Speech Comparisons Essay

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English Language- Frances Barter

Essay on speech comparisons

 

Both extract A and extract B have a similar function of informing their audiences about the topic on which they are based on. In Extract A the topic is centred on drug abuse and police investigations so an additional function this topic has is shocking the audience (locals in range of the radio station). Extract B however has a specific audience- those who have an interest pertaining to bikes. To some extent extract B is slightly entertaining too, as the audience hears former World Champion Cyclist, Ned Overend’s voice.

 

 

 

        The spontaneous spoken interaction in A has the presenter Mark Turnbull in the dominant role as he initiates the conversation and gives the interviewee, a police officer, a point on which he can elaborate. This is a direct antithesis of extract B where the questions posed and the response given has a structured feel and the choice of lexis is largely sophisticated (“product development” as opposed to extract A’s “willy-nilly”).

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Although both pieces are clearly interviewing one person (so there are fluent adjacency pairs throughout), because the Extract A is a transcript of spontaneous interaction, the language will be largely informal, and have many voice-filled pauses (“it’s er the latest raid er”) and other paralinguistic features. Extract B on the other hand will have been semi-scripted, and typically magazine articles tend to print answers given in interviews in Standard English, and eliminate voice filled pauses and other informal speech features to so the graphology of the interview looks credible and professional.

Turnball is clearly in the dominant ...

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