Processing Varieties in English

This study of oral and written speech in English examines media asprocessing varieties and looks at their interaction with genre. Todate, the study of orality and literacy in English has beenunsystematic; findings in turn have been inconsistent andcontradictory.

In this treatment, clear methodological parameters have been set upto ensure accurate and significant findings. All texts used areparallel texts arising out of the same or similar context of situation.With this methodology, ideational meaning is clearly distinguished fromtextual meaning. Moreover, media and genre, two aspects of textualmeaning, are distinguished so that representative features of each areisolated. Lastly, all texts are naturally occurring acrossrepresentative genres. With such distinctions and criteria in place,the important interaction of media with genre is examined, while thecharacter of oral and written speech as processing varieties isrevealed.

Above all, this study demonstrates the non-neutrality of oral andwritten speech as language varieties. Especially important is theresultative/causative split between them in the representation ofevents. Written speech is not oral speech 'written down' asBloomfield and de Saussure originally claimed, but a very differentsystem of syntactic and discourse organization which influences how werepresent and see the world. Both varieties strongly influence thesemantic content and generic function of any text they conveyindicating very significant interplay of semantic variables in theprocessing of language.

Processing Varieties in English contributes to a wide rangeof linguistic areas and topics, including discourse analysis,socio-psycholinguistics, and cognitive science.