CONVERSATIONAL STYLE

CONVERSATIONAL STYLE

It is the most commonly used type of intonational style and consequently a
variety, which will be more familiar to the vast majority of English-speaking
people than any other. That is why it is called familiar. This kind of English is also a
means for everyday communication, heard in natural conversational interaction
between speakers. So phonetic stylists call it conversational. Some scholars also call
it informal, because this style occurs mainly in informal external and internal
relationships in the speech of relatives, friends, well-acquainted people and so on.
In informal situations,'where speakers are more relaxed, less attention is given
by them to the effect they produce on the listeners, because in formal situations they
monitor their linguistic behavior, perhaps sometimes unconsciously. But
in everyday life a more natural and spontaneous style will be used.
We would also point out here that in conversational style the emotional
reaction to the stimulating speech signals is very important so the attitudinal
function of intonation here comes to the fore. Therefore one is liable to find here a
wider range of contrasts at any level than could be expected elsewhere.
Clearly, a conversation consists of more than verbal language.
Communication, to be effective, relies on other features than language and a great
deal on that is not said. A measure of common understanding has to exist between
speakers. Where this common understanding is lacking, failures in communication
are apt to occur.
In a conversation we do not just listen to words, we derive the meaning
consciously or unconsciously from a number of other communicative systems and
it could be that a lift of an eyebrow, a twitch at the side of the mouth, or a silence
tell us more than a dozen sentences.
But undoubtedly the verbal part of the communication plays a very
important role and has its own systems too a very important role and has its
own systems. The full effect is achieved and meanings are exchanged even with
strangers and about unfamiliar topics.
Spontaneous, colloquial, informal conversations display certain common linguistic
characteristics.
1. Firstly, talks of this kind are characterized by the in explicitness of the language
as the speakers rely very much upon the extra linguistic factors — context, kinetics,
etc. This manifests itself in "incompleteness" of many utterances as the context
makes it clear what was meant by the speaker.
Sometimes the speakers even abrupt the speech suddenly and tail off into
silence but the listeners understand them, catch the meaning, because the
participants have a common personal background and the explicitness is
tolerated or even taken for granted and is diagnostic of conversation.
2. Secondly, conversations are characterized by the lack of planning and the
randomness of subject matter. They are very often unpredictable.
3. The third general feature of the conversational style talks is "non-fluency".
Informal spontaneous conversation is characterized by a high proportion of "errors"
involving hesitation phenomena, slips of the tongue and all sorts of overlapping and
simultaneous speech.
In every society there are specific rules governing the conduct of
conversation. Some of these tactics are verbal, others non-verbal, most are
culturally determined, some make individual use of cultural habits and
expectations. Together with the “silent language” (posture, gesture, facial
expression and manners) the space between the speakers also plays an important
part in communication. It is a measure of how intimate or otherwise the speakers
feel, how formal or informal their relationship is.
A “nose-to-nose” distance of 1,5-2 meters is considered to be most
comfortable for talks and anything nearer than this may be unwelcome if the other
is not regarded as an intimate. There are more message systems but they are not
fully investigated yet.
On the grammatical level informal conversation provides delimitation of
utterances and sentences. The length of utterances is much more variable here than
in any other variety of English.

Telephone conversations. This sphere of communication is limited in
certain important respects by the special situation, which imposes a number of
restrictions.
The conversationalists who can see each other are able to place a great amount of
reliance on the facilities offered by such things as gesture and the presence of a
common extra linguistic context.
Telephone conversations lack these facilities to a large extent and so have a
tendency to become more explicit than ordinary conversations with a different use
of "indicator" words such as pronouns which may be vague in their reference if it
cannot be seen who or what is referred to.
The telephone situation is quite unique being the only frequently occurring
case of a conversation in which the participants are not visible to each other, so
there is some uncertainty in keeping up the give-and-take between the
participants.

The "talkers" avoid long utterances without introducing pauses. Pauses cannot
be long, because anything approaching a silence may be interpreted by the listener
either as a breakdown of communication or as an opportunity for interruption
which may not have been desired.
Vocabulary is characterized by the use of colloquialisms, idioms and
vocalization. The opening and closing of a telephone conversation are marked by
the use of the same formulas, the linguistic devices carrying out these operations
are not numerous and always predicted.

"Language" and "People" are both familiar terms and represent familiar
things. But the "and" between them represents an enormously complex
relationship. This relationship involves cultures and civilizations, individual human
beings, their interaction and their forms of organization, it involves values.