• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 236

Part of Session 155: Changing linguistic norms in the audiovisual media (Other abstracts in this session)

Writing for the ears. On the implications of manuscripts in audiovisual media.

Authors: Kristinsson, Ari Páll
Submitted by: Kristinsson, Ari Páll (Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, University of Iceland, Iceland)

In this paper I will:  

1)     OUTLINE some results of an investigation into the linguistic differences between two radio genres:  talk shows versus news in Icelandic radio. The differences were quantified in terms of relative frequencies of certain language features. A statistical comparison showed, among other things, that the use of a particular relative clause conjunction (cf. below) belongs to a set of features which characterise Icelandic radio talk shows but not radio news.  

2)     DISCUSS some different options as to how the study of variation and change of linguistic norms in radio and television may profit from empirical investigations into linguistic differences between genres of audiovisual media, such as those in 1) above. One major question is what – if anything – empirically established evidence of different language use across radio and television genres reveals about the implicit propagation of an ideology of (de)standardisation. Put differently, we may look for some putative effects of language ideologies on how media staff and interviewees reproduce particular language norms when they are on the air. Furthermore, different media genres enjoy different levels of overt and covert prestige, which in turn may have implications for their language norms (and on a similar note, there is Allan Bell’s notion of ‘audience design’). From a different perspective, it might prove useful to look at the proportions of monologues versus dialogues in different genres, and the implications of this for the overall language profiles of genres. 

This paper, however, focuses on the implications of written text manuscripts in audiovisual media. An analysis of the language of two Icelandic radio genres (above) suggests that different production processes (scripted vs. non-scripted) can be decisive for some of the linguistic output of the two genres. Taking the different distribution of relative clause conjunctions in two different genres, mentioned in 1) above, as an example, I will demonstrate how the mere process of writing manuscripts may be responsible to a large extent for the use/non-use of certain linguistic features. I argue that if radio employees prepare their texts in writing they make a number of linguistic choices mechanically/subconsciously by applying a number of constraints that filter out various features of spoken language – even if these are valid, unmarked features of most norms of spoken language, and even if the radio employees have taken specific courses in radio journalism on the skill of “writing for the ear”. In other words, the production/planning process itself does influence the oral linguistic performance of radio journalists.

3)     CONCLUDE that when interpreting the results of studies of the linguistic characteristics of different media genres, the “spoken-written dimension” can prove to be an extremely complex one. While it is well known that many written genres enjoy more prestige than a number of oral text types, we also need to acknowledge the more subtle implications of the writing process in the production of particular texts for audiovisual media.