From utterance to discourse
Introduction
92
Deixis: viewpoint and time and
place references
93
General 93a
This
, that, these, those 93b
Situational ellipsis
94
Situational and other kinds of
ellipsis 94a
Initial elements 94b
Interrogatives with no auxiliary or
subject 94c
Interrogatives: subject pronoun
and no auxiliary verb 94d
Copular verb be 94e
Declaratives: no subject
pronoun 94f
It
and demonstratives 94g
Existential there 94h
Verb ellipsis in directives 94i
Determiners 94j
Conditional if 94k
Fixed expressions 94l
Prepositions 94m
Response tokens
95
General 95a
Premodification 95b
Negation 95c
Pairs and clusters 95d
Headers
96
Headers and clause structure 96a
Types of header 96b
Headers and clause elements 96c
Tails
97
Tails and clause structure 97a
Types of tail 97b
Tails and clause elements 97c
Questions and tags
98
General 98a
Question tags and intonation 98b
Tag patterns in requests 98c
Position of question tags 98d
Fixed tags in informal
speech 98e
Echo questions
99
Follow-up questions
100
Two-step questions and
responses
101
Preface question:
(Do you) know
what?
102
Vague
expressions and
approximations
103
Vague language 103a
Approximations 103b
| 177
From utterance to discourse
INTRODUCTION
92
Sections 82–91 outlined some key features of spoken language, especially the way
face-to-face conversations are tied to the participants and the immediate situation
in which they are speaking in real time.
In this chapter, 92–103, we consider how grammatical features in spoken
utterances reflect the creation of discourse rather than just the internal
construction of phrases, clauses and sentences. We use the term ‘utterance’
to refer to complete communicative units, which may consist of single words,
phrases, clauses and clause combinations spoken in context, in contrast to the
term ‘sentence’, which we reserve for units consisting of at least one main clause
and any accompanying subordinate clauses, and marked by punctuation
(capital letters and full stops) in writing.
This chapter considers how speakers orient themselves to the situation of
speaking, centred on the notion of deixis. Deixis concerns the way speakers refer
to people and things in terms of time and space, all in relation to the moment and
situation of speaking. For example, the basic meanings of I and you in English are
‘person speaking’ and ‘person addressed’, respectively, and who the words refer to
will change every time the speaker changes. Similarly, an object which is this cup
for a speaker may be referred to as that cup by a listener who is separated from the
speaker in space or time:
A: What’s this box here?
B: I don’t know. Trash.
[at a travel agent’s; the customer (A) has just received his tickets]
A: Right well this is all right now is it?
B: That’s the ticket yes.
(what is this for the customer is that for the agent)
Û
93
This chapter also considers how speakers encode assumptions about what can be
understood from the situation without being said, and what cannot,
as reflected in
the phenomenon of situational ellipsis. Ellipsis, or absence of references to
entities which are obvious to all participants, is common in informal speech:
A: Finished yet?
B: Not yet.
(obvious to the listener that the speaker means ‘Have you finished yet?’)
Û
94
This chapter also examines how listeners respond to messages and show their
‘listenership’, for example by the use of response tokens, i.e. single words and
phrases that represent much more personally and affectively engaged alternatives
to bare yes and no:
[talking about food preparation]
A: Actually these things should be marinated the night before.
B: Exactly. Oh absolutely. Actually er yeah. Even the vegetables, Karen.
The chapter then describes how speakers package the information in their
messages with the listener firmly in mind (e.g. by the use of headers, informative
items that precede the conventional clause structure and make the clause easier to
process):
(header)
My father, he’s been in hospital three times already.
Û
96
In addition, the chapter considers how speakers create interactive exchanges by
the use of questions and tags (short structures typically found at the end of
clauses, such as You like mushrooms, don’t you?) (
Û
98
).
Another important feature of spoken discourse is the purposive use of vague
language (such as sort of, whatever) to project particular kinds of relationships
between speakers (
Û
103
).
The way speakers organise their utterances into coherent discourse and
monitor it in relation to its reception by listeners is covered in the next chapter,
in the section on discourse markers (
Û
108
).
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