is rewritten below for reader’s convenience). How do you become America's number one? start by taking care of families for 70 years. Earn the trust of 32 NFL teams. Be there for America's toughest and help when help is needed. America's number one isn’t a status earned overnight. It’s earned in every wash and re-earned every day. Tide America's number one detergent. This ad is spoken. However, it shares many linguistic features with typical writing. It is explicit, fluent, has clear sentence boundaries, and doesn’t include any monitoring features. Because of this overlap in authentic discourses, Leech et al. (1982) suggest that mode of discourse should be thought of as a continuum or a scale ranging from 'typical' speech to 'typical' writing. 6. Conclusion This chapter discusses functional, formal, and linguistic characteristics of the mode of discourse highlighting the differences and similarities between spoken and written discourse. As regards function, it is highlighted that speech and writing are generally complementary achieving different social functions. Formally speaking, they have completely different characteristics. Linguistically, typical speech and typical writing have different linguistic features, but in authentic discourse they usually show some overlap of these features. Thus, discourse mode is better analysed as a scale or continuum ranging from typical speech to typical writing. In the following chapter, we will Chapter Two Discourse Mode  44 discuss how other factors in addition to discourse mode (medium of communication) affect discourse production and interpretation. 7. Check your knowledge. Activity 7 Analyse the following examples of discourse identifying their mode and the linguistic characteristics which reflect mode concluding how far the text reflects typical speech or typical writing. Text 11. H&M return policy 12 H&M will give you 30 days to see if an item that you bought isn’t right for you. H&M offers exchanges and refunds on clothing items, swimsuits (with hygienic seal), and beauty products. All returns must come with the original sales receipt, and be within 30 days of purchase. If you want to return an item bought from H&M HOME that was purchased online, it cannot be returned in stores. H&M Home items must be returned by mail. H&M will issue a refund to the original form of payment, it can take up to 14 days for your return to process. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 12 Text retrieved from https://pricematchguarantee.net/hm-return-policy/ on December 7, 2022. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  45 ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Text 12. A competitor 13 So, there's another guy who does what I do he's extremely well-respected um he does extremely good work uh (2) I hate him (audience laughter). Whenever his name comes up, it drives me nuts. Because I I hate him, I'm really competitive with him. we had the opportunity to uh speak at the same event and the interviewer thought it would be fun if we introduced each other and so I went first and then I looked at him and I said you make me really insecure all of your strengths are all of my weaknesses and when your name comes up makes me really uncomfortable and he looked at me and he said funny I feel the same about you the reason I had such an irrational hatred of had nothing to do with him but had to do with me he's my worthy rival his strengths revealed to me my own weaknesses and instead of confronting and taking a hard look at myself and evaluating those weaknesses and working on those weaknesses is much easier to take all of that negative energy directed towards him ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 13 Script of a video retrieved from https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFqecPcp/ on December 7, 2022. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  46 ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Text 13. 14 A: Well, I remember Dave rang me up about this business. B: yes A: of changing to family grouping and erm - er you know it depends on so many things really but I have this friend of ours who lives er erm over the other side of Reading you know B. oh yes A. she erm - she teaches somewhere over that side I don't quite know where - but she's terribly against it B: Is she? A: she's a far more experienced infant teacher than I am you know 14 Adapted from Leech et al., 1982, p. 144. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  47 B: yes A: I mean I've only been doing infant teaching for a short while, but she won't have anything to do with it because she says that it puts too much strain on the teacher B. I'm sure it does. ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Chapter Two Discourse Mode  48 Text 14. Matt Damon turning down 10% of Avatar15 Damon definitely but then another time I made a moral decision was when I was offered a little movie called avatar, I was I I turned down and I will go down in history as the person because Jim Cameron called me he offered me 10% of avatar Host: oh god [Audience laugh and applause] Damon You will never meet an actor who turned down more money than me so but I was in the middle of shooting the born alternatim and and he wanted to shoot during our post production and we always needed more work in our post production and I and I needed to be around I needed to be available to do more work in our post production and and he he said to me he he was very he was really lovely and he said you know he goes (2) if you don't think was this movie doesn't need you it doesn't need a movie star at all he goes the the the movies the star the idea is the star and and and it's gonna work and he goes so if you don't do it I'm gonna discover some new guy and and put him in and but if you do I'll give you 10% of the movie ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ 15 Part of talk show hosting Matt Damon talking about him turning down 10 % of Avatar, retrieved from https://youtu.be/5GOfOeJA6rc 18 May 2023 Chapter Two Discourse Mode  49 ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Text 15. 16 a. Carriage hereunder is subject to the rules and limitations relating to liability established by the Warsaw Convention unless such carriage is not 'international carriage' as defined by that Convention. To the extent not in conflict with the foregoing carriage and other services performed by each carrier are subject to: (i) provisions contained in this ticket, (ii) applicable tariffs, (iii) carrier's conditions of carriage and related regulations which are made part hereof (and are available on application at the offices of the carrier), except in transportation between a pi ace in the 16 Adapted from Leech et al., 1982, p. 143-144 Chapter Two Discourse Mode  50 United States or Canada and any place outside thereof to which tariffs in force in those countries apply. (From 'Conditions of Contract', Laker Airways ticket) Activity 8 Say true or false. If false, underline the mistakes. Statement Answer 1. False starts reflect an example of the features of non-fluency in spoken discourse. 2. Complexity of clause structure is measured based on the number of elements and levels of subordination. 3. Clauses with subordination and embeddedness are less complex than clauses without subordination. 4. Backchannels are verbal or nonverbal expressions used by speakers to show their listeners that they are following what they say. 5. All instances of laughter in a conversation are considered incidents of interactional features. 6. Fluency is a linguistic feature that is more commonly associated with written discourse. 7. Grammatical blends occur where a sentence begins one way and ends another. 8. Fluency level in stand-up comedies and scripted speeches is lower than Fluency level in spontaneous spoken discourse. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  51 Statement Answer 9. Imperatives are examples of interactional features that invite the active participation of the addressee. 10. Modern technology has given spoken discourse the ability to communicate over a great distance and to larger numbers of people simultaneously. 11. Monitoring features are always present in spoken discourse. 12. Noun phrases that include more modifiers are more complex than those that don't. 13. One of the linguistic features that distinguishes spoken and written discourse is the lack of clear sentence boundaries in spoken discourse. 14. Punctuation marks make it easy to identify sentence boundaries in written discourse. 15. Recording information in a written form has not contributed significantly to the intellectual development of mankind. 16. Repetition in written texts is always a deficiency that needs to be amended. 17. Rewinding a recording to relisten to an utterance or a section takes less time than reprocessing a text visually. 18. Scripted texts such as news bulletins and movies have clear sentence boundaries similar to written discourse. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  52 Statement Answer 19. Social media platforms and mobile applications have given written discourse the same social functions as spoken discourse. 20. Speakers may not finish a sentence in spontaneous speech due to various reasons. 21. Speech is generally simpler in grammatical structure than writing. 22. Speakers use expressions such as "well" and "sort of" to check the receiver's understanding. 23. Spoken discourse is more effective than written language in reaching millions of people at the same time. 24. Subordination or embeddedness at the beginning of a clause is more complex than at the end. 25. The formal features of spoken discourse include rhythm and intonation. 26. The linguistic features of typical speech and typical writing do not overlap in authentic discourse. 27. The need for explicitness is less vital in spoken discourse because immediate feedback is available. 28. The permanence of written discourse gave legal power to written texts. 29. Writing was the first medium that allowed for communication over a great distance. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  53 Statement Answer 30. Written discourse is more easily transformed into a spoken form than speech is rendered into writing. Activity 9 Choose the correct answer to complete the following sentences. 1. Clauses with subordination and embeddedness are more complex than clauses without subordination, reflecting '___________' complexity. (a) vertical (b) horizontal (c) parallel) 2. ______________communication offers immediate feedback. (A) written (b) visual (c) oral 3. Complexity of clause structure can be measured based on the number of words referring to (a) vertical (b) horizontal (c) diagonal 4. Explicitness refers to the clarity of all the ___________ made in the text. (a) questions (b) references (c) statements 5. In spontaneous speech, sentences are often difficult to delimit because they may not be ___________. (a) finished Chapter Two Discourse Mode  54 (b) edited (c) planned 6. In written discourse, graphological devices such as ___________ and font type and size are used. (a) capitalization (b) laughter (c) sighs 7. In written language, sentence boundaries can be identified easily because of ___________. (a) punctuation marks (b) capital letters (c) underlining. 8. Modern technology can make some spoken discourses permanent by ___________. (a) scanning them (b) recording them (c) visualizing them 9. Modern technology has given spoken discourse the ability to communicate over a great distance through ___________. (a) telegrams (b) books (c) radio, TV, and the internet. 10.Noun phrases that include more modifiers are more complex than those that don't, reflecting '___________' complexity. (a) horizontal (b) vertical (c) diagonal) 11.Pronouns are often used in writing, and the reference to these pronouns is normally ___________ Chapter Two Discourse Mode  55 (a) clear (b) ambiguous (c) implicit 12.Recording information in written form allowed people to accumulate human knowledge discovered earlier and hence helped ___________ to develop in different fields. (a) humanity (b) technology (c) languages 13.Rewinding a recording to relisten to an utterance or a specific section takes _________________ time than processing a text visually. (a) more (b) less (c) the same 14.Speakers may not finish a sentence in spontaneous speech due to various reasons such as relying on their ___________ with the addressee. (a) shared knowledge (b) vocabulary (c) pronunciation 15.Speech is generally ___________, unplanned, and cannot be edited. (a) spontaneous (b) written (c) edited 16.Spoken discourse is ______________ effective than written language in reaching millions of people at the same time. (a) more (b) less (c) equally Chapter Two Discourse Mode  56 17.The distinctive feature of written language is that it is ___________ and can be carefully planned and processed. (a) invisible (b) audible (c) visible 18.The opportunity to get immediate feedback, clarification, or repetition makes the need for ___________ less vital in spoken discourse. (a) planning (b) explicitness (c) ambiguity 19.The permanence of written discourse gave legal power to important information such as ___________. (a) scientific discoveries (b) constitutions (c) spoken words 20.Writing is more explicit than speech because all the ________________ to understand the written text is available to anyone reading the text. (a) needed information (b) pronouns (c) examples Activity 10 Complete the following sentences. 1. Backchannels are verbal or nonverbal expressions used by ______________to show their speakers that they are following what they say. 2. Examples of data using the spoken mode include conversations, lectures, and ____________________________. Chapter Two Discourse Mode  57 3. Examples of written data include newspaper articles, letters, and ____________________________. 4. False starts occur when a sentence is ________________________and another is ________________________ 5. The fluency level in un-prepared spontaneous spoken discourse is ________________ than in scripted spoken discourse. | 6. Grammatical blends occur when a sentence starts one way and ____________ ______________| 7. Imperatives and questions are examples of interactional features that invite the addressee to _______________________________in the conversation 8. In TV ads, advertisers use repetition to ____________________________ 9. Nonverbal modes of communication can be used ___________ from the spoken and written modes. 10. One of the linguistic features that distinguishes typical speech from typical writing is____________________ 11. Repetition in speech occurs because people are normally thinking while______________________ 12. Speakers use expressions such as "you know" and "I mean" that mark _________________features in spoken discourse 13. The formality level of a text reflects its _________________________| 14. The linguistic features of typical speech and typical writing normally __________________ in authentic discourses. 15. Writers repeat some vocabulary words to make their writing_______________________ Chapter Two Discourse Mode