Spoken Genres Research Articles

Dialogues as an Involvement Strategy in Kadare’s novel "The Fall of the Stone City"

Discourse is not just a form of language use, but also a cognitive and social accomplishment within a communicative context. This article aims to interpret dialogues in Kadare’s novel The Fall of the Stone City through a combination of methods of discourse analysis and conversation analysis. The object of this analysis are the direct dialogues, in which characters are represented through their own voice, and where the narrator evades his/her own intervention during the transmission of the character’s sensory experience and does not give to the reader an indication of any sort of privileged information regarding the condition of the character. The central focus of this analysis is involvement strategies, as the basic principle in both conversational and literary discourse. The spoken genre is characterized by fragmentation and involvement, whereas the written genre is characterized by integration and detachment. The comparison of spoken and written narratives suggests that normal conversation and literary discourse have many similarities between them. The examination of the dialogues in Kadare’s novel The Fall of the Stone City clearly shows that the author combines involvement with integration in building scenes and triggering emotions. He uses familiar strategies, like repair and repetition in creating coherence and involvement, which are intentional in creating meaning.

The Use of English Pragmatic Markers by Learners of English from Different Linguacultural Backgrounds

Abstract This study compared the uses of the textual and interpersonal functions of English pragmatic markers (PMs) by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) from three different linguacultural backgrounds in two spoken genres. Thirty Chinese, 30 Thai and 30 Indonesian EFL learners were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews and dyadic conversations. Significant differences in the ways in which the participants used textual and interpersonal functions in the two spoken genres were found, whereas there were significant differences in the use of textual functions by speakers from different linguacultural backgrounds. The spoken genres and the linguacultural backgrounds mainly affected the more frequently used functions, and had no effect on the functions that were used less frequently. Furthermore, the spoken genre had a greater effect on the different uses of the functions of English PMs than did the linguacultural backgrounds.

A Comparative Analysis of Except and Except for in the COCA

The ultimate goal of this paper is to show how similar except and except for are in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). A point to note is that except and except for exhibit the same pattern in six genres, whereas they show a different pattern in two genres. What this suggests is that except is 75% the same as except for in the genre analysis of the COCA. A further point to note is that except and except for exhibit the lowest similarity in the fiction genre, whereas they reveal the highest similarity in the spoken genre. The COCA clearly shows that except people is the most preferable one among Americans, followed by except death, except Mr, and except water, in that order. The COCA further shows that except for people (45 tokens) is the most preferable one for Americans, followed by except for Mr, except for cases, and except for things, in that order. Finally, this paper argues that 21.95% of 41 nouns are the collocations of both except and except for. This amounts to saying that except is 21.95% the same as except for in the analysis of 41 collocations.

The Analysis Spoken Genre Across American and Indonesian Cultures Through Podcast: Joe Rogan and Deddy Corbuzier

Language, of course, is a tool of communication that cannot be divorced from daily activities. Speak genre analysis has resulted in a substantial number of studies on English in many genres like as presentations, speeches, interviews, and casual chats. Podcasting is an important emerging digital media that has long been used in education. As a result, it is necessary to evaluate whether the spoken genre in each country's podcast differs. This study aims to analyze the difference between cultures in Indonesia and America, especially in podcasts entertainment and to examine whether podcasts may impact discourse genres, mainly spoken genres across cultures, and was inspired by the applications and advantages of podcasts stated above and experimentally tested by various experts. This research uses descriptive qualitative research methods. The object of this research study is a conversation between two different podcasts, namely podcasts from Deddy Corbuzier and Joe Rogan. The practical aspect is the form of questions in every conversation between the two podcasts. The data source for this research is the YouTube channel account of Deddy Corbuzier and Joe Rogan. Data collection in this study was carried out using several techniques, including observation techniques, listening techniques and note-taking/writing techniques. Result showed there was a significant different between differences in language use, different types of questions, and speaking dominance between hosts and guest stars. Thus, the difference between spoken genres across Indonesia and America can be seen.

On Keep and Keep on: A Corpora-based Analysis

The main goal of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of keep and keep on in the TV Corpus and the British National Corpus. With respect to the TV Corpus, it is interesting to note that keep was favored over keep on from the 1950s to the 2010s. A further point to note is that keep and keep on reached a peak (28,586 tokens vs. 1,303 tokens) in the 2010s. In addition, it is worth pointing out that keep was always preferable to keep on from the 1950s to the 2010s. With respect to the BNC, it is probably worthwhile pointing out that keep is 71.42% the same as keep on in the seven genres of the BNC. When it comes to the Euclidean distance between keep and keep on, the former is the nearest from the latter in the fiction genre, whereas the former is the furthest from the latter in the spoken genre. Quite interestingly, the BNC clearly shows that keep going and keep on going are the most preferred (430 tokens vs. 24 tokens) by the British. Finally, it is significant to note that 43.58% of thirty nine gerunds are the collocations of both keep and keep on.

TED Talks: A genre analysis

This research aims at investigating TED Talks as a genre. The analysis focuses on its rhetorical structure, characterized by moves and steps and the communicative purposes of the genre. The corpus comprises 10 talks selected from the website TED Talks. The data are discussed in the light of Bhatia’s (1996/2004) and Swales’ (1990/2004) theories of genre. Results demonstrate that, in terms of the analysis of the rhetorical structure, it reveals a constant pattern of moves and steps along the corpus, since every talk contained the five moves identified by the analysis. These cyclical and more frequent moves are: topic introduction, speaker presentation, topic development, concluding messages, and acknowledgments/gratitude. In terms of its communicative purpose, TED aims to celebrate ideas to a diverse audience worldwide, due to the variety of topics encompassed. This study also allowed us to develop a deeper view of this spoken genre, its features, and the way individuals may benefit from it in their lives.

A Comparative Analysis of Sorry for and Sorry about in Two Corpora

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of Sorry for and Sorry about in the COCA and BNC. When it comes to the COCA, it is interesting to point out that the types Sorry for and Sorry about show the same pattern in the TV/movie and fiction genres and the academic genre, whereas they show a different pattern in the blog, web, magazine, newspaper genres and the spoken genre. With respect to the BNC, it is significant to note that Sorry for and Sorry about show the same pattern in the fiction genre and the spoken genre, whereas they show a different pattern in the newspaper and magazine genres and the misc, non-academic and academic genres. It can thus be inferred that these two types are synonymously used, but they are slightly different from each other in their use. A major point to note that in the COCA, Sorry for is the furthest type from Sorry about in the TV/movie genre, whereas Sorry for is the nearest type to Sorry about in the academic genre. A further point to note is that in the BNC, Sorry for is the furthest type from Sorry about in the spoken genre, whereas Sorry for is the nearest type to Sorry about in the academic genre. The COCA clearly shows that Sorry for people is the most preferable one for Americans, followed by Sorry for Mr., Sorry for me, and Sorry for Mrs., in that order. The COCA shows, on the other hand, that Sorry about dinner is the most preferable one for Americans, followed by Sorry about lunch, Sorry about Mr., Sorry about agent, and Sorry about that, in descending order. The COCA clearly indicates that the expression Sorry for being is the most preferable one among Americans, followed by Sorry for interrupting, Sorry for having, Sorry for getting, and Sorry for making, in descending order. The COCA also shows that the expression Sorry about being is the most preferable one for Americans, followed by Sorry about getting, Sorry about calling, and Sorry about leaving (Sorry about having), in that order. It is worth noting that only two nouns (Mr. and things) can be the collocations of both Sorry about and Sorry for. It is also worth pointing out that eleven of thirteen seven gerunds are linked to both Sorry about and Sorry for. This in turn suggests that Sorry about and Sorry for are interchangeably used, but they are somewhat different from each other in their use.

A corpus-based study of explicit objective modal expressions in English

ABSTRACT The grammatical pattern of explicit objective modal expressions and its three subtypes (i.e., explicit objective expressions of probability, usuality and obligation) are investigated in this paper. By implementing a collostructional analysis, specifically collexeme analysis and multiple distinctive collexeme analysis, we aim at uncovering how, with respect to different genres in COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English), modal expressions are significantly attracted or repelled by the grammatical pattern, and how these expressions are diachronically associated with the grammatical pattern in different time periods of COCA and COHA (Corpus of Historical American English). The genre-related findings demonstrate that explicit objective modal expressions of probability and obligation are attracted by formal genres while repelled by informal ones, whereas those of usuality are repelled by both formal academic and informal spoken genres. The diachronic findings demonstrate that modal expressions that denote low values of probability and obligation have undergone a path of gradual change from repulsion to attraction because of an accumulation of negotiability and politeness by language users.

A Corpora-based Analysis of You must and You have to

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the frequency of you must and you have to in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), the British National Corpus (BNC), and the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA). The COCA clearly shows that you have to may be the preferable one for Americans. When it comes to the genre frequency of you must and you have to, you must is the most frequently used one in the TV/movie genre and you have to is the most commonly used one in the blog genre. The BNC indicates, on the other hand, that you have to may be preferred over you must by British people. The BNC clearly shows that in the fiction genre, you must is the most widely used one, whereas in the spoken genre, you have to is the most frequently used one. This paper argues that the expression you must know is the most preferred by Americans, followed by you must go, you must understand, you must think, and you must take, in that order. This paper further argues that the expression you have to go is the most preferred one in America, followed by you have to get, you have to say, you have to make, and you have to take, in that order. Additionally, the BNC shows that the expression you must know is the most preferred by British people, followed by you must provide, you must go, you must get, and you must take, in that order. The BNC indicates, on the other hand, that the expression you have to go is the most preferred by British people, followed by you have to pay, you have to get, you have to take, and you have to make, in that order. Finally, the COHA clearly shows that you have to may have been the most preferable one for Americans in 1930, whereas you have to may have been the most preferable one for Americans in 2000.

Societal Age Stereotypes in the U.S. and U.K. from a Media Database of 1.1 Billion Words.

Recently, 194 World Health Organization member states called on the international organization to develop a global campaign to combat ageism, citing its alarming ubiquity, insidious threat to health, and prevalence in the media. Existing media studies of age stereotypes have mostly been single-sourced. This study harnesses a 1.1-billion-word media database comprising the British National Corpus and Corpus of Contemporary American English—with genres including spoken/television, fiction, magazines, newspapers—to provide a comprehensive view of ageism in the United Kingdom and United States. The US and UK were chosen as they are home to the largest media conglomerates with tremendous power to shape public opinion. The most commonly used synonym of older adults was identified, and its most frequently used descriptors were analyzed for valence. Such computational linguistics techniques represent a new advance in studying aging narratives. The key finding is consistent, though no less alarming: Negative descriptions of older adults outnumber positive ones by six times. Negative descriptions tend to be physical, while positive ones tend to be behavioral. Magazines contain the highest levels of ageism, followed by the spoken genre, newspapers, and fiction. Findings underscore the need to increase public awareness of ageism and lay the groundwork to design targeted societal campaigns to tackle ageism—one of our generation’s most pernicious threats.

A tale of two genres: Engaging audiences in academic blogs and Three Minute Thesis presentations

ABSTRACT This paper reports a cross-genre study of how academics engage their audiences in two popular but underexplored academic genres: academic blogs and Three Minute Thesis (3MT) presentations. Based on a corpus of 65 academic blog posts and 65 3MT presentations from social sciences, we examine how academics establish interpersonal rapport with non-specialist audiences with the aid of engagement resources. The analysis identified new ways of informing and persuading a more diverse audience of their research in both genres. Further analyses revealed more engagement features overall deployed in 3MT presentations, especially those seeking to bring audiences into the discussion by mentioning them explicitly, directing them to think in certain ways, and addressing them with questions. Academic bloggers, in contrast, emphasized shared knowledge and offered more parenthetical commentary. The variations are explained in terms of mode and context, especially the time-constrained and face-to-face competitive context of the spoken genre. The findings have important implications for academics to address their audiences in taking their research beyond specialist insiders, and they shed light on how engagement works in very different academic contexts with different modes.

Schematic Structure of Manifesto Launch Speeches of Three Political Parties

A key pre-election spoken genre in several modern democracies is unarguably the manifesto launch speech. Yet, it has surprisingly received either very little or no scholarly attention. Consequently, from a rhetorical perspective, this study examined the schematic structure of three keynote speeches delivered by presidential aspirants of three leading political parties in Ghana – New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the Convention People’s Party (CPP) – to launch their political parties’ manifestos in 2016. The three speeches delivered by the presidential candidates of the three parties constituted the data set for the study. Applying the popular Swalesean rhetorical move analysis, originally meant for the academic setting, the study identified the use of a nine-move pattern as the schematic structure for the genre across the three speeches, with four ambiguous moves. These findings of the study have implication for the standardizing of the schematic structure of manifesto launch speeches worldwide and, thus, contributes to the scholarship on the political manifesto genre, political communication as well as further research on manifesto launch speeches in other democracies around the world.

A frequency analysis of i like to and i like-ing

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the frequency of I like to and I like –ing in the COCA, BNC, and COHA. The COCA clearly indicates that the type I like to was preferred over the type I like –ing by Americans. More specifically, Table 1 clearly shows that in the TV/movie genre, I like to and I like –ing were the most preferred by Americans. On the other hand, the BNC clearly indicates that I like to may have been preferred over I like –ing by British people. It is interesting to note that the type I like to was the most frequently used one in the fiction genre. This may imply that British writers are fond of writing a good thing to do in the fiction since what characters like to do makes stories interesting and thus encourages readers to finish reading the novel. Additionally, Table 2 clearly shows that the type I like –ing was the most frequently used one in the spoken genre. This may imply that I like –ing was the most preferable one for British people. When it comes to the COCA, it is noteworthy that the collocation I like to think is the most preferred by Americans, followed by I like to call, I like to see, I like to keep, I like to say, I like to use, I like to go, I like to get, and I like to make, in that order. On the other hand, the collocation I like being is the most commonly used one in America, followed by I like having, I like doing, I like working, I like seeing, I like watching, I like going, I like playing, I like talking, and I like getting, in that order. In addition, the collocation I like to think is the most commonly used one in the UK, followed by I like to see, I like to get, I like to go, I like to keep, I like to know, I like to hear, I like to make, I like to look, and I like to use, in that order. On the other hand, the collocation I like being is the most preferred by British people, followed by I like doing, I like watching, I like having, I like going, I like playing, I like looking, I like driving, and I like using, in that order. Finally, the COHA clearly shows that the type I like to was favored over type I like –ing. A major point to note with regard to the type I like to is that there was no frequency (0 token) in 1810. This in turn implies that I like to may have been the most undesired type. A further point to note is that the type I like to had the highest frequency (279 tokens) in 2000, which in turn suggests that it was the most preferred by Americans. It is noteworthy that there was no frequency (0 token) in the case of I like –ing in 1810, 1820, and 1830. This in turn indicates that it was the most undesired type. On the other hand, the frequency of I like –ing reached a peak (119 tokens) in 2000, which in turn suggests that it was the most preferable type for Americans.

Specialized and culture-bound knowledge dissemination through spoken tourism discourse: Multimodal strategies in guided tours and documentaries

The distinctive features of most instances of tourism discourse are their predominantly low specialization and their hybrid generic and semantic nature. Tourism discourse draws from a range of genres and specialized domains, including but not limited to art, history, economics, architecture, and geography to name but a few. Through its communicative strategies, it leads the tourists and their “tourist gaze” (Urry 2002) in their real or imaginary journey, it mediates the tourist experience and contributes to closing the gap between their culture and the destination’s culture. These leading and mediating operations are performed by making culture-specific knowledge and specialized concepts accessible to the general public (Cappelli 2016; Cappelli, Masi forthcoming). For this reason, tourism discourse offers an ideal vantage point to investigate popularization and knowledge dissemination strategies. Much linguistic research on written tourism discourse has been carried out over the past two decades. However, to the best of our knowledge, spoken genres remain largely unexplored with few exceptions. Our study intends to contribute to closing that gap by investigating the way in which multimodal semiotic resources are exploited in oral communication in tourism to make specialized and culture-bound concepts accessible to the audience. First, we present the data obtained by the analysis of a small sample of clips of guided tours and documentaries representing various domains. Then, we illustrate the way in which verbal and non-verbal strategies are used to create accessibility in a genre-specific way. Finally, we propose a classification of the data analysed as belonging to three strictly interconnected and yet distinct genres, namely documentaries, “docu-tours” and guided tours, and we provide some conclusions regarding the relevance of the study for professional development and pedagogical applications.

A Corpus-Based Study of English Synonyms: Chance and Opportunity

The study aims to investigate differences and similarities of two synonymous nouns, chance and opportunity. The sources of data were from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and online dictionaries. The study applied both quantitative and qualitative methodology. Throughout the five text types of COCA (i.e. spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic journals), opportunity was used most frequently in academic texts and was found least often in fiction. On the other hand, chance occurred least in the genre of academic texts and most often in the spoken genre. The claim that opportunity tends to be used more often in formal style than its near synonym was supported by a number of academic words in the list of its collocates. Although a wider range of meanings of chance reflects its polysemous status, chance and its collocates have fewer semantic preferences than those of opportunity. The findings also suggest that near-synonyms may behave differently in terms of collocation and semantic prosody although they share similar meanings.

Five Types Involving the Subjunctive: A Corpora-based Analysis

The main goal of this paper is to provide a detailed frequency analysis of the five types it is imperative that, it is vital that, it is essential that, it is important that, and it is necessary that within the British National Corpus (100 million, British, 1980s-1993), the Corpus of Contemporary American English (1.0 billion, US, 1990-2019), the Corpus of Historical American English (400 million, US, 1810s-2000s), and the Hansard Corpus (1.6 billion, British Parliament). In this paper, we have examined the frequency of the five types and collected the data. A major point to note is that it is important that was the most preferred by British people, followed by it is essential that, it is vital that, it is imperative that, and it is necessary that, in that order. The BNC clearly shows, on the other hand, that it is important that was the most commonly used one in the spoken genre, magazine genre, newspaper genre, and academic genre. A further point to note is that it is important that was the most preferred by Americans, followed by it is imperative that, it is essential that, it is vital that, and it is necessary that, in that order. The COCA clearly indicates that it is important that was the most widely used one in the blog genre, web genre, spoken genre, fiction genre, magazine genre, newspaper genre, and academic genre. The reason why it is important that was the most preferred by Americans and British people in the academic genre may be that a moderate obligation is suitable for conveying factual information. With respect to the COHA, it is worth noting that it is necessary that was the most preferred by Americans from 1810 to 2000, followed by it is important that, it is essential that, it is imperative that, and it is vital that. As for the HC, it is important that was the most preferred by British politicians, followed by it is essential that, it is vital that, it is necessary that, and it is imperative that. It is worth noting that Americans and British politicians show the similar pattern in the ranking of the five types in that Americans did not prefer a strong statement or the strongest statement, whereas British politicians did not prefer the strongest statement.

English Get-Passives: Reassessing the Frequencies across Genres

This study investigates the get -passive in American English, with emphasis on its distribution in different text types and its semantic features characterized by co-occurring verbs. The data was drawn from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), i.e. the latest version with eight different genres. The findings indicate that the get-passive is a linguistic feature of informal English due to its highest frequency in spoken genres, e.g. TV and movie subtitles, and blogs. Furthermore, common verbs constituting the get -passive were explored and their meanings in context were analyzed. In agreement with previous studies, the semantic analysis of get -passives revealed a higher proportion of verbs expressing adversity, followed by those with positive and neutral meanings, respectively. The existence of non-adversative get -passive predicts a decline in the adversative type.

From analysis to pedagogy: Developing ESP materials for the Welcome Address in Sri Lanka

A paucity of authentic language data has made the teaching of certain spoken genres which occur in formal professional settings a challenging task in the Sri Lankan L2 classroom. The Welcome Address (WA), an integral part of the agenda of many Sri Lankan professional events, is one such hitherto unexplored genre. The aim of this study was to identify lexico-grammatical and rhetorical features of the WA that could be used for developing effective pedagogical materials for a Business English course with a module on Special Occasion speeches. For this purpose, a specialized corpus of 20 WAs was compiled, and lexical patterns were identified using AntConc and Compleat Lexical Tutor. Swales' (1990) move structure analysis was applied to identify typical rhetorical functions of the genre. The results reveal that the WA has three obligatory moves and one optional move. Keywords, n-grams and frequency lists all reveal language patterns central to genre specific language acquisition. The results of the analysis enable the design of pedagogical materials focusing on move structure, communicative purposes, and sentence level grammar and lexis. The paper concludes with sample lesson materials for teaching the construction of an effective WA in a professional context in Sri Lanka.

A pragmatic Analysis of Personal Metadiscourse and Politeness Principle across Genres: From Relevance to Adaptation

This study investigated personal metadiscourse units across genres. Based on Adel’s (2006) taxonomy of the discourse functions of personal metadiscourse and Leech’s (2014) grand strategy of politeness, three spoken genres were compared in terms of the use of personal metadiscourse functions and politeness maxims. To that end, a 3,034,025-word corpus consisting of Panel discussion in politics, Interviews with actors, and Comedies genres, which included 30 audio and video transcriptions, was developed. Explicitness, world of discourse, current discourse, speaker qua speaker and listener qua listener were used to identify metadiscourse units. We examined the total frequencies of all personal metadiscourse units used in the corpus. The results of corpus analysis showed that 19.6% of metadiscourse units occurred in comedies, which was the highest among the three genres. The most commonly used metadiscourse units appeared in speaker-oriented metadiscourse with 10.2% in interviews. The results also revealed that in panel discussion the speakers focused more on their own ideas than the listeners or participants. Results of chi-square analysis showed that English speakers used speaker-oriented, participant-oriented, and listener-oriented metadiscourse types statistically significantly differently. A statistically significant difference between speaker-, participant-, and listener-oriented units was found. Results also revealed that speakers in different genres are willing to use such maxims as opinion reticence and modesty more frequently than other maxims. The paper concludes with proposing a new model for analyzing metadiscourse.

A Keyword Analysis of Stance and Engagement in Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Presentations

Due to the increasing influence of promotional culture on academic discourse, new marginal genre texts with informative and promotional purposes are emerging. In this study, we investigated a novel promotional but under-researched academic spoken genre, 3MT (three-minute thesis) presentations, which only allow the speakers 3 minutes to promote their research findings. We generated keywords of this genre using size effect metrics to identify the features of 3MT presentations delivered by PhD candidates and trained undergraduate ESP learners. The addressors were compared in their use of personal pronouns to present their stance and to interact with the audience. The results revealed that the PhD candidates tended to highlight the values and rationale of their research, whereas the ESP learners placed greater emphasis on their methodology. The PhD candidates were better at using rhetorical devices, i.e. reader pronouns and inclusive we , to invite the audience into their discourse community. Some similarities between the two groups were also identified. For example, ‘ you’ was less deployed by both groups compared with its use in other academic spoken genre texts. Our study shows that genres are not only evolving and changing but are also heavily affected by technology advancements. Findings can also help ESP practitioners better prepare learners to make persuasive presentations in minimal time by employing personal pronouns.