7/6/2015

Differencesbetweenwrittenandspokenlanguage

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Differencesbetweenwritingandspeech
Writtenandspokenlanguagedifferinmanyways.Howeversomeformsofwritingareclosertospeechthan
others,andviceversa.Belowaresomeofthewaysinwhichthesetwoformsoflanguagediffer:
Writingisusuallypermanentandwrittentextscannotusuallybechangedoncetheyhavebeenprinted/written
out.
Speechisusuallytransient,unlessrecorded,andspeakerscancorrectthemselvesandchangetheir
utterancesastheygoalong.
Awrittentextcancommunicateacrosstimeandspaceforaslongastheparticularlanguageandwriting
systemisstillunderstood.
Speechisusuallyusedforimmediateinteractions.
Writtenlanguagetendstobemorecomplexandintricatethanspeechwithlongersentencesandmany
subordinateclauses.Thepunctuationandlayoutofwrittentextsalsohavenospokenequivalent.However
someformsofwrittenlanguage,suchasinstantmessagesandemail,areclosertospokenlanguage.
Spokenlanguagetendstobefullofrepetitions,incompletesentences,correctionsandinterruptions,withthe
exceptionofformalspeechesandotherscriptedformsofspeech,suchasnewsreportsandscriptsforplays
andfilms.
Writersreceivenoimmediatefeedbackfromtheirreaders,exceptincomputerbasedcommunication.
Thereforetheycannotrelyoncontexttoclarifythingssothereismoreneedtoexplainthingsclearlyand
unambiguouslythaninspeech,exceptinwrittencorrespondencebetweenpeoplewhoknowoneanotherwell.
Speechisusuallyadynamicinteractionbetweentwoormorepeople.Contextandsharedknowledgeplaya
majorrole,soitispossibletoleavemuchunsaidorindirectlyimplied.
Writerscanmakeuseofpunctuation,headings,layout,coloursandothergraphicaleffectsintheirwrittentexts.
Suchthingsarenotavailableinspeech
Speechcanusetiming,tone,volume,andtimbretoaddemotionalcontext.
Writtenmaterialcanbereadrepeatedlyandcloselyanalysed,andnotescanbemadeonthewritingsurface.
Onlyrecordedspeechcanbeusedinthisway.
Somegrammaticalconstructionsareonlyusedinwriting,asaresomekindsofvocabulary,suchassome
complexchemicalandlegalterms.
Sometypesofvocabularyareusedonlyormainlyinspeech.Theseincludeslangexpressions,andtagslike
y'know,like,etc.

Seealso
Whatiswriting?andTypesofwritingsystems

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/writingvspeech.htm

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7/6/2015

Differencesbetweenwrittenandspokenlanguage

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