Spoken vs. Written Discourse
A credited assignment of
Discourse Analysis
Submitted by:
Faiza Fatah
Roll No. 109
M.A. 21 Batch
Department of English
Under supervision of
Sir; Altaf Jakhar
Submission Date:
25 Nov, 2022
Contents
1. Abstract
2. Distinction between Written and Spoken discourse
2.1. Grammatical complexity
2.2. Lexical density
2.3. Nominalization
2.4. Explicitness
2.5. Contextualization
2.6. Spontaneity
2.7. Repetition, hesitations, and redundancy
3. Conclusion
Abstract:
Discourse refers to a unit of language longer than a single sentence. It is actually natural spoken or written
language in context, especially when complete text is being considered. Discourse has two forms written
as well as spoken. This document is based in the discussion about the major differences between written
and spoken discourse.
Distinction between Written and Spoken Discourse
The distinction between speech and writing is often referred to as channel or medium as speaking and
writing involve different psychological processes. Spoken and written discourse differ for many reasons.
Spoken discourse has to be understood immediately; written discourse can be referred to many times.
General Differences between Spoken and Written Discourse are listed below:
1. Grammatical Complexity
Written discourse is more structurally complex and more elaborate than spoken discourse. In other words,
sentences in spoken discourse are short and simple, whereas they are longer and more complex in written
discourse.
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. 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”.
2. Lexical Density
It refers to the ratio of content words (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) to grammatical or
function words (e.g. pronouns, prepositions, articles) within a clause. 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.
Lexical characteristics:
Spoken discourse has more pronouns (it, they, you , we), more lexical repetitions, more first person
references and more active verbs as compared to written discourse.
3. Nominalization:
It refers to presenting actions and events as nouns rather than as verbs. It’s found that:
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.
Lexical characteristics:
Spoken discourse has more verb-based phrases: having treatment – being treated , hospital care – go to
the hospital. Spoken discourse also has more predicative adjectives: statistics are misleading – misleading
statistics, news is frightening – frightening news etc.
4. Explicitness
Writing is more explicit than speech. This is because in written discourse, we lack body language
and gestures.
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.
5. Contextualization
The knowledge of context needed to interpret a text. It is closely tied to explicitness. Writing is
more decontextualized. 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.
6. Spontaneity
Spoken discourse lacks organization and is ungrammatical because it is spontaneous, whereas
written discourse is organized and grammatical. 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.
7. Repetition, Hesitation, and Redundancy
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.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, we can conclude that written and spoken discourse differ in various ways. The
main differences in both discourses are grammatical complexity lexical density, nominalization,
explicitness, textualization, spontaneity, Repetition, hesitations, and redundancy.