Language And Occupation

Question 1

Discourse community (Swales)

Answer 1

This is a group of people who share a set of discourse

Question 2

A key concept linked to occupation is…

Answer 2

Acronyms and initialisations

Question 3

What purpose do acronyms and initialisations serve?

Answer 3

• they can make communication faster
• they allow us to communicate sensitive information without others understanding it
• they can be used to exclude others

Question 4

John Swales defined discourse communities as…

Answer 4

“Groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to achieve these goals”

Question 5

According to Swales, a discourse community has members who…

Answer 5

• share a set of common goals
• communicate internally, using one or more genres of communication
• use specialist lexis and discourse structures
• possess a required level of knowledge and skill to be considered eligible to participate in the community

Question 6

Drew and heritage suggest that…

Answer 6

Members of a discourse community share inferential frameworks with each other

Question 7

What are inferential frameworks?

Answer 7

Implicit ways of thinking, communicating and behaving based on a shared pragmatic understanding

Question 8

What is the difference between an acronym and an initialisation?

Answer 8

An acronym is pronounced as a word and a initialism is pronounced as the individual letters

Question 9

Acronyms commonly used in teaching

Answer 9

PP- pupil premium

NQT- newly qualified teacher

Question 10

Acronyms linked to the police force

Answer 10

ABH- actual bodily harm

ASU- air support unit

Question 11

What does the code inspector sands mean?

Answer 11

It is a code for a fire in the UK- in the underground the smoke detectors automatically triggers a recorded “inspector sands” warning

Question 12

What does the code ‘code Adam’ mean?

Answer 12

This code means there is a missing child. It was first invented by Walmart and in 2003 the US Congress made code Adam compulsory in all federal office buildings

Question 13

Who identified systems of describing power in occupational discourse?

Answer 13

Shan Wareing and Norman Fairclough

Question 14

Shan Wareing (1999)

Answer 14

• political power~ backed up by the law (judges/ the police)
• personal power ~ power held by individuals because of their job (teachers/doctors)
• social group power ~ power as a result of social status (class/age/wealth)

Question 15

Norman Fairclough

Answer 15

• instrumental power ~ power used to assert authority from an official source (detention)
• influential power ~ power used to influence or persuade others (encouragement)

Question 16

Powerful and less powerful participants

Answer 16

In many examples of occupational discourse there is a power asymmetry. Interactions like this are called unequal or asymmetrical encounters.

Question 17

Who said “the great enemy of clear language is insincerity”?

Answer 17

George Orwell (1946)

Question 18

Alex Aldridge article

Answer 18

He complained about how corporate jargon just makes understanding others in the workplace unclear ‘like a cuttlefish squirting out ink’

Question 19

Occupational jargon phrases

Answer 19

Touch base offline- to meet in person

Punch a puppy- to do something horrible for the good of the business

Question 20

What is the top most hated business jargon phrase?

Answer 20

To ‘touch base offline’

Question 21

Andre Spicer article

Answer 21

Argued that jargon is only good when it serves a purpose

Question 22

Mark Vanhoenacker article

Answer 22

Talks about the ‘language of the sky’ aka Aeroese/ aviation English.
This jargon is used for speed and easier communication between pilots with a different mother tongue