Stylistic Analysis of An Extract of
Conversation
Introduction
Conversation is the most commonly used kind of language. Therefore , it is especially a variety familiar to the majority of English -speaking people . This variety is used in everyone’s daily life . And it has its own distinct stylistic features . Stylistics is a branch of linguistics which studies style in a scientific and systematic way concerning the manners/linguistic features of different varieties of language at different levels.
Causal style is the language used for situations in which no social barriers are felt by the participants. It is the language used among intimate friends, acquaintances, insiders, and people with shared knowledge. In casual visits ,chance meetings ,casual talks, or letters between friends this style is often found . Colloquial words, clipped words, clipped words, phrasal verbs, blend words are often used. Sentences are usually short, elliptical, with a lot of contractions. And the tone tends to be friendly and informal.
This passage possesses almost all characteristics of conversation. It could be an appropriate material for stylistic analysis. This is a conversation between two housewives who are in the same age range
1.At the phonological level
Phonology refers to speech sounds in a language .Here the main focus put on elision, pause, and normal non-fluency.
1.1 Elision
Elision is one of the distinct phonological style markers in conversation, which is frequently used by the speakers involved .In real conversation, what people concern most is whether the information has been conveyed, instead of catching every word clearly. And some functional words are pronounced in a low voice or even elided by the speakers. In
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conversation, people usually speak naturally fast, and because of the fast tempo, two words are pronounced as one word. Therefore, the frequent use of contractions can be found. In this extract, there are numerous contractions, such as I’m, I’ve, I’ll, I’d, it’s, you’re, couldn’t, hasn’t, that’s etc. all these contractions makes the conversation sound natural. This skill is either an important signal in spontaneous conversation. B:I’ve warmed up B:It’s just that I’m
B:I’d left my coat in my locker and I just could’t ......
Those elision can perfectly indicate the informality of the conversation as well as intimate relationships between A and B.
1.2Pause
Pause refers to the brief interruption of the articulatory process between consecutive linguistic units. Pause can also be seen as a signal of ending a thought unit. In English, there are voiced pauses, and silent pauses. In this extract, both kinds of pauses can be frequently found. For example: A:You got a /cold //
B:/No/just a/bit sniffy/cos I’m -I/am cold /and I’ll be all right once I’ve warmed up//-do I look as though I’ve got a cold//
The pause aim to arouse the people’ attention A: no I/ thought you sounded as if you were// B:/M/
The pause aim to express talker’s uncertain attitude and cause suspense
1.3stress
Stress refers to the prominence of sounds. It is the result of extract force used in pronouncing particular word or syllable. It is a very important way of expressing different feeling or implying different meaning in oral communication. It has the following functions: to show emphasis, surprise, anger, doubt, horror, excitement and to distinguish meaning of
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identical words or phrases. For example: A:you got a COLD B:No, just a bit SNIFFY
In this sentence, the speakers stress the word ”cold”, ”sniffy” which indicates the speakers emphasis.
B:you are KNITTING? what are you KNITTING. That’s not a tiny GARment. A:No
In this sentence, ”knitting” is stressed, which indicates the speaker’s surprise or doubt. B stresses the word of “knitting” at twice, to emphasize, which expresses that B is to feel doubt about A. To her surprised, she does not think that A should have knitted the garment.
2.At the Lexical Level
Lexis refers to the choice of words and expressions, and here, we will focus our attention on the used of colloquial words, intensifiers, and verb phrases.
2.1Use of colloquial words
Regarding it is an extract of daily conversation, there’s no denying the fact that colloquial words can be often used.
Since it is a casual conversation, it is normal and natural to see so many colloquial words, such as yeah, got, just, ’cos, etc. These words can express the speaker’s attitude, surprise, worried, or some other feelings. Colloquial words are also the signal of informality.
2.2 Use of VPs
Verb phrases are frequently used in conversation. Conversation is a kind of informal variety. Thus hard verbs are rarely used by speakers in everyday talks. In this fragment, there are only 1 hard word. It takes up a very slim percentage of the total number of words( 304)
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