Transcript

A: Right, B.. Where did you go on holiday?  

B: Umm.. I’d say LA, cus there’s a lot of things to do and um.. you know you have  

     broad.. broadwalk and.. all the.. all the attrac-  

C: It’s not.. it’s the boardwalk?  

B: Boardwalk..?  

C: Broadwalk is in Knowle, where I live..?  

     (Pause)  

     *Laughter*  

A: Alright yeah anyway..  

C: Sorry carry on!  

A: Same thing really..?  

D: What about you, A?  

A: Crete.  Because it’s lovely and hot and uh.. it’s really Greek and I like Greek..  

     people.. uh and I like Greece in general.  

B: Do they speak English there, like.. really well or..?  

A: Yeah they do actually. They do speak English pretty well.  

C: Europeans do though don’t they?  

A: Yeah  

B: No because I have.. there's um.. I know someone from.. Denmark.. that speaks  

     English.. like exactly how an American, but... they speak Danish as well.. it's  

     kinda weird!  

A: D what about you?  

D: I'd probably go to Miami.. cus it's just hot, and nice  

A: I love America  

C: Yeah .. I haven't been but I really want to go.. I go to Cornwall  

B: Cornwall?  

C: Have you actually been to Cornwall?  

B: No.. where would you wanna go, apart from Cornwall?  

C: I don't know actually.. America really.  

D: Where in America?  

C: Anywhere really... I haven't been-  

B: Yeah but what's your ideal place?-  

C: I don't know! I haven't researched into it.

Transcript Analysis

• Speaker B frequently pauses during their speech, so uses fillers like, "um" and "like" to fill these gaps in speech to avoid a longer pause. 
• The pause in-between lines 6 and 7 suggests that all speakers that all speakers are acknowledging what speaker C had just said. 
• The connotation *Laughter* after this pause shows that the speakers found this statement funny, however it could also be due to the speakers supporting another speaker, by making them feel humorous and included in the conversation. 
• Some forms of non-standard English are used like, "cus", "wanna", "yeah" and "kinda", this represents the relationship between the speakers, as the register here is clearly informal. 

• The transcript is a chain of adjacency pair, as the topics flow as expected because they are linked. 
• Speaker A uses the filler, "uh" more than once when they speak for the second time, suggestive of a thought process during their speech. 
• Speaker C spoke more frequently than the other speakers, but their speech is often brief and short, this could show that the speaker may feel that the conversation is unnatural, due to their lesser quantity in speech. 
• Speaker D speaks the least amount in this transcript, but their speech appears to bethe most forma, with the exception of the use of, "cus", showing that they may not feel as comfortable or as casual as some of the other speakers do. 
• With the common use of the question mark, it is acceptable to suggest that the intonation at the end of the utterances that use tis punctuation is rising. 
• The common use of phatic talk here suggests that the speakers have fairly new relationships with each other, hence the relatively polite conversation being made here

Steven Pinker: What our Language Habits Reveal

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought#t-490759

This video shows a talk from Steven Pinker, about language habits and change. Pinker certainly has a descriptive attitude towards language, reflected in his first idea that language is a window onto human nature. This idea supports the thought that language emerges from human minds interacting with one another, which is visible in unstoppable change in language, for example slang & jargon, historical change, dialect divergence and language formation.

Pinker also expresses the concept that the standard communication model of sender - message -  receiver, could be perceived in more ways than one, perhaps due to social, historical or cultural context. For example, the use of metaphorical or hypothetical statements that veil the intended meaning of the act, when both parties understand the meaning and intent behind the content of speech. Steven uses an example here to portray this effect, "If you could open the window that would be great". The intended message of this statement is essentially an imperative, but has been veiled to act as a request rather than an order, so that the speaker does not seem rude or impolite, especially if the social context of the conversation is that of a new or formal relationship.