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The Modes of Language
    Good morning, everyone! In our last lecture, I was talking about language as part of our semiotic system, and today I am going to move onto another topic. That is, the modes of language.
    As you may know, messages are transmitted in human language most frequently through two primary modes: speech and writing. Well, you know that there is also a third mode, which is not that frequently used as speech and writing. The third mode is called signing, which is used by deaf people. But in today’s lecture we will just focus on speech and writing, and specific features of these two modes.
    In linguistics, it is commonly noted that speech is primary and writing secondary. Linguists take this position because all languages are spoken, except those dead languages such as Latin, which is only existing in written form All children will naturally acquire the spoken version of a language if they are exposed to it They acquire the spoken form of their mother tongue during the formative period of language acquisition. However, to become literate, a child will need some kind of formal schooling in reading and writing.
    In many respects, we may call speech "primary" and writing "secondary". It implies that writing has a second-class status when compared with speech. In fact, it is more accurate to view the two modes as having different but complementary roles. For instance, in most legal systems, while an oral contract is legally binding, a written contract is preferred. The reason is simple: unlike speech, writing provides a permanent record of the contract. Thus, if the terms of the contract are disputed, the written record of the contract can be consulted and interpreted. Disputes over an oral contract will involve one person’s recollection of the contract versus another person’s.
    While, writing may be the preferred mode for a contract, in many other contexts, speech will be more appropriate. Because the most common type of speech — face-to-face conversations — is highly interactive, this mode is well suited to many social contexts: such as casual conversations over lunch, business transactions in a grocery store, discussions between students and teachers in a classroom. And in these contexts, interactive dialogues have many advantages over writing. For instance, individuals engaged in conversation can ask for immediate clarification if there is a question about something said: in a letter to a friend, in contrast, such immediacy is lacking. When speaking to one another, speakers are face to face and can therefore see how individuals react to what is said. On the other hand, writing creates distance between writer and reader, preventing the writer from getting any immediate reaction from the reader. Speech is oral, thus making it possible to use intonation to emphasize words or phrases and express emotion. Of course, one might say that writing has punctuation: well, it can express only a small proportion of the features that intonation has. Because speech is created "on-line," it is produced quickly and easily. This may result in many "ungrammatical" constructions, but rarely do these rough sentences cause miscommunications. You know, if there is a misunderstanding, it can be easily corrected. On the contrary, writing is much more deliberate. It requires planning, editing and thus taking much more time to produce on the part of the writer.
    Because of all of these characteristics of writing, if an individual desires a casual, intimate encounter with a friend, he or she is more likely to meet personally than write a letter. In this case, writing a letter to a friend might turn out to be too formal. Of course, in today’s world, the highly developed technology has made such encounters possible with "instant messaging", over a computer or a smartphone. And if someone wishes to have such an encounter with a friend living many miles away, then this kind of on-line written "chat" can mimic a face-to-face conversation. But because such conversations are a hybrid of speech and writing, they still lack the intimacy and immediacy of a face-to-face conversation.
    While speech and writing are often viewed as discrete modes, it is important for us to note that there is a continuum between speech and writing. While speech is in general more interactive than writing, various kinds of spoken and written English display various degrees of interactivity. For instance, various linguistic markers of interactive discourse such as first and second person pronouns, contractions, and private verbs such as think and feel, occurred very frequently in telephone and face-to-face conversations but less frequently in spontaneous speeches, interviews, and broadcasts. In addition, some kinds of writing, such as academic prose and official documents, exhibited few markers of interactive discourse, but other kinds of written texts, particularly personal letters, ranked higher on the scale of interactivity than many of the spoken texts.
    In other words, how language is structured depends less on whether it is spoken or written but more on how it is being used. For example, a personal letter, even though it is written, will contain linguistic features marking interactivity because the writer of a letter wishes to interact with the receiver of the letter. On the other hand, in an interview, the goal is not to interact necessarily but to get information from the person being interviewed. Therefore, though interviews are spoken, they have fewer markers of interactivity and contain more features typically associated with written texts.
    OK, to sum up, we have been dealing with the modes of language in today’s lecture. The two most frequently used modes are speech and writing. As two different modes of language, speech and writing, have their own characteristics. Speech is a preferred mode in many social contexts while interactivity is needed. Of course, when a formal, stable record is preferred, writing should be an appropriate mode. Finally, I have also emphasized that there is a continuum between speech and writing. In the following lecture, we will concentrate on the linguistic structure of language. Thank you.