Language and Power

Question 0

Fairclough’s framework for analysing power in advertising

Answer 0

• Synthetic personalisation: construction of relationship between producer and receiver by using personalised language

- creating an image of text: visual and verbal cues to evoke knowledge, behaviour and lifestyle frames
- building the consumer: positioning the receiver as an ideal reader and consumer of the text/product

Question 1

TYPES OF POWER THEORY (Wareing)

Answer 1

• Political (instrumental): held by politicians police and law enforcement
• Personal (influential): held as a result
of their occupational role eg teachers and employers
• Social group (influential): holding power due to social variables like class gender age
(INSTRUMENTAL is used by individuals to maintain or enforce authority, INFLUENTIAL is used to influence of persuade)

Question 2

Accommodation theory - Howard Giles

Answer 2

change speech to accommodate to others CONVERGE/DIVERGE
• convergence: decreases social distant. to become
closer to the other person by using similar speech
- downward: RP talks to working class (degrade)
- upward: working class talks to RP (upgrade)
- mutual: both adapt to each other
• divergence: speech becomes further apart to increase social distance

Question 3

Brown and Levinson’s politeness strategies

Answer 3

developed to save FACE; refers to the respect that an individual had for theirselves and maintaining that respect in private and public places.
• bald on record: does nothing to minimise threat to hearers FACE
• positive politeness: recognises hearers respect desire FRIENDLY
• negative politeness: recognises hearers desire of respect and also recognises that you’re imposing on them
• off record indirect: take pressure off of yourself, try to avoid direct speech

Question 4

Sinclair and Coulthard ‘classroom language’

Answer 4

• Informative: statements
• Directive: direct you to do something, can be disguised as declarative imperative interrogative
• Elicitation: questions IRF interchange with pupils
• Modals: to be less blunt
• Boundary exchanges: right ok or frames for next topic or to monitor understanding

Question 5

Althusser’s theory of audience positioning

Answer 5

use of pronouns a writer or speaker used to make hearer or audience feel INCLUSIVE or EXCLUSIVE