Daniel C. O’Connell|Sabine Kowal
Orality and literacy in public discourse: An interview of Hannah Arendt
Georgetown University|Technische Universität Berlin
orality literacy investigated 1964 german television interview hannah arendt gnter gaus publications thereof interview awarded adolf grimme prize 1964 yet publications extensively edited paradox raises question changed transition successful oral performance readable literate prose information regarding temporal organization inevitably lost publications back channel signals hesitations contractions elisions paralinguistic phenomena eg laughter virtually eliminated turntaking regularized many discourse markers removed comparisons another prizewinning interview princess diana martin bashir bbc 1995 revealed optional rather prescriptive ways successful although spoken syllables interviews allocated interviewers interviewees 25 75 ratio turns interviewer interviewee much longer arendt princess diana interview arendt spoke slowly used hesitations speaker although interviewers remained atypically offcamera styles different gaus used frequent backchanneling bashir none bashir articulated slowly less hesitantly interrupted less frequently pauses taking turns twice long gauss characteristics orality literacy excellent public discourse discussed