language and power Flashcards
what are two types of power
- instrumental
- influential
describe instrumental power
- making ppl do things - commands
- maintain authority
- modal auxiliaries (must)
- use of formal language
eg: legal documents
describe influential power
- the power to make us believe or support something
- found in political or media texts
- emotive language
define power asymmetry
an imbalance in address which indicates a difference in status
–> may address teacher as ‘sir’ but they call you by first name
give an example of how context influences which forms of address we adopt
in Britain there has been a movement towards symmetrical address forms
(student also calling teacher by first name)
how is power exerted in conversation
- controlling topics
- holding the floor
-interruption - shutting down convo
how is power exerted in written texts
- modal auxiliary verbs (must)
- imperatives
- facts/statistics
- synthetic personalisation
what were the 3 types of power coined by Wareing
- personal power
- political power
- social group power
describe personal power as coined by Wareing
result of the person’s occupational role
eg- teacher, manager
describe social group power as coined by Wareing
those who hold power as a result of social variables
eg: social class, age
what were Grice’s 4 maxims
- relevance
- quality
- quantity
- manner
describe Brown and Levinson’s theory
- we present a particular image of ourselves (face)
- face threatening act = if something is said that challenges another’s face
- positive vs. negative politeness
describe positive politeness as described by Brown and Levinson
showing people that they are liked or admired
eg - flattery, taking interest
describe negative politeness as describe by Brown and Levinson
avoiding intruding om others’ lives, not imposing
–> results in language being indirect and respectful
describe the 3 rules of the ‘politeness principle’ described by Lakoff
- don’t impose (similar to negative politeness)
- give options - “up to you”
- make receiver feel good - “you’re a lifesaver!”
what were the different powers of discourse coined by Fairclough
- power in spoken discourse
- power within the discourse
- power behind the discourse
- synthetic personalisation
describe power in spoken discourse (Fairclough)
unequal encounters between a powerful ppt who imposes conversational constraints on the less powerful
describe power within the discoure (Fairclough)
power exercised by the choice of language - eg: formal register
describe power behind the discourse (Fairclough)
producers of text have an external power behind the linguistic features
eg: political/legal, thus lexical choices reflect wider power
describe synthetic personalisation (Fairclough)
2nd person pronoun creates relationship between text producer and reciever
what did Swales discuss
- invented the term ‘discourse community’
–> relates to the idea that when ppl become member of a professional community w/ shared knowledge, ppl acquire language features of that group
describe Sinclair and Coulthard’s theory
- initiation - response - feedback (IRF) = a pattern of discussion between teacher and learner
- aka an adjacency triplet
