C1 Spoken Language Terms

A term used to describe the changes people make to their speech, to emphasise or minimise the differences between them

• accommodation

• lexical matching

• downward talk

A sequence of two connected utterances by different speakers one after the other: question/answer; greetings; complaint/explanation

• Q+A

• adjacency pairs

• Joined speech

Interactive features such as minimal responses (e.g. mm, yeah, ahh) that demonstrate a participant is listening and paralinguistic features (e.g. laughter) that show affirmation, but which do not disrupt the speaker’s turn.

• convergence

• code switching

• back channelling

A commonly occurring clause in speech which adds a remark to another clause e.g. I mean …, I think …).

• comment clause

• thinking clause

• comment phrase

Speakers challenging each other to take control of the conversation

• challenging for the ground

• competing for the floor

• competing for the space

A process in which two speakers adapt their language and pronunciation to reduce the difference between them.

• divergence

• convergence

• mimicking

A term describing expressions that rely on the context for interpretation e.g. there, over here, that high.

• meixis

• peixis

• deixis

A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region

• idiolect

• dialect

• familect

Words or phrases that stand outside the clause and act as fillers, topic changers, hedges etc. e.g. well, right, y’know,

• discourse markers

• discourse indicators

• discourse marks

A process in which two speakers adapt their language and pronunciation to increase the difference between them

• bivergence

• convergence

• divergence