Conversational Style

Conversational style is also called familiar. This kind of English is also a means for everyday communication, heard in natural conversational interaction between speakers.

So phonetic stylists call it conversational. Some scholars also call it informal, because this style occurs mainly in informal external and inter nal relationships in the speech of rela-tives, friends, well-ac quainted people and so on

In informal situations, where speakers are more relaxed, less attention is given by them to the effect they produce on the listen ers, because in everyday life a more natural and spontane ous style will be used. It is the style at the extreme informal end of the sty-listic linear continuum that is known as "vernacular" [Brown 1977]. Thus all speakers have a vernacular style but its variations in the use of non-standard norms depend on the

social background. In this style variation will be at its most consistent level. It is the most situationally influenced kind of English.

In conversational style the emotional reaction to the stimulating speech signals is very im portant so the attitudinal function of intonation here comes to the fore. Therefore one is liable to find here a wider range of con trasts at any level than could be expected elsewhere.

In a conversation we do not just listen to words, we derive the meaning con-sciously or unconcon-sciously from a number of other communicative systems and it could be that a lift of an eyebrow, a twitch at the side of the mouth, or a silence tell us more than a dozen sentences.

But undoubtedly the verbal part of the communication plays a very important role and has its own systems too but only linked with other effective ways contributed by the speakers. The full effect is achieved and meanings are exchanged even with strangers and about unfamiliar topics.

Spontaneous, colloquial, informal conversations display cer tain common linguistic characteristics.

1. Firstly, talks of this kind are characterized by the inexplicitness of the language as the speakers rely very much upon the extralinguistic factors — context, kinesics, etc. This manifests it self in "incompleteness" of many utterances as the context makes it clear what was meant by the speaker, thus making re dundant its vocal expression (see example 1):

Example 1

Jane: Well... maybe, but... take responsibility; the... the... you don't need as great a sense of responsibility for you... your kind of work as you do in teaching — all those children, all those parents...

Brenda: No, but you do have your... your... your colleagues at work — you have a certain amount of responsibility to them.

Occasionally, the lis teners request recapitulation by all sorts of repeated and echo-ing questions (see example 2):

Example 2

Richard: Well, I'm going tonight in fact.

Jane: Tonight? Oh, are you?

Richard: Yes, most nights really.

2. Secondly, conversations are characterized by the lack of planning and the ran-domness of subject matter. They are very often unpredictable, not guided to an overall theme as, for exam ple, in our first conversation.

This is the most changeable variety of the language. It is, however, true that in many everyday communications certain semantic blocks are commonly repeated. For instance, the stere otyped exchange of greetings, partings, pleasantries, making ac quaintance, start-ing the conversation, arreststart-ing attention, mak start-ing contacts and so on.

One can easily spot phrases of speech etiquette functioning in colloquial talks such as questions to keep the conversation going, asking for information, expressions leading up to ques tions, polite formulas for attracting attention, requesting, agreeing and refus-ing, expressing gratitude and others. These devices and opening gambits are very helpful for speakers to build up a conversational unity and are used by native speakers mechani cally.

3. The third general feature of the conversational style talks is "non-fluency". Infor -mal spontaneous conversation is character ized by a high proportion of "errors" involving hesitation phe nomena, slips of the tongue and all sorts of overlapping and si multaneous speech (see example 3):

Example 3

Entire range of vocalic clusters, sounds, non-verbal signals are common in conver-sations, e.g. mmmm, sshh, ah, bn, etc.

Also, one can hear whistles, laughs, giggles, clearings of the throat, snorts and sniffs.

On the grammatical level informal conversation provides delimitation of utterances and sentences. Other points to be noted on the grammatical level include:

High proportion of parenthetic compound types of sen tence introduced

1. by you see,

you know, I mean, I say and others.

Frequent use of interrogative sentence types and very few imperatives.

2.

Common use of vocatives, especially in initial position.

3.

Rare use of nominal groups as subjects; the personal pro nouns are more in evidence, 4.

the informal you is quite common in its impersonal function.

A great number of question tags.

5.

The use of all sorts of repetitions and repetition structures. Even adverbial 6. intensifiers such as very may be repeated several times.

The occurrence of contrasted verbal forms

7. (he's, I’ll, I’ve).

The frequency of colloquial ellipses.

8.

The most noticeable aspect of everyday conversations is their vocabulary. It is char-acterized by colloquial idioms, the use of words simple in structure, the avoidance of phraseology; also the informality of the text is achieved by the use of words and phrases specific for such conversations, e.g.

Yeah. Right. OK. I see. Oh, yes. Yes, yes. Oh, lovely. Oh dear. Alright. Sure. Good heavens! Thanks! Jol ly good! Really? Come off it! Oh, no! Hey! and others [Crystal 1979].

On the prosodic level the field researchers provide us with data that help us to do some generalizations [Crystal 1979; Диалогическая речь 1980].

Conversations fall into coordinated blocks, consisting of suprasegmental and 1.

supraphrasal units tied up by variations within the length of pauses, speed, rhythm, pitch ranges, pitch levels and loudness.

Since there are no restrictions on the range and depth of emotions which might 2.

be displayed in conversational speech sit uations they will allow entire range of prosodic effects.

Intonation groups are rather short, their potentially lengthy tone units tend to be 3.

bro ken. These short interpausal units are characterized by decen tralized stress and sudden jumps down on communicative cen tres (see example 4).

Example 4

The heads are usually level, or rarely, falling. Falling heads occur only in groups 4.

consisting of several stressed syllables.

As for the nuclei, simple falling and rising tones are com mon. Emphatic tones 5.

occur in highly emotional contexts. High pre-nuclear syllables are very frequent (see example 5).

Example 5

The tempo of colloquial speech is very varied. The natural speed might be very 6.

fast but the impression of "slowness" may arise because of a great number of hesitation pauses both filled and non-filled (hesitant drawls) within the block.

However, the speakers may have no pauses between their parts, very often they speak simultaneously, interrupt each other.

Also a familiar point about informal conversation is the fre quency of silence for pur-poses of contrastive pause as opposed to its being required simply for breath-taking.

Pauses may occur randomly, not just at places of grammati cal junctions (see ex-ample 6).

Example 6

So, tempo is very flexible in this style. It is uneven with and between utterances.

7. Interpausal stretches have a marked tendency towards subjective rhythmic iso-chrony.