Language and Power/ Situation Flashcards
Component 1 Section B
What is Instrumental Power?
Power that you hold, may hold position in society- you can use to maintain dominance
Enforceable- supported by ‘instruments of law’
Types: practical power, positional power
What is Practical Power?
Power through physical action, violence, skill, money, goods or services
e.g. year 10 bullies year 7 and threatens him
What is Positional Power?
Power gained from position in hierarchy; could be backed by law
e.g. your boss asks if you can do overtime, but mentions he will be firing some members of staff
What is Influential Power?
Use of own power to influence, assist or inspire others
Can be explicit (easily identifiable) or explicit (subtle- this is the most dangerous and deceiving)
Types: pedagogical power, personal power
What is Pedagogical Power?
Use of knowledge and ideas to influence others
e.g. teachers in comparison to students- they teach and influence
What is Personal Power?
Use of power to influence through personality, nurturing or caring
e.g. teacher settles you before entering an exam hall
What is Unequal encounter?
One person has more/ less power than another in a conversation
e.g. in a classroom
What is Synthetic Personalisation?
Addressing fake, made up language and statements to a large audience to make them feel as though they, as individuals, hold lots of power
Collective pronouns (we, us) are used- e.g. Hitler’s speeches
What is Power in discourse?
In power situations, language will be solely focused on and how it is being used in order to portray an idea in a certain way (how and what is said)
What is Power behind discourse?
Can be backed by theories and reasons in order to portray an idea
Bigger/ wider picture of power in discourse
Deeper meaning to language used
WHY it is said
What is Macro, Meso, Micro?
Macro: the wider context and situation of the text
Meso: the audience and purpose of a text
Micro: the text itself, literal, plain text
What are the strands of meaning?
Linguistic- literal, simple meaning on a text
Interpersonal- more complex, allows more imagination
Textual- interpretive, triggered by linguistic choices (ideology)
What is ideology?
ideation created by textual features
What is Jargon?
Special words and phrases used by particular groups of people- used heavily in the workplace
Advantages/ disadvantages of using Jargon?
advantage: easy to communicate within discourse communities
disadvantage: needlessly complicated
What is the Plain English Campaign?
Organisation which campaigns against jargon, ‘rubbish talk’ is unnecessarily complicated
Crystal clear mark appears on documents to show it provides the clearest possible info
What is the Occupational Register?
Refers to language used by professionals in different work settings- helps establish sense of expertise and study
Who are Drew and Heritage and what is their theory?
Suggests institutional talk has specific characteristics: pre-allocation of roles, specialised lexicon, constraints (structure, turn-taking, contributions from others)
What is institutional talk (Drew & Heritage)?
Communication occurring in workplaces, schools, courts etc (any place of institution)
Who is John Swales and what is his theory?
A discourse community has 6 characteristics: broadly agreed set of public goals, specialist lexis/ texts, utilises lots of genres to further it’s aims, levels of memberships
What is a discourse community? (John Swales)
A group of people that often take part in their own discourse- they have values and forms of communication in common, provides info and feedback, mechanisms of internal communication among members
Who is Almut Koester and what is his theory?
Phatic talk- use of banter within occupational groups is key to creating positive and productive environment- it gives a more personal atmosphere/ more effective working environment
What is phatic talk?
communication that functions to create/ maintain relationships (weather, small talk, discussing traffic)
Grice’s maxims
What is the maxim of quantity?
Be as informative as one can, not too much or too little info
can be flouted if a person says more/ less than necessary
Grice’s maxims
What is the maxim of quality?
Be as truthful as one can, do not say false or unsuppported statements
flouted if a person consistently lies in a conversation
Grice’s maxims
What is the maxim of relevance?
Try to obtain a topic and stick to it in a conversation
can be flouted if a person speaks about irrelevant topics in a sentence
Grice’s maxims
What is the maxim of manner?
Try to be as clear, brief and orderly as possible- avoid ambiguity and obscurity
could correlate with maxim of quantity
can be flouted if someone ‘waffles’ and talks nonsense
Who are Brown and Levinson and what is their theory?
Positive and negative face- maintaining a positive image avoids disagreements, criticisms and insults and abides to compliments and congratulating
apologising can damage our own face
co-operation between co-workers is key
Maintains public image and avoids humiliation
What is positive face?
A person’s desire to be liked, admired and respected
What is negative face?
A person’s desire to protect their individual rights- makes someone feel as though they haven’t been impeded on/ taken advantage of
What is the sapir-whorf hypothesis?
linguistic relativity and determinism- structure/ vocab of a person’s language determines their view on the world (everyone percieves the world in different ways, given variations of speech)
What is linguistic relativism?
The language a person uses influences their views/ the way they percieve the world
What is linguistic determinism?
The language we speak is the definite reason we think/ percieve the world in the way we do
What is semantic reclamation?
associated with taboo and derogatory terms
Individuals/ groups use or take ownership of derogatory words that have been used against them- usually political and controversial due to past and present use towards minority groups
targetted groups- women, LGBTQ+, ethnic minorities etc
e.g. bitch= b * tch- used against women in comparison to a female dog
Who are Sinclair and Coulthard and what is their theory of the IRF model?
An eliciting exchange- initiation: teacher, response: student, feedback: teacher= full IRF use
used as framework for teachers and lesson planning
What other 2 exchanges did Sinclair and Coulthard come up with?
Informing exchange- teacher wishes to respond, students respond if they wish= I(R)
Directing exhange- teacher wants students to do something, response is non-verbal and responds to an action, teacher feeds back if they wish= IR(F)
Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Kairos
What is ethos?
Appeal to speaker’s creditability- used to convince audience they are a credible source, valued
e.g. using a celebrity within a persuasive text
Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Kairos
What is logos?
Appeal to logic/ reason- used to convince audience they’re making a logical, worthwhile point
e.g. Hitler’s speech to the German community had strong logos
Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Kairos
What is Pathos?
Appeal to audience’s emotions- used to tug at audiences heartstrings
e.g. figurative, long anecdotes
Ethos, Logos, Pathos, Kairos
What is kairos?
Choose right words, place and time to make an argument- words and phrases need to appeal to engage
a distracted audience= ineffective for making an argument/ point
Pragmatics
What is the co-operative prinicple?
Who coined the theory?
Speakers inherently want to cooperate when communicating (it makes understanding the conversation easier)
Paul Grice
Pragmatics
What theory is the cooperative principle supported by?
Note that Paul Grice coined it
Grice’s four maxims (quality, quantity, relevance, manner)
Pragmatics
What is meant by the term “conversational implicature?”
Who also coined this?
Which theory is it directly linked to?
Looks at indirect speech acts
* We want to know what speaker means even though they haven’t explicitly said it
* Relies on basis that speaker and listener are cooperating- when a speaker implied, they can be confident a listener understands
Paul Grice
This theory is directly linked to the cooperative principle theory
Pragmatics
What is the physical context?
Where conversation takes place; what objects are present, actions occurring etc
Pragmatics
What is the epistemic context?
Refers to what speakers already know about the world
e.g. shared background knowledge
Pragmatics
What is linguistic context?
Refers to what has already been said within the utterance
e.g. Jane is referred to as “her” if she’s already been referred to once
Pragmatics
What is the social context?
Refers to the social relationship among the speakers and hearers
Conversations with friends may differ socially compared to strangers who just met
Register
What is frozen register?
- Static register, used for very old pieces of discourse
- “Frozen” because the language hasn’t changed for a long time and it will continue to remain even though it is no longer used today
e.g. the Bible, wedding vows
Register
What is a formal register?
- Associated with formal versions of English, and formal situations
- Used to address people in positions of authority and individuals that hold a level of respect
Used in letters of complaint, speeches, essays etc
Often used with teachers, police officers, those who work in the services
Register
What is a consultive register?
- Involves a tone of respect as advice is being sought
- Used when there is an expert-novice relationship between the two
- Quite formal
- Also can be informal- includes slang (context dependent)
Register
What is a casual register?
- Refers to informal speech used between people who know each other well
- Includes slang, contractions, swear words (taboo), local dialect speech features
- Used in every day language
Register
What is an intimate register?
- Used when talking to close friends, family members, partners
- Used in private frequently, as well as when discussing jokes, flirting, discussing personal issues
Register
Which theorist came up with the idea of field, mode and tenor?
Michael Halliday
Register
What is meant by the field?
Content or subject matter
* Our language will change and vary depending on the context
E.g. school context- language will be based around curriculum area, topic being studied
Register
What is meant by the tenor?
The relationships we have with others who are part of the conversation
* Can be affected by status, level of expertise, age, ethic background, gender
* Language choices vary based on how they feel about each other, how frequently they meet etc
Register
What is meant by the mode?
TALK ABOUT REGISTER WHEN TALKING ABOUT MODE- THEY LINK AND RELATE
The channel of communication being used- primarily focus on differences between spoken and written modes and the different roles they play in the learning process
What are Halliday’s 7 functions of language and what does each one mean?
- Instrumental- express speaker needs
- Regulatory- tell others what to do
- Interactional- form social relationships
- Personal- express feelings and opinions
- Heuristic- ask questions
- Imaginative- express creative language
- Representational- communicate information
What are Halliday’s meta-functions of language?
- Interpersonal
- Textual
- Ideational
What traditional idea does Halliday’s theory of functions of language oppose?
Language is a set of rules
* It supports the idea that language is a resource for conveying meaning
What is meant by the accomodation theory?
Who coined this theory?
Aims to understand how and why we change our speech based on who we are talking to
Howard Giles
Accomodation Theory
Why do people generally accomodate and adjust speech/ style of communication?
Due to influece of social factors (gender, culture, ethinicity, native language, social/ occupational status, age)
Accomodation Theory
What two levels did Giles suggest communication happens on?
- Interpersonal
- Intergroup
Accomodation Theory
What is interpersonal communication?
Communication that is driven by our personalities- we communicate for ourselves and our interests
Accomdation Theory
What is intergroup communication?
Communication that is driven by our identities as members of a wider social group
Accomodation Theory
What is convergence?
An individual changes their communicative style to sound and appear more like their interlocuter
* Usually happens when the individual respects the person they’re talking to (wishes to seek approval)
Accomodation Theory
What is divergence?
Changing style of communication to emphasise and accentuate a difference/ distinctiveness from interlocuter
Accomodation Theory
What are common causes for divergence?
- Emphasise distinctiveness
- Shape others’ feelings
- Show belonging
- Influence others’ speech
