Language And Occupation Flashcards
Instrumental power
Powerful/forceful/authoritative
Lack of choice to disobey/consequences for actions.
Eg, politics.
Influential power
Makes people behave a certain way or change their opinion. No force applied, no consequence for disobedience.
Eg, advertising.
Types of power
- Political power
- Personal power
- Social group power
Political power
Held by police, legal system, government, etc.
Exerted through debate, speech and rules.
Thomas and wearing (1999) = “…if we break those laws, society has the power to punish us” / “political power controls many aspects of our lives: how much we pay in taxes…”
Personal power
Held by teachers, parents, security guards, directors. Anyone with a degree of authority over someone else.
These are engrained in society and accepted.
Thomas and Wearing (1999) = “people who have power as a consequence of their roles include teachers parents and employers”
Social group power
Divided by wealth, ethnicity and gender.
Kraus & Keltner (2009) = studied how those born into wealth and privilege communicate with strangers. Studied 50 conversations.
- Wealthier people more distracted/made little effort.
- Poorer people more attentive/made more effort.
Shows that holding social group power effects the way you treat/talk to others.
Occupational lexis
- Language that is specific to a particular occupation.
- Restricted = people outside of occupation won’t understand (gives occupation a degree of power).
- Shared = terms generally known by everyone.
- Eg, US Navy “maggot” is a “sleeping bag”
Acronyms
A contraction of multiple words to form one. Often specific to an occupation.
Eg, NASA, Ofsted, MAD
Initialism
The initials of multiple words sounded separately. Often specific to an occupation.
Eg, GCSE, A&E, ABH, ECM
Language that is “not used”
Language that isn’t suitable for a particular occupation. Eg, slang isn’t used in the legal system.
Michael Nelson
Found semantic fields within the language of occupations.
In business world, semantic fields consisted of money, business events, companies and business people.
Language that was “not used” consisted of family and personal life, etc.
John Swales (2001)
Investigated and imposed the discourse community.
People who have similar goals and use language similarly (i.e. people of the same occupation) can make up a discourse community. It is exclusive to these people and others from outside the occupation will be excluded. Gives members a degree of power.
Drew & Heritage (1993)
Members of a discourse community share inferential frameworks, making expectations of how they should behave, think and communicate.
Suggested there are hierarchies within organisations, marked by language. Eg, a boss higher up than a worker; will use imperatives to dictate.
Koester (2004)
Workers use phatic language. This establishes interpersonal relationships and helps to get jobs done more efficiently.
Howard Giles (1973) accommodation theory
Speakers will try to make their language resemble, or be more in line with that of their audience to improve communication.
Convergence = conforming to the language of their audience. (eg, therapist - comfort) Divergence = use of language to distance themselves from others. (eg, lawyers - exert authority)
