Spoken and Written English

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In our day to day life we are confronted with two basic forms of English i.e. written and spoken form. Differentiation between these two forms is a very important necessity for the users of the language. If we go into the study of these two forms we will discover that the differentiation that exists between these two forms are not that vast. English language as a whole, spoken and written is similar, the differentiation lies only in some aspects. Here in this paper we are concerned only about the small area which differentiates English language. There are not only differences of characteristics but also differences of required skills. Of course, this does not always apply, and there are many instances where spoken and written English are the same, where the one takes over from the other and where functions and purposes are swapped. Spoken English is the medium used in speech, where the vocal organs produce air-pressure movements. Written English is used in writing, which is created marks on a surface by hands. However, this physical difference is not the only factor that distinguishes the speech and writing. There are also differences such as the use of grammar and vocabulary which also differ according to whether the person is speaking or writing to convey information. Spoken English is generally less formal than written language. In speech, people tend to include contradict forms such as “I’ll” or “don’t” that not to be appropriate in formal written language. In linguistics, a discourse particle is a lexeme or particle which has no direct semantic meaning in the context of a sentence, having rather a pragmatic function: it serves to indicate the speaker’s attitude, or to structure their relationship to other participants in a conversation. Discourse particles are primarily a feature of spoken language; in written language they indicate an informal or jocular
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