2. What characterizes the vocabulary of conversation?
How many words do speakers typically use?
What distinguishes the lexis of casual conversation
from more formal and less spontaneous forms of
spoken language, and from written language?
How many – and which – words do you need, to be
able to take part in conversations in a second
language?
3. ‘A person can largely function in everyday
conversation with a vocabulary of 2000 words’
(Schmitt, 2000: 74)
Lexical size:
4. Repetition, combined with a reliance on a relatively
limited number of high frequency words, accounts for
the fact that there is typically a lower lexical density
and less lexical variety in conversation than in other
registers.
5. ‘We would expect, therefore, that written texts have a
higher proportion of unpredictable lexical words, and
that spoken texts have a higher proportion of more
predictable grammatical words’ . Stubbs (1996)
Low lexical density is :‘language-in-action’ – that is
‘[spoken] language being used directly in support of
actions that are taking place at the
moment’(McCarthy and Carter, 1997: 33).
Lexical variety is the measure of the different words in
a text.
6. Lexical frequency: Half of all conversation consists of
just 50 words, endlessly recycled. What are these 50
most frequent words – and are they the same as the
50 most frequent words in written corpora?
‘Core lexicon’ can be grouped into at least nine
significant categories:
modal vocabulary;
delexical verbs ;
interactive words ;
discourse markers ;
basic nominal concepts ;
Lexical frequency:
7. general deictics ;
basic adjectives ;
basic adverbs ;
basic verbs for actions and events
Lexical repetition :
A distinctive characteristic of conversation is
repetition, at the level of words, of grammatical
structures, and of discourse features.
Repetition, then, serves a textual function,
contributing to both the cohesion and coherence of a
text.
8. Vagueness is a feature of spoken language that is
often censured in the false belief that it is evidence
of woolly thinking.
Words like stuff and thing are highly productive in
that they can substitute for almost anything.
9. Some instances of vague language – like sort of –
double as pause fillers, that is, those linguistic
devices used to fill a momentary hesitation
occasioned by the demands of real-time processing
pressure. The most frequent pause fillers (also called
hesitators) are er and erm (conventionally
transcribed as uh and um in American English).
10. Discourse markers (Schiffrin, 1987) serve to show
how what is being said is connected to what has
already been said, either within a speaker’s turn or
across speaker turns.
Interactional signals (Stenström, 1994), on the other
hand, are those devices that function to facilitate the
cut-and-thrust of online talk.
11. No discussion of the vocabulary of conversation
would be complete without considering the important
role played by fixed and semi-fixed multi-word
phrases (or lexical chunks) in the achievement of
conversational fluency.
12. The vocabulary of conversation
lexical phrases – “standard phrases with simple meanings”: time
out; black and blue; head over heels; the bitter end; missed the boat
etc.
conversational routines – phrases that perform a socio-interactional
function, including:
• fillers: I mean, sort of
• discourse markers: on the other hand, by the way; in other
words
• sentence builders and utterance launchers: would you like a . . . ?
the thing is . . . ; do you mind if I . . . ? that reminds me of . . .
• tags/tails: . . . and so on; . . . or something; . . . you know what
I mean?
• expletives: bloody hell; holy smoke
• social formulae
• greetings: nice to see you; have a nice day
• thanks: thanks a lot
• offers: would you like a lift?
• etc
lexical bundles – frequently recurring word sequences: have a look
at . . . yeah I know but . . . if you’ve got a . . .
Figure 2.1 Categories of multi-word items (or chunks)
13. Appraisal refers to the language ‘resources used to
negotiate emotions, judgments and valuations,
alongside resources for amplifying and engaging
with these evaluations’ (Martin, 2000: 144).
Involvement refers to the language resources used
for indexing group membership, and includes the
use of names and other address terms (such a mate,
darling, sir), slang, swearing and taboo language,
jargon, foreign expressions, catchphrases, and
anything else that is likely to be recognized as ‘in-
group’ language by the other members of the group.
14. A systematic approach to the teaching of
conversational routines would involve categorizing
these routines according to their discourse functions,
and selecting exemplars according to criteria of
frequency and coverage
To conclude:
