Spoken and Written language
Characteristics of spoken and written language
In any language the spoken version differs from the written one. In the following text we shall look at the differences between the two types of languages. The relationship between spoken language and written language is complex. For example in the spoken language you use mostly first and second person, while written material you use mostly third person. Speech is usually a communication between two or more people, and direct speech is not used as much as in written language. Spoken languages tends to be full of repetitions and incomplete sentences, and it is not looked upon as a good idea in written language, whereas we use a lot of repetition in our spoken language together with the use of many conjunctions and hesitation words (disfluencies). On the other hand the written language tends to have longer sentences and can be closely analyzed on the writing surface. Written material can also make use of punctuation, titles, layout, colors and other graphical effects, which are not available in speech. You can also say that in written texts you receive no immediate feedback, except after it has been published, and in speech you can get an immediate answer.
Transcript of a recording
The transcript can be written in the following way:
Something happened when he was living in Western Samoa where he had rented a house. His bedroom was separate from the rest of his house, and one night when it was quite late, and he was lying in bed being awake and alone. His flatmate was away at the airport meeting some relatives. He started hearing noises on the roof of his bedroom, and the roof was a tinroof, so he heard footsteps and creaking sounds on the tin. There was another noise, and he could not quite tell what it was, but it was something strange, which made him really scared. He could not get to a phone without unlocking his bedroom door. He would have to walk across the lawn, unlock the front door and go into somebody on
In any language the spoken version differs from the written one. In the following text we shall look at the differences between the two types of languages. The relationship between spoken language and written language is complex. For example in the spoken language you use mostly first and second person, while written material you use mostly third person. Speech is usually a communication between two or more people, and direct speech is not used as much as in written language. Spoken languages tends to be full of repetitions and incomplete sentences, and it is not looked upon as a good idea in written language, whereas we use a lot of repetition in our spoken language together with the use of many conjunctions and hesitation words (disfluencies). On the other hand the written language tends to have longer sentences and can be closely analyzed on the writing surface. Written material can also make use of punctuation, titles, layout, colors and other graphical effects, which are not available in speech. You can also say that in written texts you receive no immediate feedback, except after it has been published, and in speech you can get an immediate answer.
Transcript of a recording
The transcript can be written in the following way:
Something happened when he was living in Western Samoa where he had rented a house. His bedroom was separate from the rest of his house, and one night when it was quite late, and he was lying in bed being awake and alone. His flatmate was away at the airport meeting some relatives. He started hearing noises on the roof of his bedroom, and the roof was a tinroof, so he heard footsteps and creaking sounds on the tin. There was another noise, and he could not quite tell what it was, but it was something strange, which made him really scared. He could not get to a phone without unlocking his bedroom door. He would have to walk across the lawn, unlock the front door and go into somebody on