Speech and Writing
The Distinction between Speech and WritingSpeech and writing are two basic manifestation of language. Each has its own functions. Most obviously, they contrast in physical form: speech uses ‘phonic substabce’, typically in the form of air pressure movements; writing uses ‘graphic substance’, typically in the form of marks on a surface, but of far greater interest are the differences in stucture and function that follow from his basic observation.
These differences are much greater than people usually think. The contrast is greater when written texts are compared with informal conversation; but even in fairly formal and prepared speech settings, such as teacher addressing a class. Event a fluent speaker produces utterances that do not real well when witten down.
The differences of stucture and use between spoken and written language are inevitable because they are the product of radically different kinds of communicative situation. Speech is time-bound, dynamic, transient-part of an interaction in which, typically, both participants are present, and the speaker has specific addressee (or a group of addressee) in mind. Writing is space-bound, static, permanent-the result of a stuation in which , typically, the pruducer is distant from the recipient-and often not even know who the recipient (as with most literature). Writing can only occasionally be tought of as in ‘interaction’, in the same way as speech It is therefore not surprising to find differences emerging very quickly when language first come to be writen down.
posted by Rini Ekayati :: Linguistics :: @ 3:22 PM
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