Revision Thread

[Natters]

i can never do that sorta shit on elec based texts, the one that starts with LOL seems more spoken and the one before seems written
like do i include the smiley as a paralinguistic feature as if your actually doing it or what... lol

Established turn taking between the interlocutors, with a series of question and answer adjacency pairs.

Topic and turn-taking effectively managed by interviewer, with interviewee only speaking when directed to do so (by finishing of syntactic clause) and having some licence to change topic, but interviewer has the upper hand.

i guess i'd say that that post displays flawless grammar and obeys all conversation principles, making it more formal and the second oneeeee idk

i mean you said "oh" but it has a picture of a smiley... <confusedd.

[helenv]

Oh, random, just wondering:

What are the standard features of written and spoken discourse? For example, is ellipsis standard in spoken or both (I mean you can't keep repeating yourself all the time)?

[thushan]

Um I think stylistic features are found in both modes. The real difference is -

Spoken:

Transient --> therefore less credibility
Spontaneous --> higher tendency for non-fluency features, overlaps, errors in grammar
Generally informal because of spontaneity
Prosodics and Paralinguistics --> less explicit language, so yes ellipsis and the like
Face-to-face --> prevalence of deictics

What else you reckon?

[helenv]

The informal thing, ellipsis is a feature of informality, right? (<-- XD neutral interrogative tag)

[thushan]

Not always. In say a list of terms and conditions, ellipsis actually makes things more formal.

[luffy]

Um I think stylistic features are found in both modes. The real difference is -

Spoken:

Transient --> therefore less credibility
Spontaneous --> higher tendency for non-fluency features, overlaps, errors in grammar
Generally informal because of spontaneity
Prosodics and Paralinguistics --> less explicit language, so yes ellipsis and the like
Face-to-face --> prevalence of deictics

What else you reckon?

To the spontaneous section, I think you could also add reductions/contractions and shortenings.

Also, any other non-standard syntax etc.

[helenv]

except terms and conditions are a 'legal' thing so they should be long-winded (compounding!) and without ellipsis...

[luffy]

except terms and conditions are a 'legal' thing so they should be long-winded (compounding!) and without ellipsis...

If you want a good look at analyzing terms and conditions - do the 2010 VCAA exam! haha.

[thushan]

helen -

2010 VCAA: "sentence fragments (ellipsis) are used, for example, ‘Departing Melbourne to Los Angeles’. These present key
factual information concisely and dispense with pronouns or verbs, thereby not engaging with the reader."

[helenv]

idk if reductions and contractions necessarily show spontaneity (is that how you spell it?). Doesn't it show informality?

Ok (terms and conditions thing), makes sense

[luffy]

idk if reductions and contractions necessarily show spontaneity (is that how you spell it?). Doesn't it show informality?

Ok (terms and conditions thing), makes sense

Yeah - that is true. My mistake. However, I haven't seen a "planned" text that has contractions/reductions yet.

[helenv]

sorry, another random question:

How many types of registers are there? Just formal and informal or are there more? Because I did this in a practice exam and I said an AUS register (don't even know if that's right) except the answer was a formal register...


@luffy: planned texts could be informal emails - they have contractions

[Natters]

afaik a regeister can be anything...
right now im using my forum register to talk here but id use my grandma register to talk to my grandma
im pretty sure its just the language you use when you speak in a specific context
granted most of the time formality is the deciding factor in what register you use but there are a lot of others

[helenv]

oh ok (^^)b thanks

[thushan]

Register is basically a language variety that you can control, not something that is entirely innate.

Note the apparent authority in the use of capital letters and fullstops in a forum through formality

Oh, btw? Best approach to spoken and written text? Just bullshit