Session 3 - Speech Events (4 September 2009)

Just a short post this week as I don’t really have anything erudite to say (why does that sound familiar?). Basically the subject of today’s class was the speech event, which is basically a more ‘formal’ and extended version of the speech act. Defined as a structured activity governed by rules for the use of speech, it can be broken down into various components, like genre, topic, purpose or function, setting, key, participants, message form, act sequence, rules for interaction, and norms of interpretation. Unfortunately, not having much of a social life, I can’t say that I have much experience with speech events since they require (gasp!) extended social contact, an unheard of phenomenon for me.

Anyway, to continue the theme of conflicted feelings from the last post, I thought I would analyse a regular speech event in my current schedule – consultations with my thesis supervisor. I’m often slightly uncomfortable during them because, although he’s very pleasant and accommodating, I’m slightly in awe of his distinguished bearing, eloquence and obvious intellect, qualities that I wish I possessed. So, ironically enough, the very qualities that make me want to know him better make it very difficult for me to do so. Thus I’m often caught between wanting to start a more ‘casual’ conversation and sticking strictly to the ‘official’ topic (i.e. the thesis). Hopefully the analysis will provide some interesting details. The points in parenthesis are what I would like to have in the speech event, but have yet to attain.

Genre: spoken
Topic: thesis (broader discussions about literature and unrelated topics)
Purpose or function: to help me write my thesis
Setting: supervisor’s office, once a week
Key: semi-formal (more casual)
Participants: me, supervisor; supervisor speaks, I listen and occasionally ask questions, and take notes (I speak more)
Message form: English
Act sequence:
Supervisor: Comments on my work, and suggestions on what to do next
Me: Response and questions
Supervisor: Answers to questions, and more suggestions
[Repeated again and again]

(Me: Questions about his background literary preferences, e.g. favourite author(s), modules, etc.
Supervisor: Replies to questions, questions to me
Me: Replies to questions, further questions to him
[And so on])

Rules for interaction: relatively casual, but no bad language or slang
Norms of interpretation: none, although some literary knowledge would be useful

As you can see, I’d like to change the tenor and content of this particular speech event in a small but significant way, but haven’t been able to do so yet. Perhaps I’ll get down to it next week, once the pig in the backyard takes wing.