Lexical Characteristics Of Spoken English

The present study aims at analyzing the lexical characteristics of spoken English by comparing the conversational part of BNC spoken corpus and BNC written corpus. It focuses on the vocabulary size, coverage rates, lexical density, vocabulary growth rates, high frequency words, low frequency words, personal pronouns, word length, spoken-only words, vague terms, intensifiers, small words and slang. In this thesis, both the approach of corpus-based study of vocabulary and the approach of text-based study are adopted.The study shows that (1) The corpora of the same size produce different vocabulary size. The vocabulary size in conversations is much smaller than that in written corpus. (2) In conversations the top 3,000 high frequency words can cover 95.13% over the total tokens, while, in written English, the top 3,000-15,000 high frequency words can only cover 95%. (3) TTR in conversations is strikingly lower than that in written English. (4) The vocabulary growth rate in conversations is much lower than that in written English. (5) The high frequency words in both corpora are strikingly different. The word in Rank 1 in conversations is copula verb 'be', while in written English it is the determiner 'the'. (6) The first person pronoun 'I' and the second personal pronoun 'you' are more frequently used in conversations than in written English. In contrast, the third person pronouns are more frequently used in written English than in conversations. (7) The mean word length in conversations is lower than that in written English. (8) The ways of word formation that are commonly used by the spoken-only words are: derivation, conversion, back formation, contraction and abbreviation. (9) Vague terms, intensifiers, small words and slang also characterize spoken English.After the analysis of the lexical characteristics, such conclusion can be drawn:conversations share most words with written texts. These shared words form the core of the lexis of spoken English, covering almost every fields of daily life. Even if when the spoken-only words are considered, quite a part of them are formed from the words in written English through different ways, so written English can still be regarded as the base of vocabulary acquisition of spoken English. The lexical load may not necessarily be greater in spoken English, but it will certainly have different priorities and emphases. Word lists for teaching also need to recognize the possible different meanings or shades of meaning encountered in the spoken usage of common words, vague terms, intensifiers, small words and slang which characterize spoken English. All these should be taken into consideration by the researchers and text-book designers.