Language and Power Flashcards
Phatic Talk
Speech that serves a social function and not to include informative information
Reformulation
Reformulate something that has already been said but in a different way
Power Asymmetry
An unequal balance of power in discourse
Instrumental Vs Influential Power
Instrumental: Social power that is manifested through formal mechanisms and structures
Influential: Power used to influence or persuade others
Face Threatening Act
Behaviour by another that is perceived as attacking an individual’s presenting image or face
Ideology
A group or individuals set of beliefs
Social and Personal power
Social: Power held by an individual due to being in a dominant social group Eg a police man
Personal: Derived from a persons status in an organisation
Howard Giles Accommodation Theory
Adjusting our speech to accommodate the person we are addressing.
- Convergence - moving speech closer to that of the other speaker and decrease the social distance
Up-ward convergence - someone of a lower dialect adopting more prestigious vocab to accommodate a rich person
- Down-ward convergence - someone of higher class make inferences their speech - less prestigious
- Mutual convergence - both participants in a conversation meeting a middle ground
- Divergence - emphasising the differences between each other
Fairclough’s Synthetic Personalisation
Synthetic personalisation and the power in and behind discourse
- By using a direct address such as “you” to make the audience feel included and addressed personally.
Power Behind Discourse (Fairclough)
Power in the form of status or reputation, it permits the speakers power. An example can be when a politician has more power as they make people listen to their argument
Power in Discourse
Power generated by the effective use of language. This can be seen when a politician is making and speech and persuading people
Wearing (1999) Types of power
There are 5 distinct power types found in social groups.
Political - power in the law: police, judge, barrister
Personal - occupation/ power within a job: doctor, teacher
Social group - friends and family, class and society
Instrumental power - it enforces authority and is imposed by the laws, state, conventions and organisations
Influential power - persuasive and inclines or makes us want to behave in a certain way
Brown and Levinson Face Theory
- Face is the public self-image adults try to project.
- Positive Face: Individuals idea to be admired(relates to self-esteem)
- Negative face: Individuals idea not to be imposed upon.
Brown and Levinson’s Politeness Theory
Positive and Negative politeness
- Bald on record: Saying things in a very direct way
- Positive politeness: Reduce T.F.A and make the hearer feel good
- Negative Politeness: Avoid imposing on the speaker and reduce F.T.A
Grice’s Maxims
These are principles that enable a conversation to successfully occur.
- Quality-Give truthful information
- Quantity-Speaker tries to be as informative as possible
- Relevance-Use relevant information
- Manner-Try to be clear and brief as possible.
