1. Chapter 4 Spoken language, Oral culture

2. The Seven Characteristics of Conversational Speech
1. Speech is transient, rather than permanent.
2. Speech is additive or ‘rhapsodic’.
3. Speech is aggregative./ phatic communion
4. Speech is redundant or ‘copious’

3. 5. Speech is loosely structured grammatically and is lexically sparse.
6. Speech tends to be people-centered, writing tends to be topic- centered.
7. Speech, being close to the situation at hand, is context dependent.

4. These seven features are not inherent (permanent) in the spoken or written medium.
Orality and literacy have to be seen as a continuum use of both the spoken & written languages.
E.g.
s/ memos (written in the orate mode/ ‘informal style’)
presentations/ lectures (spoken in the literate mode/ ‘elevated style’)

5. The cultural matrix of language as it is used in verbal exchanges
Indicating Status:
- via words/ titles
- clip #20
Social positioning
- via intonation, pronunciation (footing) code switching
- cultural frame/ speech order
- clip #22& 21
Protecting face
- via order of speech & respect
- example ‘Japanese’
- clip #23

6. 4) Conversational style
- depends on contexts of situation/ culture
- interview? Friendly? Silent? Loud? …
Narrative style
- via story telling
- less details/ analysis vs. more