Features of Conversation, Spoken Prose and Written English

Linguistic Features of English Conversation

Studies of the pronunciation of ordinary spoken English, based on transcripts of real-life conversations, reveal a number of characteristic features:

1. Loss of initial or final consonants, e.g. the funnies(t) thing I've...; isn'(t) it?
2. Assimilation of consonants.
3. Vowel reduction, e.g. once (i)n a while.
4. Combinations of these processes.
5. Coalescence, e.g. Let me ge(t you a) drink. What do you want?
6. Close juncture between words within rhythm groups, e.g. I don't think it's all that good. Have a good lunch. Celia, darling. It's really pretty funny.
7. A continuous flow of sound produced by the physical linking of one word to the next within phrases.
8. Strong contrasts between heavy and weak stresses. Syllables undergoing the reduction associated with this contrast can become obscure, indeterminate or even disappear completely.
9. Grammatical and lexical material may disappear, e.g. Oh, it does you good [to have a good] laugh once in a while, doesn't it? Highly stressed syllables, however, tend to remain prominent.
10. Conversation is rarely scripted in advance, and therefore tends not to employ the breadth of vocabulary and the complex structures normally associated with written English or more formal styles of speech.
11. Conversation creates its own immediate challenges. Speakers have to establish contact with their listeners and fill time while preparing and organising segments of the utterance containing a properly structured message.
12. These functions are served by tags and fillers, exclamations, expletives, hesitations and longer formulae, e.g. isn't it?, I think, I mean, You know and don't you?
13. Conversation may involve considerable amounts of socially motivated "agreeable noise-making". In such situations, speakers can retreat from the creative challenge or mental discipline required to say anything of substance.
14. When we want to relax or need more time to organise our thoughts, we tend to fall back on lines that we have rehearsed repeatedly.
15. These include idioms, colloquial clichés and polite formulae. They are particularly common in conversations between friends, e.g. the funniest thing I've ever seen and terribly funny (colloquial clichés); mind you and have a good laugh (idioms).
16. Words tend to be shorter in conversation than in other forms of spoken English. As speakers, most of us are more familiar with words of one or two syllables.
17. Conversation commonly makes use of simple phrasal and compound verbs and a relatively limited vocabulary serving basic functions such as agreement, offering, acceptance, greeting, making requests, stating and modifying beliefs, questioning and responding.
18. These areas are well rehearsed, and an unintimidating vocabulary is customary.
19. Conversational speech does not always produce syntactically complete or perfect sentences. The sentences may therefore be simple in structure but loose, awkward or vague. It is not always easy to apply the conventional notion of a "sentence" to conversation.
20. Complete conversational utterances may consist of phrases that would be regarded as fragments in writing or spoken prose. Contractions are also common, e.g. Haven't seen you for years. and Err, Frank; Eve. Err, gin and tonic, please.
21. Physical gesture and facial expression can supply information that is absent from the words themselves. When two people are being introduced, for example, the context of Err, Robert; Susan may be provided largely by gesture and facial expression.
22. Conversational utterances are often "mixed" or "stringy" in syntactic form. Words may be omitted, while hesitations, self-interruptions, repetitions and false starts leave their mark on what may aptly be described as a series of segments, e.g. Well, I mean – I mean bits of it are – bits of it are quite funny, aren't they? I mean bits of it. You know, don't you?
23. Word order gives greater scope for the intonation patterns of spoken English. Instead of simply saying Do you like it?, for example, consider You like it, do you?
24. Utterances are constructed to accommodate exclamations and question tags. There may be extensive use of Tune 1, as in It's funny, isn't it?, to elicit strong agreement, and of Tune 2 to introduce a note of discord.
25. The characteristics that distinguish conversation from spoken prose or semi-formal written English are largely related to the nature of the interaction. Conversation is not a monologue; speakers have to produce and organise language spontaneously; and conversation serves important social functions.
26. Knowledge of articulation can help the non-native listener. An understanding of where sounds are articulated in the mouth, together with awareness of the direction in which the speech organs are moving and whether to expect "voiced" or "voiceless" stops, can contribute to the development of effective listening skills.
27. Teachers can demonstrate these contrasts through simple examples. It is not difficult to demonstrate the relatively short vowel and voiceless stop in seat and compare them with the longer vowel and voiced stop in seed.
28. Both direct and indirect procedures can be used to identify voiced and voiceless consonants. In this way, learners can appreciate how simplification occurs and develop sufficient sensitivity to the sound of "informal English" to overcome some of the obstacles presented by features such as elision and assimilation.

Listening to Spoken English