Spoken and Written Textual Dimensions in English: Resolving the Contradictory Findings

Abstract

Although similarities and differences between speech and writing have often been studied, contradictory claims concerning the linguistic relationship between the two modes are still common. These contradictions can arise from basing global conclusions on restricted methodologies—such as assigning undue weight to individual linguistic features, or to choice of particular text samples and text types. The present study uses a ‘multi-feature/multi-dimension’ approach, which includes a broad range of linguistic features and text types in a single quantitative analysis, to provide a global description of similarities and differences among spoken/written text types in English. The distribution of 41 linguistic features in 545 text samples of approximately 2000 words each is subjected to factor analysis (a multivariate statistical technique). Three underlying textual dimensions are identified: Interactive vs. Edited Text, Abstract vs. Situated Content, and Reported vs. Immediate Style. To demonstrate the value of the multi-feature/multi-dimension approach, the specific findings of earlier studies are reconciled within the model proposed here.