Power Theories

Question 1

What are Wareing’s three types of power?

Answer 1

1. Personal (occupational role eg. teachers and managers)
2. Political (held by politicians, the police and workers in law courts)
3. Social group (power as a result of social variables eg. class, age and gender)

Question 2

What is Sinclair and Coulthard’s power theory?

Answer 2

Initiation-response-feedback (IRF) Aka adjacency triplet.
Pattern of discussion between teacher and learner. Teacher initiates, learner responds, teacher gives feedback.
Criticised for being more about the learner saying what the teacher wants to hear.

Question 3

What is the Discourse community theory and who came up with it?

Answer 3

Swales (1990)
Idea that when an individual becaomes a member of a professional community that share values and specialist knowledge they will acquire language features of the group.

Question 4

What are Grice’s four conversational maxims and what do they mean?

Answer 4

Relevance- be relevant
Quality-be truthful
Quantity-don’t say too much or too little
Manner-be clear

Question 5

What is positive politeness?

Answer 5

Showing someone that they are liked and admired.

Done through flattery, taking an interest and making it obvious that we enjoy their company.

Question 6

What is negative politeness?

Answer 6

Avoiding intruding on others.
Taking care not to impose our presence on them or pry into their personal affairs.
Indirect language, apologetic and respectful.

Question 7

Who devised the theory of negative and positive politeness and what is it based on?

Answer 7

Brown and Levinson

Face threatening acts challenge or reject the image that we present to others (face).

Question 8

What theories did Fairclough devise?

Answer 8

Power in spoken discourse
Power within discourse
Power behind discourse
Synthetic personalisation

Question 9

What is meant by Power within discourse?

Answer 9

Power exercised by the use of language eg sophisticated lexis, formal register

Question 10

What is meant by power behind discourse?

Answer 10

Power due to contextual factors.

External power; idealogial, political, legal. Lexical choices reflect wider power.

Question 11

What is instrumental power?

Answer 11

Individual is in a position of authority eg teacher, policeman.

Question 12

What is influential power?

Answer 12

An individual is trying to influence you, asserting power. eg. advertisers providing information in ordr to get you to purchase their product.

Question 13

What are the three stages of synthetic personalisation?

Answer 13

1. Building relationships through personalisation
2. Member’s resources to create an image
3. Building the consumer

Question 14

What is the first stage of synthetic personalisation?

Answer 14

Directive imperative adress
Personal pronouns
Text producer is seen as humane, one on one conversation
Implied familiarity and closeness

Question 15

What is the second stage of synthetic personalisation?

Answer 15

Advertising in conjunction with the reader’s ideologies.
Background knowledge of ideas
Visual elements of a text used to evoke a mental image depending on implied reader.

Question 16

What is the third stage of synthetic personalisation?

Answer 16

Placing the reader in a dsired position to relate to advertiser. Implied reader has to agree with ideologies presented.

Question 17

What is Fairclough’s theory of power in spoken discourse?

Answer 17

Unequal encounters between a powerful participant that imposes conversational constraints on the less powerful participant.

Question 18

What is the politeness principle and who developed it?

Answer 18

Robin Lakoff
3 rules that speakers usually observe.
1.Don’t impose-similar to negative politeness. “I’m sorry to bother you” “Could you possibly?”
2.Give options-avoid forcing the other person into a corner. “It’s entirely up to you” “Do you want to go first?”
3.Make the rceiver feel good-show they are appreciated, flattery. “I’d really appreciate your advice” “What would I do without you”