AnalysisoftheDifferencesbetweenwrittenandspokenEnglish

Introduction

This article is written to discuss and examine the differences between spoken English and written English. The ideas on the differences are given by Hallidy， Chafe and Tannen. The article Oral and Literate Strategies in Spoken and written Narratives by Deborah Tannen and the book Spoken Language： grammatical Intricacy by Halliday are the two references. Halliday claimed that the written language is a language with a high lexical density and a strong tendency to use the nominal forms and nominal groups. According to Wallace Chafe， the academic writing is characterized by a high degreed of “integration” or compactness， compared with the fragmentation of spoken language， and that it is characterized by “detachment”， a lower degree of involvement， that is， of collaborating with the audience to make sense of a text. Deborah Tannen discussed Chafes conclusions and pointed out that integration and fragmentation is a surface feature of linguistic structure； involvement and detachment is a deeper dimension. The analysis would be on nine aspects： lexical density and use of nominal groups， voice of the text， use of active and passive voice， type of used morphology， repetition， subjects of the sentence， average number of words and clauses， cohesive devices， and technical terms. Two texts are used as subjects for study. The first text is in spoken language， and the other is a paraphrase of it.

Analysis

Lexical density and use of nominal groups & type of used morphology

In Hallidays claims it can be found that the written language is a language with a high lexical density. It means that， the lexical items， in contrary to grammatical （functional） words （which are mainly determiners， pronouns， most prepositions， conjunctions， some adverbs and finite verbs）， have a high ratio in each clause. The first paragraph of each text is selected to for us see how the lexical density distinguishes in written and spoken English.

“Dialectics” is one Ive never understood， actually. Ive just never understood what the word means. […] And if anybody can tell me what it is， Ill be happy. I mean， Ive read all kinds f things which talk about “dialectics”- I havent the foggiest idea what it is. It seems to mean something about complexity， or alternative positions， or change， or something. I dont know. （Text 1）

A concept which is difficult to define and operationalise is “dialectics”. […] The wide-ranging use of this term in the literature covers conceptualisations of complexity， alternative positions， and change， the fluidity of the definition of which in turn engender skepticism in scholars with a pre-theoretical understanding of the denotation of the term. （Text 2）

The fourteen clauses from Text 1 contain a total of sixteen lexical items， giving an average of 1.14 per clause， and the lexical density is therefore 1.14. The four clauses from Text 2， however， contain a total of twenty-three lexical items， giving an average of 5.75 per clause. Therefore the lexical density of the text is 5.75. Its obvious that the academic writing， Text 2， has a much higher lexical density than the spoken language. There is another way of measuring the lexical density. That is to count all the words in a text and then count them again noting only one occurrence of any word that is repeated. In this way of measuring， Text 1 contains a total of 482 words， and 149 words occur only once， therefore the lexical density is 149/482 = 31%. Text 2 contains a total of 275 words， and the lexical density is 147/275 = 53.5%. Again， the lexical density of written English is higher.

According to Halliday， another feature of written English is a strong tendency to use the nouns and noun phrases. In Text 2， many nominal groups such as “conceptualisations of complexity， a concept which is difficult to define and operationalise， the fluidity of the definition…， ” can be found. In Text 1， in contrast， these nominal groups and nominalised clauses are much fewer. When the nominalization is used， the use of morphology， such as the suffix of –tion， -ty also appears. In Text 2 we can see examples like ‘fluidity from fluid， conceptualisation form conceptualise and so on. The use of nouns and nominal groups also supports the description of integration by Chafe， which includes “nominalizations， increased use of participles， attributive adjectives， conjoined phrases and series of phrases， sequences of prepositional phrases， complement clauses and relative clauses”. In Chafes and Tannens opinion， integration and detachment are the characteristics of written language， compared with the fragmentation and involvement of spoken language. According to Chafe， involvement includes

Devices by which the speaker monitors the communication channel （rising intonation， pauses， requests for back –channel responses）.

Concreteness and imageability through specific details.

A more personal quality； use of 1st person pronouns.

Emphasis on people and their relationships.

Emphasis on actions and agents rather than states and objects.

Direct quotation.

Reports of speakers mental processes.

Fuzziness.

Emphatic particles （really， just）.

Voice of narrator， subjects of the sentences & use of active and passive voice

When Text 1 and Text 2 are compared， it is easy to find that the narrator in the first text is mainly expressed as first person and second person， that is， the subjects of the sentences are mainly ‘I and ‘you； the narrator in the latter one is most expressed as third person， and the subjects of the sentences are mostly nouns under discussion， like ‘concept， ‘construction， and ‘support. It can be said that this is the communication of the speaker and his collaboration with the audience， which is a kind of involvement. Furthermore， the sentences written in Text 1 are almost in active voice， in contrary to the most use of passive voice in Text 2. By using the active voice， the speaker of Text 1 focuses on people， actions， but with the use of passive voice， Text 2 places its emphasis on states and objects. This feature again supports Chafes ideas.

Repetition

What is more， in Text 1， more repetitions are used than in Text 2. For example， in the above indicated first paragraph of Text 1， the expression “Ive never understood” can be found twice， one after the other， and in the whole text， the word ‘theory can be seen nine times， also the expression of “I mean” or “I think” can be found several times. In Text 2， however， repetition can hardly be found. These are the differences of so called fragmentation and integration， which distinguish the spoken and written language. Also this supports Hallidays feature of high lexical density on written English.

Technical terms

More technical terms are found in Text 2 than in Text 1. Written texts should be formal and academic. The technical terms used in the Text 2 like ‘skepticism and ‘fluidity make the text technical. However， in Text 1， technical terms can be barely found.

Average number of words & Cohesive devices

Moreover， according to Halliday， because of the nominal structures， the clause in written English has an enormous elasticity. In Text 2， there are a total of 275 words and 9 sentences， therefore the average number of words per sentence is 275/9 = 30.6； in Text 1， the total number of words is 482， and the totally there are 19 sentences， therefore the average number of words per sentence is 482/19 = 25.4. The sentence in written English carries more words in average. Another feature to distinguish written English and spoken English is the cohesive devices. Tannen wrote in the article that “the written version uses more complex syntactic structures” and “the speaker relies on juxtaposition， or on the basic conjunctions and and but”. In Text 1， quite a few ‘and and ‘but can be found， for example， “But most of the time its just fakery”， “And when words like ‘dialectics come along”； in Text 2， in the contrary， these conjunctions can barely be found， but more relative clauses and complement clauses are used to link sentences， for example， “The conclusion may be drawn that putative theories of history are likely to be based on self-evidently true constructs， or on constructs that can be readily deconstructed in the language of the untutored layperson.” The use of relative clauses also supports Chafes description on integration.

Conclusion

With the analysis in the nine perspectives shown above， the differences between spoken language and written language are discussed and examined. According to Halliday and Wallace Chafe， written language has a high lexical density and nominal groups are frequently used in the text， and it is characterized by integration and detachment； spoken language， on the other hand， has the characteristics of involvement and fragmentation. The analysis greatly supports their ideas.

References：

[1]Halliday，M.A.K.（1989）.Spoken and written language：Language education.Oxford：Oxford University Press.

[2]Tannen，D.（1982）.“Oral and literate strategies in spoken and written narratives.” Language 58（1）：1-21.

【作者簡介】唐弢，重慶第二師范學院。