occupation Flashcards
what is discourse analysis?
not interested in how language works, but in how it is used to perform a variety of functions. e.g the sound the tongue makes
what is a discourse event?
an act of communication occurring in a specific time and location
what is a text producer and receiver?
text producer : the person or people responsible for creating a text
text receiver : the person or people interpreting a text
ways to explore you texts?
who is the actual and implied text producer? who is the actual and implied reader?
what is representation?
the portrayal of events, people and circumstances through language and other meaning - making resources to create a way of seeing the world.
what is genre?
a way of grouping texts based on expected shared conventions. it defines what type of text you are looking at.
what is mode?
the physical channel of communication : either speech or writing
what is blended mode?
text messages, conventional elements of both speech and writing
what is the variable?
context
e.g audience, purpose, genre, date they were written/ spoken
what are open and closed word classes?
open word classes : those that are flexible and accumulate lots of new words over time
e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
closed word classes : those that are largely fixed and accumulate very few new words over time
e.g. pronouns, prepositions
what is a pronoun?
substitutes for a noun
e.g. he, she, they, it
what is a preposition?
provides connections between words
e.g. in, on, between, during
what is a proper noun?
refer to names of people or places
what is an abstract noun?
refer to states, feelings and concepts that are not physical
what is a concrete noun?
refer to objects that have a physical existence
what is a collective noun?
a name for a group of nouns
e.g. herd, flock
what is a material verb?
shows action or events
e.g. hit, jump, wash, build
what is a relational verb?
identify properties or shows state of being
e.g. be, appear, seem, become
what is a mental verb?
shows internal processes
e.g. think, believe, wish
what is a verbal verb?
show external processes of communicating through speech
e.g. say, shout, scream
what is a comparative?
a form used to compare two instances either adding ‘er’ or using ‘more’
what is a superlative?
a form used to compare more than two instances, identifying a best examplee
what is a personal pronoun?
refer to people and are differentiated in terms of person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) , number (singular / plural) , and gender
what is a demonstrative pronoun?
orientate the reader or listener towards a person, object or idea
e.g. this, these, that, those
what is an indefinite pronoun?
refer to a person, object or idea that is non specific
e.g. someone, anybody, everything
what is a determiner?
a person or thing that determines or decides something
what is an article determiner?
show that something is definite or indefinite
e.g. the (definite) , a/an ( indefinite)
what is a possessive determiner?
shows ownership
e.g. my, your, her, our
what is a numeral determiner?
determines the number of nouns
e.g. one apple
what are quantifiers?
show either specific or non specific quantities of a noun
e.g. some, any, a few
what is a co ordinating conjunction?
link words or larger structures such as phrases and clauses together where they’re equal
e.g. and, but, yet, or
what is a sub ordinating conjunction?
link clauses together to show one is dependent on another
e.g. because, although, while, for
what is a lexical field?
all the words have a similar meaning
what is a semantic field?
a theme going through a text
what is an evaluative adjective?
they add a biased positive or negative opinion focusing on any kind of good / bad evaluation
what is an emotive adjective?
they not only convey a biased positive or negative opinion, but also a strong, emotional one
what is robin lakoff’s theory?
in her work on womens language in the 1970’s, she regarded many of these adjectives as ‘empty’ , conveying an emotional value but little real meaning.
she regarded this as a characteristics of womens language, a sign of womens need to boost the strength of their utterances because of their conversational insecurities
what is a euphanism?
words / phrases which substitute mild or vague language to soften the harsh reality of a subject
what is a narrative and narrative discourse?
narrative : a series of events
narrative discourse : discourse is concerned with larger stretches of textty
types of perspective?
subjective, monologue, one panel
porter abbott (2008) ?
how he classified a story..
how he classified a story…
- story
- events - central / additional
- characters
- setting - time / place
william labovs narrative stages (1972) ?
- abstract - summary
- orientation - context
- complicating action - point of interest in the story
- resolution - what finally happened
- coda - signals the end
what is internal and external evaluation?
internal evaluation : opinion within
external evaluation : opinion outside the story
what is goodwin’s story structure (1984) ?
story pr, story so, prel, act, clim, ap
he proposed an alternate model for analysing narratives that highlights the interactive nature of storytelling.
story preface - signal that a speaker wants to tell a story
story solicit - response that someone wants to listen
preliminary to the story - background info to story
story action - main body of narrative
story climax - conclusion
story appreciation - signals from the audience / could be at the end or throughout
written texts discourse features?
text boxes, slogan, bullet points, font choices, paragraph organisation, headlines / subheading, overall layout - images, interactive, use of brackets / parenthesis, chronological / non chronological
what is a collocation?
words that are associated together
e.g. fish and chips
what is a detonation?
the dictionary definition of a word
what are the 8 main word classes?
noun, adjective, verb, pronoun, adverb, conjunction, determiner, preposition
what are phrases and noun phrases?
phrases : words can form larger structures
noun phrases : a group of words centred around a noun that acts as the ‘head’ of the phrase.
what is a prepositional phrase?
one in which a preposition is the headword
what are adjectival and adverbial phrases?
these usually consist of an adjective or adverb preceded by one or more intensifiers
e.g. tomorrow will be VERY MUCH warmer
what is a verb phrase?
a verb phrase is built around a head word, the main verb
what are clauses?
the same way that words form phrases, phrases form larger structures called clauses. these are groups of words centred around a verb phrase
what is a subject?
person / place / thing carrying out the action of the verb
what is a direct object?
a person / place / thing which receives the action of a verb
what is a complement?
a verb may be followed by a noun or an adjective to complete the sense of a sentence.
what is an adverbial?
an adverb or prepositional phrase that adds info about time, place or manner
a clause is…
a sentence in its smallest form
what is a subordinate clause?
used to hold additional meaning in a sentence - doesnt make sense by istelf
what is a main clause?
makes sense by itself
what is a relative clause?
a type of subordinate clause. it usually adds more detail about the noun in the main clause.
they can turn simple sentences into complex sentences
what is a simple sentence?
single clause with no conjunctions
what is a compound sentence?
uses two or more main clauses
what is a complex sentence?
must have at least one main clause and at least one subordinate clause
what are the sentence functions and their fancy names?
a statement - a declarative
a question - an interrogative
a command - an imperative
an exclamation- an exclamative
how to put analysis into a written answer?
- start with data
- link all comments to why / who / for/ when / where
what is graphology?
font, colour, style of writing, logo
what is critical discourse analysis?
- based on the assumption that signs / statements / discourses are never neutral.
- everything we say, write or read produces a certain version of reality which promotes a particular ideology
- CDA sees ‘language as a social practice’ and also considers the ‘context of language use to be crucial’ ~ fairclough & wodak (1997)
how to use CDA?
- how is discourse framed (how the context of the text is presented)
- highlight which issues are foregrounded, and which are backgrounded
- textual silences : the omission of information that is relevant to the topic
- manipulative silence : a strategy of deliberately concealing relevant info
Huckin’s study of homelessness (2002) ?
Looked at 163 articles
Topics that were foregrounded : causes, effects and demographics of homelessness
Topics that were omitted or textually silent : treatment or prevention of homelessness
different ways to categorise text?
genre by purpose, genre by discourse structure, mode
what is restricted occupational lexis?
specialist vocab that is only used in specific occupation
exclusivity makes…
acronyms powerful. they create a discourse community of those who may feel powerful as they have the knowledge others do not
John Swales (1990) ?
defined a discourse community as having members who…
Swales defined a discourse community as having members who :
- share a set of common goals
- use specialist lexis
- possess a required level of knowledge and skill to be part of a community
Holmes and Stubbe (2003)
they discuss the idea of…
They discuss the idea of ‘communities of practice’ - a group of people who regularly engage with each other - so communicate in a kind of ‘verbal shorthand’
This is difficult for outsiders to penetrate
Found that small talk is important because its interpersonal function but also in the way it may be used in work contexts in terms of ‘doing power’
Penelope Eckert (2006) ?
argued that…
Argued that language in work communities creates a sense of identity for those incolved
Bernard Spolsky (1998) ?
says ‘a specialised…’
Says ‘a specialised jargon serves to establish bonds between people of the “in group” and enforces boundaries for outsiders
Anndrezej Kollataj (2009) ?
Argues that using jargon is not stigmatised when compared to other language choices e.g. slang, that marks group boundaries. Thus, it is accepted which makes it powerful
what is jargon?
(noun) specialist vocab for a particular subject or profession
functions of occupational texts?
- communicating information
- requesting help
- confirming arrangements
- instructing employees / colleagues to do something
- making things happen or enacting them
- sensitive info you dont want to expose other people
- ease
what is corpus (plural corpora) ?
a collection of searchable language data stored on a computer
Nelson (2000) ?
- Michael Nelson’s research at Manchester Uni in 2000 on business English compared a corpus of business language with more general corpus to see if there is such thing as business language.
- He found that semantic fields to do with business people, companies, money, places if business, time, technology
- He also found that certain lexis to do with personal issues, society, family, home, house and personal activities were rarely used
- Lexis he did not find : town, county, village, opera, prison, castle, library, palace
- He also found lexis to describe negative states.
what is colloquial language?
colloquial expressions are items of everyday language used in informal context
what is amelioration?
the meaning of a word takes on more positive connotations in society
what is pejoration?
the meaning of a word takes on more negative connotations in society
what is an idiom?
an expression whose meaning is not dependant on the meanings of the word
what is audience construction?
in language, study texts are seen as constructing audiences not just addressing them. This means texts create an idea of who the audience is by speaking to them in a certain way
what is marked terms?
items that are used to convey differences in gender
e.g. actor / actress
what is an imperative verb?
these create a tone of instruction
what are connotations?
look at the use of positive and negative language
what is syntax structure?
sentence structure
what is a referential discourse?
a text which gives info
what is interactional discourse?
a text which engages the reader
what is a discourse marker?
ok / so / well / but / right used in spoken discourse to change the topic of conversation
what are americanisms?
words which we have borrowed from america due to the rising prestige of american language
what is a goal orientation?
ppts in workplace conversations usually focus on specific tasks or goals
what are allowable contributions?
there may be restrictions on what kind of contributions are considered allowable
what is asymmetry?
workplace and professional interactions are often asymmetrical, that is often one speaker has more power than the other
e.g. boss and employee
what are constraints?
ways in which powerful ppts may block or control the contributions made
what is a repressive discourse strategy?
a more indirect way of exercising power and control through conversational constraints
what is oppressive discourse strategy?
linguistic behaviour that is open in exercising power and control
Drew & Heritage & Asymmetry (1993) ?
suggest there are strong hierarchies of power within organisations, with many asymmetrical relationships marked by language use
compliments tend to…
Herbert & Straight (1989) ?
- compliments tend to flow from those a higher rank to those of lower rank
- hierarchy has a recognisable impact on language used in organisations
Positive & Negative face needs - Goffman (1995) ?
Positive face needs are those associated with feeling appreciated and valued.
Negative face needs are the desire to feel independent and not be imposed upon
Positive politeness strategies?
- first name / nicknames
- informal language
- use ‘common language’
- act interested, sympathetic
- be direct, agree
- claim common experiences
Negative politeness strategies?
- use titles
- use formal language
- no assumptions
- apologise
- indirect
- hedge
what are pragmatics?
pragmatics refer to the idea of assumed meanings, where people know how things work before they share inferences - unspoken understandings
pragmatics and power are strongly interconnected because theres power in knowledge
Oates & Enquist (2009) quote?
the term ‘legalese’ can be pejorative term. communication that “lay readers cannot readily comprehend”
