CONVERSATIONAL STYLE

It's the most commonly used type of intonational style that occurs in natural spontaneous, everyday speech. This variety is more familiar for the vast majority of people than any other. That's why it's called familiar. This kind of English is heard in natural conversational interaction between speakers. So phonetic stylists call it conversational. From pedagogical point of view this English seems to be one of the most useful and least artificial kinds of the language to teach foreign learners.

In conversational style the emotional reaction to the simulating speech signals is very important. So one is liable to find here a wider range of contrasts at any level than could be expected elsewhere.

Conversations are one of the most complex forms of human behaviour. They consist 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: when this common understanding is lacking failures in communication are apt to occur. But undoubtedly the verbal part of the communication plays a very important role and has it's own systems too, but only linked with other effective ways contributed by the speakers. The full effect is achieved and meanings are exchanged even with strangers and about unfamiliar topics. So to study conversational interactions means to study some of the rules of non-verbal behaviour in relation to particular cultures end societies and also to study the linguistic rules governing the talks. It's a great problem of carrying out researches of this type of speech because of the difficulty of obtaining reliable data (people behave differently if aware of being tape-recorded).

But still it's possible to single out some common linguistic features:

1) talks of the kind are characterized by the in explicitness of the language as the speakers rely upon the extralinguistic factors - context, kinetics, etc. This manifests in incompleteness of utterances: as the context makes it clear what was meant by the speaker, thus making redundant its vocal expression.

2) by the lack of planning and the randomness of subject matters.

3) non-fluency, high proportion of "errors" involving hesitation phenomena, slips of the tongue and all sorts of overlapping and simultaneous speech.

Some more important characteristics:

1) entire range of vocalic clusters, sounds, non-verbal signals are common: Ex.: mmm, sshh, ah, bw, etc.

2) one can hear whistles laughs, giggles, clearing of the throat, snorts, sniffs.

3) space between the speakers (1,5 - 2 meters).

On the grammatical level Crystal suggests that there are a few other points to be noted:

1) high proportion of parenthetical sentences:

Ex: you see, you know, I mean, I say.

2) frequent use of interrogative and very few imperative sentences.

3) common use of vocatives (interjections).

4) rare use of nominal groups (nouns) as subjects, informal you is quite common in it's impersonal function.

5) a great number of question — tags.

6) the use of all sort of repetitions.

7) the occurrence of contracted verbal forms (he's, I'll, I've).