conversationalization Definition: A style of public discourse that simulates intimacy by adopting features of informal, conversational language. Also known as public colloquial. Building on the concept of the public colloquial (Geoffrey Leech, English in Advertising, 1966), British linguist Norman Fairclough introduced the term conversationalization in 1994. (See Examples and Observations, below.) Examples and Observations: •The restructuring of public and private domains is visible in the development of a distinct style of communication in the media, a public colloquial language (Leech 1966, Fairclough 1995a). . . . While the context of broadcasting production is the public domain, most people listen or watch in the private domain, where they do not necessarily want to be lectured, patronised or otherwise got at . . .. In contrast with the stiff formality of early BBC broadcasting, a huge amount of effort goes into giving an impression of informality and spontaneity in a lot of contemporary programming. People who may look as though they are having an ordinary conversation on a television chat show are in fact, of course, performing in front of the cameras and as much in the public domain as you could possibly imagine. •Fairclough on Conversationalization Conversationalization involves a restructuring of the boundary between public and private orders of discourse--a highly unstable boundary in contemporary society characterized by ongoing tension and change. Conversationalization is also consequently partly to do with shifting boundaries between written and spoken discourse practices, and a rising prestige and status for spoken language which partly reverses the main direction of evolution of modern orders of discourse . . .. Conversationalization includes colloquial vocabulary; phonic, prosodic and paralinguistic features of colloquial language including questions of accent; modes of grammatical complexity characteristic of colloquial spoken language . . .; colloquial modes of topical development . . .; colloquial genres, such as conversational narrative. . . . Conversationalization cannot convincingly be simply dismissed as engineering, strategically motivated simulation, or simply embraced as democratic. There is a real democratic potential, but it is emergent in and constrained by the structures and relations of contemporary capitalism.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 00:53:39 +0000
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