Language Diversity) Lamguage And Power Flashcards
Difference in influential and instrumental power
Instrumental- resisting leads to some form of penalty eg laws
Influential -relies on acceptance of power and status eg media, advertising
Types of power. 2
Who thought these up
Influential and instrumental
Fairclough
Other types of power. 3
Explain
Who thought these up
Political power -jobs give power to control other’s lives eg police, judges
Personal power - teachers, parents, bosses have power as a consequence of their roles
Social power - some social groups have less power than others
Thomas and Wareing
’s face theory
Who thought this up
An individual has different faces depended on the particular Context - but whatever face they’re are showing, they want it to be in line with societies values and expectations
Thus a teacher has a different face in the classroom and at home
Goffman
Face threatening acts
Face can be threatened by… (3)
Power
Distance
Rank
Types of faces that can be threatened
Explain
Who thought of this
Positive face – everyone likes to be lights so positive fta’s include speaking rudely, disagreeing, or arguing with someone
Negative face -No one wants to be imposed done for example when one person is over friendly with someone they don’t have a close relationship with
Brown and Levinson
Positive politeness
Eg
Used to maintain someone’s face is order to make listener feel good about themselves, or develop relationship
Eg giving compliments, in group language such as mate or pal etc
Negative politeness
Eg
Use as an attempt to avoid negative FTA of imposing on someone
E.g. apologising for bothering someone by saying ‘sorry to bother you’ etc
Jargon meanings
Specialist lexis
Why’s would Professional organisations develop their own vocabulary
To be part of a discourse community as this choice of language gives employees a form of status since its language only they can understand making the noticeboards
Political rhetoric
Eg
Range of poweful techniques used by political speech writers
Eg repetition, metaphor, redundant questioning
Why’s legal language seen as confusing. 2
Contains highly sophisticated register, so that it remains specialised and exclusive
Prevent confusion and ambiguity with legal documents so that legitimacy of document isn’t questioned
