Grammar in Spoken and Written Text

Chapter 5 of Grammar (2005), Michael Swan

Speech and Writing

Grammar used to be based only on written text since spoken text was evanescent.

With recording technology, now we can analyze speech. Prototypically, speech is

interactive while writing is a monologue. Each has its distinct grammatical characteristics.

When building phrases, clauses, and utterances, we must keep in mind the following:

  Writers, unlike speakers, can pause and reflect on their production. In turn, readers

are better are decoding than listeners.

  Writing tends to be architectural , with dense packaging of information. Speech is

more linear with its information-bearing elements more spaced out. For this reason,

writing often nominalizes.

  Written sentences vary enormously in length and complexity. They exhibit

hierarchical organization and embedding. The average spoken clause length is

around seven words.

Reference and Context

Until now we have mostly been dealing with small pieces of texts like clauses and

sentences. Longer texts, spoken or written, need to be structured to communicate

successfully.

One important aspect in constructing a text is reference. In order to avoid lexical

repetition, there is a wide spread tendency among languages to useanaphoric pronouns.

Eg. Daenerys of the House Targaryen, Mother of Dragons and Breaker of Chains,

is coming this afternoon. She [ Daenerys of the House Targaryen, Mother of

 Dragons and Breaker of Chains] is very young.

When using references, there is potential for ambiguity.

Eg. Tony told Steve he was in charge. (Who is he referring to?)

Pro-forms in general work to recapitulate the elements in a text.

  Substituting a verb: “Clean the kitchen!” “I already did !” 

  Substituting an adjective or relative clause: “I want a super fluffy dog who can fit in

my shoe.” “I wouldn‟t like such a dog” 

  Substituting an object: “I think we will pass this course with flying colors.” “I hope

 so.” 

When it‟s unnecessary to make a reference explicit, we use ellipsis, that is, elements can be

left out.

Eg. “Why did you do that” “(I did that) to annoy you” 

 

“I wanted to jump over the fence, but I was unable to (jump over the fence)” 

Reference in Writing and Speech

Writing tends to have more pronouns than speech and reference is mainly internal.

In speech, however, anchored in here and now, the reference is towards the physical

surroundings. This is why demonstratives are naturally more common in speech. Speech, in

turn, has more substitute words like one, do and so.

Given and New Information

Information flow and topic-maintenance

Texts are build integrating new and given information. To make the informational

status of an element explicit we use the definite article.

Eg. The  woman started singing. 

Order also shows the distinction between new and given information. Sentence and

causes begin with what is known/taken for granted and leave the main information at the

end. English subjects tend to be more definite than indefinite. Indefinite subjects are often

 postponed.

Eg. A man is looking at me. vs. There was a man looking at me.

Merging topic and subject is mostly unproblematic in written language, since we

can make lexical or syntactic changes to make this work. In spoken English, on the other

hand, topic and subject are more often detached. Some structures like left-dislocation allow

the listener more time to process what is being said.

Eg. This guy who rang up, he said … 

Sound can also be manipulated to structure spoken text. For that we use intonation.

Given material usually carries a rising intonation that indicates there is something still to

come. Phonological features also work to give special focus or emphasis to a certain

element.

Text Structure

“Readers and listeners can process text more easily if the structural relations and

transitions between one part and another are made explicitly” (p.46). For this we use

discourse markers: words and phrases whose main function is text management.

Eg. Firstly, therefore, on the one hand .

English discourse markers tend to be register-specific, that is, we use different

markers in informal speech and formal writing. Spoken text, since is mostly conversational,

involves a larger amount of structural devices. We use those to take over, shift, or take back

the conversation.

 

 

Face

Grammar provides ways in which to facilitate the speaker-listener interaction and to

minimize the threats to „face‟. English has grammatical structures to express respect or

consideration and to make suggestions, requests, and questions less direct.

Eg. Could you… Would you… 

Although both writing and speech can be more or less formal, formality is more often

associated to the written text. While formality is often expressed through lexicon

( start/commence, say/state), it can also be expressed through grammar.

Eg. Contractions, phrasal verbs, and preposition stranding are consider informal.

Pronouns in coordinated subjects: Me and Peter  vs. Peter and I .

With the current reduction of the prestige gap between speech and writing, some of

these forms are becoming more widely acceptable.

Types of texts

Certain texts have their own special organization characteristics.

Eg. Letters, newspaper headlines, ads, literary works.

Global Warming is real, says everybody.