On Spoken Discourse

Telephone conversations can be hugely therapeutic and I'm one of those girls who can spend several hours yakking over the phone about nothing in particular. So the lecture on spoken discourse got me really intrigued about my own speech patterns and how it related to Alexander Graham Bell's mighty invention. On Wednesday night I engaged in a mini participant observation of sorts while talking to my friend over the telephone. I'll list the couple of insights I've gained from my own phone-calling habits.

Whenever I call my close friends, I'll always say something along the lines of "Hello, _______ ah?". And the other party replies "Yah Grace, why what's up?". Then I'll answer with "No la/It's nothing much/It's no big deal, I just ________. " The opening sequence is fairly predictable cos I'll almost always be the considerate caller and ask if my friend is busy/doing something/free to talk. Hey, time spent over the phone is still precious time.

Warrants (like "okay", "yah lor" and "um"), instead of solely being pre-closers, might indicate the speaker's wish to move on to another subject cos the one being discussed has exhausted its potential in a sense. Like I realized that when I said "okay la" in response to my friend's comment, I wasn't looking to end the phone conversation. Rather, I had been reminded about another recent happening that I was desperately looking to share. If I really want to say bye, I tend to use the school-related excuse of having to rush assignment/sleep early to rush assignment next day. Evidence that I can still get my priorities right when I want to.

I'd like to make an observation about silence too. I really do believe that a mark of close friendship is the fact that you can spend time in comfortable silence with each other, and not get the awkward feeling like how you do with acquaintances. Even over the phone when I'm catching up with a long-time pal, we sometimes lapse into about 3 to 5 minutes of silence to hit the "pause" button and somehow indulge the moment. 

I'm still learning another surprising side of myself every now and then. I'm sure we all are:)