Occupation Flashcards
What is an inferential framework?
An inferential framework is where knowledge is built up over time and used in order to understand meanings that are implicit.
Drew and Heritage - Inferential Frameworks (1993)
members of a discourse community will share the same inferential frameworks (inferences) to make it easier to communicate swiftly.
They also believe that, in workplace conversations, there is always somebody with more authority and/or knowledge who will have more control and power in conversation.
Discourse communities meaning
Swales defined a discourse community as having members who share a common set of goals.
John Swales - Discourse Community (2011) what did he believe?
He believed that people working in the same discourse community used specialised lexis specific to that occupation; they often share the same goals and use language to achieve those goals.
What do you need to have to join the discourse community?
One must possess a required level of knowledge and skill to be considered eligible to join the community.
Almut Koester - Phatic talk and Banter (2004)
Koester studied how employees interact within the workplace. Overall, he was a strong believer that being sociable in the workplace is essential for effective working as employees are able to support one another.
Koester key findings
He found that ‘banter is needed in the workplace’, as it calms the atmosphere and makes customers feel more welcomed. He also decided that phatic talk (small talk) is important as workers need to establish relationships and have interactions that are not just about work related topics.
Drew & Heritage
They suggested that members of a discourse community share inferential frameworks with each other, consisting of implicit ways of thinking, communicating and behaving.
What did Drew & Heritage suggest about power in the workplace?
They also suggested that there are strong hierarchies of power within organisations, with asymmetrical relationships marked by language use. This can lead to power asymmetry in which different communities emerge within the workplace that use different forms of language to distance themselves from one another and establish a hierarchy of power.
Swales + discourse communities
What makes up a discourse community? - Swales’ defining characteristics
1) Has a broadly agreed set of common public goals
2) Has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members (jargon)
3) Uses it participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback
4) Utilises and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims
5) In addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specific lexis
6) Has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise
Koester and phatic talk- what is phatic talk?
Phatic communication is verbal or non-verbal communication that has a social function, such as to start a conversation, greet someone, or say goodbye, rather than an informative function.
Koester and phatic talk
Showed how important phatic talk is in getting jobs done. He recognised that workers need to establish impersonal relationships and have interactions about things that are not work related.
Suggesting social chat is an important part of effective working. Connecting with others is an important dimension in work place communications.
David Crystal – Initialisms + Acronyms
Initialisms and acronyms in the workplace are linguistically economic as they get work done efficiently and quickly. Allow workers to complete goals and communicate efficiently, especially useful in high-stress, low-time occupations (e.g. doctors + MRI)
Dr Judith Baxter + double-voiced discourse
Background info
Linguistics expert Dr Judith Baxter - undertook an 18-month study into the speaking patterns of men and women at meetings in seven major well-known companies, including two in the FTSE-100
Dr Judith Baxter + double-voiced discourse
Results
Women were four times more likely than men to be self-deprecating, use humour and speak indirectly or apologetically when broaching difficult subjects with board members in order to avoid conflict
• These traits are all in aid of avoiding
• ‘Baxter said such language, which the study describes as “double voice discourse” (DvD), was used because women were often heavily outnumbered on boards’
