Language and Power Flashcards
Grammar & Power - Speech acts which exert power
Directive speech acts: FACE THREATENING!!!
- Indication of significant power asymmetry
Assertive speech acts:
NEGATIVE SENTENCE:
Declarative sentences which state that something isn’t true
- Indication of power
→ The writer/speaker is forbidding their audience from doing something
Interrogative Sentences:
Turns commands into requests
LESS DIRECT!!!
→ more polite (can be used as a politeness strategy)
Exerting power in conversation [10]
Initiating Conversations / Changing & controlling conversation topics / Topic changing / Holding the floor / Imperatives / Question Asking / Unresponsiveness / Initiating Overlap - Interruption / Speech Length / Closing down a conversation
Power Asymmetry Definiton
When speakers hold different levels of power in a conversation and so their language is affected.
- Person with more power can allow the person with less to use a more symmetrical form of address
- This may only be initiated by the person with more power
- An imbalance of address form often indicates difference in status
- More powerful participants can place constraints because of this asymmetry
Reciprocal form of address
when speakers reciprocate the level of respect given to them by the initial speaker
(NOT NECESSARILY BASED ON THE POWER OF EITHER SPEAKERS)
e.g.
Teacher: “Will you finish this task?”
Student: “Yeah, no worries.”
Nonreciprocal form of address
when speakers do not reciprocate the level of respect given to them by the initial speaker
(NOT NECESSARILY BASED ON THE POWER OF EITHER SPEAKERS)
e.g.
Teacher: “Will you finish this task?”
Student: “Yeah brosif! Not a prob dog!”
Asymmetrical form of address
different ways speakers address each other depending on their power in a certain situation. One will be more powerful than the other and this shows in their language.
e.g.
CEO: “Okay, I’ll leave it to you Gary.”
Gary: “Okay, thanks Mrs. Jones.”
In this instance, the CEO has the power to use Gary’s first name whereas Gary doesn’t and so addresses the CEO more formally with their title and last name.
Influences of forms of address
- Context
- Titles (especially those of an elaborate nature are more likely to be used in formal settings; e.g. Our guest of honour tonight is the Right Honourable Sir Gregory Smith)
- Research suggests that people feel more confident about identifying the appropriate form to use if the other person is a close subordinate** or a **distant superior.
- When a person meets a stranger, they’re unsure of how to address them
- Forms of address are often avoided in situations such as this
- Conventions relating to the use of address forms reflect social attitudes
Wearing Types of Power
Instrumental Power
Influential Power
Personal Power
Political Power
Social Group Power
Wearing - Intrumental Power
Power is a tool to establish authority & exercise power over those who must do as they’re told
- Legal documents / forms / contracts / rules / etc.
Wearing - Influential Power
Power is a tool to persuade someone into believing something or supporting something
- Media / Political texts
Wearing - Personal Power
Power someone holds as a result of their role / occupation
Wearing - Political Power
Power held by thsoe who make or enforce laws
- Police officers / elected politicians
Wearing - Social Group Power
Power held by those as a result of social variables
- Age / race / gender / class
Language and Power: Fairclough - Theories
Power Behind Discourse
Power In Discourse
Fairclough - Power Behind Discoruse
Looks at power dynamics between speakers
- The focus on power dynamics between the two speakers themselves and how pragmatics (such as their current situation) affects their power asymmetry / differences.
