AO2 Flashcards
Brown and Levinson : Politeness and Face
Positive face - Wanting to be liked, express solidarity and equality with others, if positive face is threatened we may feel embarrassed
Negative face - Avoiding imposing on others, expressing deference to others, if negative face is threatened we may feel offended/imposed upon
Face-Threatening Acts (FTA)
FTA= Utterance/tone that damaged the face of the addressee/speaker by acting in opposition to the wants&desires of the other
Positive face - Threatened by acts which appear as disapproving of their beliefs
Negative face - Threatened by acts that appear to impede the addressees independence of movement&freedom of action
Brown and Levinson : Strategies
- Bald on-record does nothing to minimise threats to the hearers “face”
- Negative politeness strategy recognises the hearers negative face needs e.g. “I don’t want to bother you but can you…”
- Positive politeness strategy shows you recognise that your heater has a desire to be respected, expresses group reciprocity
- Off-record indirect strategies take some pressure off of you, avoiding the direct FTA, would rather have it offered to you after your hearer sees that you want it
Grice’s 4 Conversational Maxims
Quality - be truthful
Quantity - say enough information but not too much
Relevance - stay relevant to the topic
Manner - be clear, ignore ambiguity
Herrgard - Jargon
Jargon makes the workplace more efficient
Politeness markers: Lakoff 3 Maxims
- Don’t impose
- Give options
- Make the listener feel good
Erving Goffman: Face
Positive face: Desire to be accepted
Negative face: Desire to not be imposed upon
Brown and Levinson: Face needs
Positive: We see and represent ourselves in a certain way and share this view with others, if we think they don’t share it, we will feel embarrassed
Negative: We think there are some things we’re allowed to do and things that we can’t be made to do, we want others to share this same view
Michael Halliday: Anti-language
A way of communicating in/amongst a small community that excludes everyone else e.g. 2 doctors using jargon so the patient doesn’t understand
Kim and Elder - Aviation English
Korean pilots who speak English as a second language (LINGUA FRANCA) came across communication problems such as
- Not enough pilots knew English
- The pilots accents prevented comprehension
Janet Holmes - Language in the Workplace
Relational practices usually carries out with women -> implications for gender/power dynamics as it raises questions to whether women will progress as fast as men who use transactional talk in the workplace
Vine - Directives
People in positions of power are seen as having the right to use directives (imperatives etc) when talking to a subordinate
John Swales - Discourse communities
The predictable nature of lexical features in a specific situation is a sign that the speaker/writer is part of a discourse community who know what the rules & patterns are for their kind of occupational english is
Discourse commmunity?
“Groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals”
Almut Koeste: Phatic Talk and Banter
Balance is needed in the workplace to create a calm atmosphere
> Phatic (small) talk is used to build relationships, show respect “Hello, how are you?”
> Banter is light hearted and playful teasing
Sinclair and Coulthard (IRF)
Initiation
Response
Feedback
Closely followed in the workplace and aligns with power & hierachy in the workplace , can be linked to positive face & politeness
Drew & Heritage - Institutional Talk/Inferential Frameworks
Institutional talk is more structured than everyday conversation e.g. more expressions & pauses
Inferential frameworks is where knowledge is built up overtime and used to understand implicit meanings -> shared by members of a discourse community (John Swales)
