Discourse Analysis In Spoken Language

Discourse analysis has a growing importance within linguistic studies. Conversation analysis focuses specifically on the study of spoken language. One specific field is the use of linguistic cues for the recognition of personality. Can the idiolect (all of the specific properties that make up an individual’s language usage) tell us something about the personality of the speaker? Can speech analysis lead to personality definition? Traditionally questionnaires have been used to investigate people’s personality and classify them in groups. Different taxonomy models have been developed throughout the ages. Speech analysis provides yet another input to feed those models. What elements of spoken language express personality traits?

The research

José Mourinho looks at the journalist to listen to the short question. He turns his eyes away the moment he starts answering. Practically during the whole answering period he looks in front of him with small eye movements in a reflective mode. He has no hand gestures and his body is static. His facial expressions are limited to eyebrow movement and corner of the mouth movements. This body language creates an aura of authority and confidence. Looking in front of him without making eye contact with the interviewer shows that he is being thoughtful. He sometimes presses his lips together which indicates a repressed desire to speak. It is as if he wants to say “if I spoke I would be very critical which I do not want to be.” In a specific interview he shows a lot of hand to face gestures e.g. nose touch. It is known in body language as a more sophisticated, disguised version of putting the hand in front of the mouth. It fits José Mourinho’ refined manners but still showed uneasiness in that particular interview. In general his body language is that of assured man who knows what he wants and fires back answers at challenging journalists while staying composed. The kinesics deliver important non-verbal

He is praised for his intellectuality for knowing 6 languages. He has no specific sociolect in English meaning that you can not recognize a specific accent or dialect. A lot of non-standard grammar is noticed. Ellipses (omission of part of a grammatical structure) are common. The vocabulary José Mourinho uses is very simplistic in its form which links to language that is very childish. Although Portuguese people make a lot of common mistakes in English, Mourinho’s main problem is his tense choice. He makes a lot of mistakes and often mixes up his tenses. For example, “they give no distances between the lines but we create a lot.” After a Post-Match interview this sentence should be in future tense but instead he uses the present. It should be “they gave no distances between the lines but we created a lot”. Sentences tend to be longer in Portuguese, just because more words are necessary to convey the same meaning and express similar idea in English. Maybe that is why José Mourinho speaks in such long