language and occupation Flashcards
Who’s theory focused on business letters, faxes and emails?
Louhiala-Salminen
In what year was Louhiala-Salinen’s theory published?
1999
What were Louhiala-Salminen’s findings?
Business letters are more formal than emails and faxes as conventions of letters are well-established
Why did they theorize emails and faxes are less formal?
-more variations of language as the writers are less constrained to conform to certain standards
-they are context-dependent, often less explicit as assume reader has background knowledge
Who completed the Korean pilots study?
Kim and Elder
When did Kim and Elder complete their study?
2009
What did Kim and Elder look at?
The communication difficulties between Korean pilots and American air traffic staff
What did Kim and Elder find?
Communication difficulties were not due to poor language skills but because American staff would not use agreed upon phrases
What did Cameron study?
Telephone conversations in call centres
When did Cameron complete his study?
2000
What did Cameron find?
Conversations were highly formulaic in order to elicit information from customer but had no inter-personal relationship
What concept did Swales study?
discourse communities
What is a discourse community?
Contains members who: share a set of goals, communicate internally or by ‘owning’ several genres, use specialist lexis and discourse and possess a level of skill for suitable participation
Who theorized inferential frameworks?
Drew and Heritage
What did Drew and Heritage suggest?
members of a discourse community share inferential frameworks - involving implicit ways of thinking, behaving and communicating
What did Drew and Heritage suggest about power relations?
there are strong power hierarchies and many asymmetrical relations within the work place
What did Nelson study?
Whether business language exists
When did Nelson complete his study?
2000
What did Nelson find?
-There is a semantic field for business with a limited number of categories
-certain language is not used
What is an example of legalese?
subpoena (a writ requiring someone to attend court), voir dire (examination of witness in court)
What are some general lexis which has been repurposed for a legal usage?
party, action
Give an example of an occupational idiom
bringing home the bacon, balancing the books
give an example of a business idiom with sport origins
the ball is in your court, hit the ground running
What are some lexical difference between the business corpus and the general corpus according to Nelson?
rather than places like village, town, street, they’ll use, boardroom, premises
What did Nelson find about business English and negative states?
there are very few lexemes to describe the negative state, but also profound feelings
What did Nelson find regarding business English and truth
the word truth is used 9x less in business English
How are pragmatics important in occupational lexis?
they show inferred meaning therefore a sense of shared knowledge which brings power to the understander
How does Wareing (1999) relate to occupational lexis?
There is a knowledge in power, such as rules how to behave, if you do not know these rules you cannot participate in the community and have a feeling of ‘outsider syndrome’
What do Drew and Heritage suggest?
people in a discourse community share an inferential framework
What does an inferential framework consist of?
implicit ways of thinking, behaving and communicating
What did Drew and Heritage state about hierarchies in the workplace?
There are hierarchies with many asymmetrical relationships marked by language use
What did Koester (2004) research?
phatic communication in the workplace
What did Koester find?
Being sociable and engaging in personal chat is an important aspect for effective working
According to Koester, what does phatic talk create?
solidarity which is the ability to communicate with others
What did Cameron research?
call center conversations
What did Cameron find?
employees who strayed from the scripted response were the most successful in their sales
