The uses of spoken language vary in different contexts. We have come to rely on chat shows for new personal information about our favourite celebrities. These exclusive interviews are the only way the public can get a look into the ‘behind the scenes’ of celebrity life. Alan Carr, Graham Norton and Big Brother are all recent and well known examples of chat shows. Normally chat shows have very colloquial settings to try and make the superstar feel more at ease. These stings are utilised by celebrities to enhance their more down to earth persona to the public. Whilst appearing on a chat show celebrities not only satisfy their current fan-base they also gain more through advertising and disclosing the ‘human’ side of them o try and give hope that anyone can become a celebrity.
In this interview, 52 year old Jonathan Ross is the chat host. He uses un-scripted interview techniques to try and unveil secrets from the celebrity on his show; in this case it is Lady Gaga. She was born in New York 26 years ago and possesses a regular New York accent. Whereas, British hot Jonathan Ross has an estuary English accent. I am going to focus on a transcript taken from “Jonathan Ross live with Lady Gaga” the aim of this is to analyse the language of a chat show in more detail. When introducing Lady Gaga, Jonathan Ross starts with an informal but qualified ‘hi’ this colloquial beginning sets the mood or the rest of the interview; a relaxed conversational atmosphere where they can talk at ease as if they are good friends. Jonathan Ross also uses the contraction ‘it’s’ when introducing Gaga. Contractions are usually and most frequently used in informal situations, in this case this contraction is the shorted form of ‘it is’ a much more formal alternative.
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Chat shows hold their popularity because they are uncomplicated in their delivery and classifies as light entertainment. If formal grammar and language were to be used, the element of entertainment and purpose of would be lost. Following that Jonathan Ross then goes on to comment figuratively about lady Gaga ‘the mistress of quick change’. This sneaky declarative sentence carries on the casual conversation as Jonathan compliments his guest to make them feel more at ease therefore disclosing more of the wanted information. After Jonathan’s quick complimenting introduction there is a slight menopause for him to collect his thoughts and think of more topics to talk about that will impress Gaga. Once again he compliments how ‘spectacular’ Gaga is, this comment is emphasised by a loud applause from the audience which shows she has a lot of supporters with her.
Throughout the interview Ross names Lady Gaga, using her full celebrity name. This repetitive vocative emphasises she is the star and is the centre of the show. Therefore by reiteration the attention is also drawn back and focused on her. When transcribed, spoken language often appears elliptical, defying the syntactical rules that govern Standard English. Subsequent to the compliments to Gaga someone in the spectators yells out ‘love you Gaga’ which demonstrates that we often speak in elliptical ways that exclude standard pronouns like ‘I’ and or ‘we’. As Lady Gaga walks over to the couch Jonathan Ross warns her about the step ‘wow, mind that step.’ This imperative sentence shows he’s the boss. These sorts of words- ‘wow’, ‘um’, ‘err’- can arguably be described as emotive fillers since they don’t convey any other detailed meaning other than their emotive significance. The spontaneity of Ross’ language can be seen though his several false starts. An example of this is ‘on this tonight, that actually’. The simple yet declarative sentence ‘you really do push the boat out’ uses a colloquial metaphor to again make her feel more relaxed and comfortable so Ross can find out some more about her.
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Ross tries to lighten the mood throughout the interview by introducing new subjects. He does this to avoid asking direct questions about her personal life and coming across as rude and interfering. Therefore to avoid the problem he asks tangential questions. This is shown when he diverts the conversation to the phone on top of her head, the line ‘that actually isn’t a working telephone up there’ is an example used by Ross. In reality he doesn’t really care whether it works or not but to continue the conversation it’s polite to ask questions indirectly. Early on in the interview Jonathan Ross uses the imperative yet flirtatious line ‘come on you cheeky minx.’
The intimate colloquial line lifts the tome of the conversation. This shows they know each other as you would never use the sexualised metaphor to just anyone. After being shown her dramatized gift which was a simple teacup, Lady Gaga’s immediate response to her gift form Jonathan is ‘thank you’. This polite monosyllabic reply shows she still had human reactions even though she’s now a multimillionaire superstar and she can still appreciate small things. Just after her exaggerated present we find out that Jonathan Ross and Lady Gaga have previously met and Ross did not make a great impression. This could be why there is so much tension and falsified politeness; they both try to take control of situation subtly by interrupting one another. Lady Gaga continues to thank Ross for his teacup, “it’s so sweet isn’t it in my dressing room isn’t that nice.” the alliteration of the tag line, emphasising the rhetorical question. The idea that they are both going along talking about teacups is a very ironic litotes as two millionaires are talking about a petty teacup.
The next few lines Jonathan Ross uses allot of fillers, hedging and false starts as he tries to make a direct slightly insulting question more polite. This non fluent syntax language shows confusion. An example of Jonathan Ross using a false start is ‘what a great, what an incredible year it has been’. By replacing ‘great’ with another positive superlative and by using fillers such as ‘um, err’ Ross gains more time to think about his next question or answer. Ross doesn’t want to look bad and too declarative so he uses hedging to avoid the situation. He then goes on to accuse her of being weird but uses a euphemism to make it more polite. He uses the abstract noun ‘oddity’ to try and describe her. After accusing her he pauses almost to think whether he’s said the wrong thing.
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In the 2 second pause he uses the modal auxiliary ‘would’ to try and soften the blow, and gives her a chance to clarify the judgement. Lady Gaga unsurprisingly answers using monosyllabic language. She uses the same phrases several times throughout the interview such as ‘I guess so, yeah’. All throughout the interview she uses simple replies as if she’s afraid to disclose secrets accidently. We find out later on in the interview that she doesn’t expand the answers because she doesn’t want ‘to take out the trash.’ Her vague unconcerned replies must frustrate Jonathan Ross as her persona on stage is rather reticent. Although the basic structure of speech is turn taking, where participants in a conversation take turns to speak in this interview there is quite a few overlaps in speech. It could be for a range of reasons but is not always a sign of disagreements, though it could be. It also shows spontaneity from both of the speakers. An example of interruption is when Jonathan Ross and Lady Gaga said ‘I guess so, yeah’ and Ross said ‘ok’ at the same time to try and gain the upper hand in the conversation. Jonathan Ross vocabulary is allot more advanced than Lady Gaga’s.
The sub-story with the telephone on Lady Gaga’s head is politely ended by Jonathan, he then tries to lighten the mood by suggesting that Lady Gaga will be ‘charged a fortune’. The ambiguity and irony of the comment makes the audience laugh as a millionaire wouldn’t miss a couple of pounds.
