Casual Conversation: Its Stylistic Features And Interpersonal Function

Casual conversation in English is the transmission of a message in English from person to person or among people who are face to face, side by side, etc. As an important social interaction, it will improve your interactive and communicative skills. Casual conversation is also called casual talk, informal discourse, and everyday chat. It is a frequent phenomenon in our life. It refers to the type of conversation which is not motivated by pragmatic purpose such as buying and selling, giving information, making appointments and persuading. Generally speaking, its topic is impersonal, safe and trivial and changes frequently. In fact, casual conversation is a common phenomenon in our daily life and chat. it is being used in all kinds of occasions. Casual conversation, from the linguistic aspect, is one of language varieties, which has distinctive linguistic features and functions. It is quite important for the speakers and listeners to be aware of these features and functions.In this thesis, I have made a relatively systematic and objective study of those particular linguistic features and their stylistic effects, and also of its interpersonal function of casual conversation, so that it will help both addressers and addressees understand better the artistic use of language of casual conversation from a new perspective. To study casual conversation, as a special spoken variety, as we believe, will provide a better angle of vision into the internal characteristics of casual conversation.By means of stylistic approach: description, interpretation and evaluation, this paper investigates those particular linguistic features and their stylistic effects of casual conversation mainly at the phonological, lexical, syntactic and semantic levels. In casual conversation, the participants naturally use different phonological devices, such as elision and contraction, hesitation pauses, and normal non-fluency, false starts, voice filler, overlapping. The use of contractions and elision makes the conversation sound natural and situation-tied. In vocabulary, casual conversation may be made by short words and vague expressions, simple and colloquial items and idioms, and phrasal verbs. These words are easy to pronounce, and easy to understand. Syntactic features of casual conversation may be realized mainly by preference for short and loose sentences, elliptical and incomplete sentences, interrogative sentences, simple nominal and verbal groups. Short sentences are easy to compose, and to make the conversation go smoothly. At the semantic level, the most obvious feature of casual conversation is the randomness of subject matter, lexical hyperbole and the use of vague words; lexical hyperbole helps intensify the meaning of the speakers; the use of vague words can make the conversation seem flexible, general, and effective. Generally speaking, all of these marked linguistic features are vivid, expressive, contributing a lot to the unique style of casual conversation. Also, in casual conversation, speakers often use some para-linguistic devices, such as smiles, laughters, gestures and facial expressions to help convey their meanings and feelings.In terms of interpersonal function, casual conversation is best realized by the interpersonal relationships between the participants by using such linguistic devices as I, we you, and in some other cases, speakers tend to use vocatives, swear words, phatic communion, performative and emotive functions. All in all, these functions are helpful in expressing speakers'ideas, attitudes, values and emotions, fully revealing the interpersonal function of language.