Spoken vs.

Written Discourse

02-09-2019
 Objectives
• To understand the difference between spoken
and written discourse.
 Distinction between written and
spoken discourse
• The distinction between written and spoken
discourse is often referred to as CHANNEL
(D.Hymes) or MEDIUM as speaking and
writing involve different psychological process.
• Spoken and written discourse differ for many
reasons. Spoken discourse has to be
understood immediately written discourse can
be referred to many times.
 General Difference between spoken
and written discourse
1. Grammar complexity
2. Lexical density
3. Nominalization
4. Explicitness
5. Contextualization
6. Spontaneity
7. Repetition, hesitation, and redundancy.
 1: Grammatical Complexity
• Written discourse is more structurally complex
and more elaborate then spoken discourse.
• In other words, sentences in spoken discourse
are short and simple, whereas they are larger
and more complex in written discourse.
• Structurally:
• Spoken discourse is more fragmental. It
contains more simple sentences and
coordination words (and, but, so because etc)
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• Written texts exhibit a bewildering variety and
richness of different structural forms.
• In written discourse we often use passive
when we do not want to specify the agent. In
spoken discourse we would use as subject like
“ people, somebody, they, you.
 Lexical density
• It refers to the ratio of CONTENT WORDS (i,e
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) to
grammatical or FUNCTIONAL WORDS (e,g
pronouns, prepositions, articles) within a clause.
• Spoken discourse is LESS LEXICAL DENSE then
written discourse.
• Content words tend to be speed out over a
number of clauses, whereas they seem to be
tightly packed into individuals clauses.
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• Lexical characters:
• Spoken discourse has:
• More pronouns ( It, they , you, we)
• More Lexical repetitions
• More First person references
• More active verbs
 Nominalization
• It refers to presenting ACTIONS and events as
NOUNS rather then as verbs.
• A: Written discourse has a HIGH LEVEL OF
NOMINALIZATION i,e more nouns then verbs.
• B: Written discourse tends TO HAVE LONGER
NOUN GROUPS then spoken discourse.
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• Lexical characteristics
• Spoken discourse has:
• More verbs based phrases:
• Having treatment- being treat
• Hospital care – go to the hospital
• More predicative adjectives:
• Statistics are misleading- misleading statistics
• News is frightening- frightening news.
 Explicitness
• General view:
• Writing is more explicit then speech
• This is because in written discourse we lack body language
and gesture.
• Rebuttal view:
• This is not absolute as it depends on the purpose of text.
• A writer/ speaker can state something explicitly or infer it
depending on how direct they want to be and what they
want their listener/reader to understand.
• E,g a poem is not necessarily explicit and a university
lecture is most likely going to explicit even though it is
spoken.
 Contextualization
• The knowledge of context needed to interpret a
text.
• It is closely tied to explicitness.
• General View:
• Writing is more decontexlualized then speech:
Speech is more attached to context then writing
because speech depends on a shared situation
and background for interpretation.
• For example: One can read a textbook without
knowing whether it is written by a male or female
writer.
• Rebuttal:
• This may be true for conversations, but not in all
types of spoken discourse. Some types of written
discourse may know high dependence on shared
contextual knowledge.
• Example:
• Personal letters between friends do need context
while some academic lectures (Spoken) are
decontextualized, if on attitudes, he/she can
understand.
 Spontaneity
• General view:
• (a) Spoken discourse lacks organization and is
ungrammatical because it is spontenious,
whereas written discourse is organized and
grammatical.
• (b) Spoken discourse contains more uncompleted
(fragements and reformulated sentences.
(c) Topics can be changed in the middle.
(d) Speakers may overlap and interrupt each other.
• Rebuttal:
• Spoken discourse is organized but it is
organized differently from written discourse.
Repetition, hesitation and redundancy
• General view:
• Speaking uses much more repetition hesitation
and redundancy than written discourse.
• Produced in real time, with speakers working out
what they want to say at the same time as they
are saying it.
• Uses more pauses and fillers line “hhh” “er” and “
you know” to give time to think what they are
going to say.