Jack Martin's English Journal

Spoken Language study (practise writing task)

When we speak to one and other in a day to day conversation we use many different devices which come naturally and sometimes we don’t even realise we’re using them. These devices are used for many different reasons like giving us time to think, making it easier to transfer information quickly and making sure the person you are talking to are still engaged in the conversation. I am now going to explain some of these features.

The first device we use which I’m going to explain is a filler. Fillers are items of speech which allow us time to think or to create a pause. The fillers are normally pronounced for a longer amount of time because this gives us the necessary time to think of the idea we are going to talk about. The fillers that are in my transcript are ‘ermmmm’ and ‘hmmm’. These fillers added my Levi. It was used to give him time to think and also to add a bit of humour to the conversation by repeating it a lot of times. These fillers could also be used to make the conversation flow more and also to keep the persons attention so the structure of the sentences are not all the same.

A rising terminal inflection is a device we also use a lot. A rising terminal inflection is when we make the end of our sentences pitch higher in order to translate that it’s a important part. An example of this is ‘did you get that homework, the sheets?’. Alfie made his pitch higher when he said the sheets. This can also be a culture devices which is done by Australians and New Zealanders in the English language.

Incomplete sentences are used as well. For example ‘got maths next’. A Standard English way of saying this would be ‘I got maths next’. The pronoun ‘I’ is emissioned in this incomplete sentence. This could be used to relay information quicker or it could be something that is universal to all the people included in the conversation. What I mean by universal is in this example we all have maths next so that’s why we emissioned the pronoun.

To summarise this is how we use these devices, why we use them and how they add effectively to the conversations we have.

 

Posted

in

by

jackm

Tags:

Comments

3 responses to “Spoken Language study (practise writing task)”

  1. Christopher Waugh Avatar
    Christopher Waugh

    What a great effort Jack – I’m impressed. Here’s some feedback:

    1) Your introduction is great. It’s clear and organised and makes some meaningful points. I particularly liked where you made reference to the cues that help us know someone is still taking notice

    2) You explained a filler well. An interesting fact about these fillers like ‘um’ and ‘ah’ is that they actually enhance people’s communication. It has been shown that they each have a meaning that helps the listener to gather more information from what you’re saying. This makes sense when you think about it because it really does mean something different when someone says.. “ah, I’m not sure” as opposed to “oh, I’m not sure” – do you agree with that?

    3) The rising terminal inflection is well explained. I think you could have expanded more on the part where you referred to it being a cultural indicator – by explaining that even beyond an accent, these markers help us to know where someone is from. Also – it would be interesting to speculate about why people want their sentences to sound like questions? Maybe they’re not confident? Seeking approval or affirmation?

    4) Incomplete sentences. Your point here is very strong, but it’s not explained as clearly as the other devices. I really like what you’re saying about the omission of the pronoun “I”, but could you be clearer in your explanation?

    Also, “I got maths next” still contains an omission. It should read “I have got maths next” or, “I have maths next”.

    5) your final paragraph is utilitarian. You’ve done well, but to improve it further, it would be brilliant if the final paragraph were to contain a more developed conclusion (much like the introduction) about the extraordinary creativity and nuance that is present when we speak to each other.

    Nice work

    Mr Waugh

    Reply
    1. jackm Avatar
      jackm

      Thanks sir
      I do agree with the fact you made about the filler. I also think I could have extended the rising terminal inflection paragraph when I was writing it, but I didn’t know what else to say. I will include what you have asked and add more detail and explanations. I will edit my work before our assessment so I can get your feedback.

      Reply
      1. Christopher Waugh Avatar
        Christopher Waugh

        I look forward to it. you’re going very well!

        Reply

React!