‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬

EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬

‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

Lecture 2: Differences between Spoken & Written Discourse

There are two types of discourse: spoken and written discourse. Spoken discourse
refers to speech while written discourse refers to written texts. Such division is due to the
fact that there are many differences between them. AS for the function of spoken discourse,
it is argued that speech is used for the establishment and the maintenance of human
relationships (primarily interactional), whereas written discourse is used for working out
and transference of information (primarily transactional). The major differences between
speech and writing are derived from the fact that one is essentially transitory and the other
is designed to be permanent (Brown & Yule, 1983).

From the point of view of production, it is noted that spoken language is different in
certain important respects from written language. The actual phonetic realization of
language elements is only one component of face-to-face communication. In addition to
purely verbal elements, we have non-verbal or paralinguistic elements like tone of voice,
facial expression and gesture. Speakers body language in which they use different parts of
their bodies such as hands and face to indicate a wide range of emotional states and
intentions. The written language, on the other hand, is not associated with the use of
paralinguistic features. The whole burden of the written communication falls on linguistic
elements. There are certain graphological devices – punctuation, underlining, capitalization
and so on – which fulfill something of the function of the paralinguistic element in speech,
but compared to the resources available to spoken language, they are very few and very
limited in communicative capacity. Written language has, therefore, to make use of the
language system in such a way as to compensate for the absence of the variety of
paralinguistic elements available in speech situations.

There are, of course, advantages of the written language for the readers. They can
control the rate at which they read, can naturally reread earlier portions of a text, skim,
scan, jump forwards and backwards if it suits their purposes. They also can omit sections

1
 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

they already know about. It does not matter too much if the written form includes
information which a particular reader already knows. In contrast, listeners are forced to
take notice of the speakers. They do not directly control the rate at which they hear speech,
nor they can re-listen or scan ahead without some action on the part of the producer of the
speech as to ask for a repetition. On the other hand, there are also advantages for the
speakers. Speech is a reciprocal activity, where there is a constant interchange between the
participants, each playing the role of speaker in turn. What the speaker says is controlled
by the reactions of the listener expressed either by linguistic or by paralinguistic means.
The reactions of the listener provide feedback to the speaker who modifies what he says
and the manner in which he says it accordingly to make it more accessible or acceptable to
him. In speech, the participants are actively involved, each monitoring the other; able to
put each other right if they make mistake. However, writers have no access to immediate
feedback and simply have to imagine the reader’s point of view. They have to anticipate
the reader’s understanding and predict potential problems of comprehension.

As for the form and the linguistic characteristics, spoken and written discourse differ
in many areas like:
1. Grammatical Intricacy / Complexity
2. Lexical Density
3. Nominalization
4. Explicitness
5. Contextualization
6. Spontaneity
7. Repetition, Hesitations, and Redundancy

2
 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

1. Grammatical Intricacy / Complexity

View: Written discourse is more structurally complex and more elaborate than spoken
discourse. Sentences in spoken discourse are short and simple, whereas they are longer and
more complex in written discourse. Embedded sentences is more of a written discourse
characteristic which means having clauses in the sentence.

In written discourse we often use passive when we don’t want to specify the agent. In
spoken discourse we would use a subject like “people”, “somebody”, “they”, “you”.

Structurally, spoken discourse is more fragmented. It contains more simple sentences and
coordination words (and, but, so, because, etc.). Written texts exhibit a bewildering variety
and richness of different structural forms.

Rebuttal: Halliday argues that spoken discourse is NOT less organized. He claims that
spoken discourse has its own kind of complexity. In spoken discourse, clauses are long
and spread out. So, spoken discourse can be grammatically intricate as well.

Example: “You are fabulous, truly, truly fabulous. And you know what’s fabulous about
you? I believe that the real, true artists, the people that are around you for a long time,
who touches people’s lives, are those artists that have lots of contradictions within them,
and you had many contradictions within you when you first rocked up. You looked like a
skate punk and you had this aura of “Don’t mess with me” about you, and, but every time
you step in front of us you take another step towards being what we wanna create here,
which is a superstar artist. That was a fantastic song for you. You just rocked the house
and I can’t believe they have got you in heels! Absolute class act, darling.”

The previous extract by a judge on a television song competition contains sets of clauses
that are long and spread out in the way that Halliday describes.

2. Lexical Density:
The term ‘Lexical density’ refers to the ratio of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs) to grammatical or function words (pronouns, prepositions, articles) within a
clause.

View: Spoken discourse is less lexically dense than written discourse. Content words tend
to be spread out over a number of clauses, whereas they seem to be tightly packed into
individual clauses.

3
 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

Spoken discourse is lexically characterized by having more pronouns (it, they, you, we),
more lexical repetitions, more first person references and more active verbs.

Rebuttal: In some types of spoken discourse, you will find a high number of content words
but they are spread out in different clauses compared to the written discourse in which they
are tightly packed.

Consider this example: If Casablanca defined true love for a generation of incurable
romantics, it also defined the aesthetic possibilities of cinema for a generation of film
lovers.

3. Nominalization:
Nominalization means presenting actions and events as nouns rather than as verbs.

View: a. Written discourse has a high level of nominalization: i.e. more nouns than verbs.
b. Written discourse tends to have longer noun groups than spoken discourse.

Rebuttal: Sometimes spoken discourse may exhibit a higher level of nominalization such
as in lectures and debates.

Spoken discourse is lexically characterized by having more verb-based phrases like:

having treatment being treated
hospital care go to the hospital
It is also characterized by having more predicative adjectives like:
statistics are misleading misleading statistics
news is frightening frightening news
Consider these examples:

A- I studied last night and it was tiring.

B- Studying last night was tiring.

4
 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

4. Explicitness:
View: Writing is more explicit than speech. This is because in written discourse, we lack
body language and gestures.

Rebuttal: This is not absolute as it depends on the purpose of text. A writer/speaker can
state something explicitly or infer it depending on how direct they want to be and what
they want their listener/ reader to understand.

e.g. a poem is not necessarily explicit and a university lecture is most likely going to
explicit even though it is spoken.
Consider this example:
Yvonne: Will I see you tonight?
Rick: I never make plans that far ahead.
5. Contextualization
Contextualization means the knowledge of context needed to interpret a text. It is closely
tied to explicitness.

View: Writing is more decontextualized than speech; speech is more attached to context
than writing because speech depends on a shared situation and background for
interpretation.

Example: One can read a textbook without knowing whether it is written by a male or
female writer

Rebuttal: This may be true for conversations, but not in all types of spoken discourses.
Some types of written discourse may show high dependence on shared contextual
knowledge.

Example: Personal letters between friends do need context while some academic lectures
(spoken) are decontextualized; if one attends, he/she can understand.

6. Spontaneity
View:
a. Spoken discourse lacks organization and is ungrammatical because it is spontaneous,
whereas written discourse is organized and grammatical.

5
 ‫ دراسات لغوية‬: ‫اسم المقرر‬ ‫جامعة عين شمس‬
EN-LING 32: ‫الكود‬ ‫كلية األلسن‬
‫ النظام الفصلي‬/ ‫ الثالثة‬: ‫الفرقة‬ ‫قسم اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

b. Spoken discourse contains more uncompleted (fragments) and reformulated sentences

c. Topics can be changed in the middle.
d. Speakers may overlap and interrupt each other.
Rebuttal: Spoken discourse is organized, but it is organized differently from written
discourse. When we change the topic, there is an indication (e.g. by the way…etc.) which
means that we are aware that there is a structure that we should follow, so change is not
made haphazardly. Speakers signal change. When we interrupt, we use expressions like “
I don’t mean to interrupt but…” which expresses an apology. This shows that we are aware
of the system. Usually, there is a structure, but it is not written anywhere. People follow it,
and when they don’t, it is marked. When overlapping occurs, usually one of the participants
stops.

7. Repetition, Hesitations, and Redundancy

View: a. Spoken discourse contains more repetition, hesitations, and redundancy because
it is produced in real time (i.e. on the spot).

b. Spoken discourse has many pauses and fillers, such as ‘hhh’, ‘er’ and ‘you know’ so that
speakers give themselves time to think about what they want to say.

Sources:
Biber, D. (1986). Spoken and written textual dimensions in English. Resolving the
contradictory findings. Language 62. 384-414
--- (1988). Variations Across Speech and Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Brown, G. & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse Analysis. USA: Cambridge University Press
Paltridge, B. (2006). Discourse Analysis: An Introduction. London: Continuum