Power theorists

Question 1

Fairclough

Answer 1

Power in spoken discourse
~ unequal encounters between a powerful participant who imposes conversational constraints on the less powerful participator e.g. teacher-student/manager-employee

Power within the discourse
~ Power exercised by the choice of language e.g. formal register (sophisticated language such as elevated synonym choices or epistemic modal auxiliary verbs that demonstrate authority e.g. “You will do this”.

Power behind the discourse
~ The producers of the text have an external power behind linguistic features e.g. ideological/hierarchical/political/legal thus lexical choices reflect a wider power at play.

Synthetic personalisation
~ Second person pronouns create relationship between text producer and receiver; constructs a ‘product image’ appealing to the lifestyle of a potential consumer (verbal cues) drawing on the members’ resources of cultural/cognitive models

Constructs/ ideologies

Question 2

Wareing

Answer 2

• Influential = influence & persuade others to do something
• Instrumental = maintain & enforce authority/ gain complicity

Political = politiicans, police
Personal = occupation/ role e.g. professional status of teachers/ managers
Social = calss, gender, ethnicity, age

Question 3

Giles Accomodation

Answer 3

individuals adjust their speech to create, maintain, or decrease social bonds and interactions

Question 4

Face theory

Answer 4

• coomunication can damage someone’s face
• FTA or FSA
• -tive face & +tive face

Goffman, Brown & Levinson

Question 5

Asymmetrical/ non-reciprocal address

Answer 5

The way ppl. address eachother reflect a different status

Question 6

Use of imperatives

Answer 6

• superiors to the subordinate
• equal relationships = tends to be less direct.
• men = more imperatives
• women = more expressive.

Question 7

Unfamiliar language

Answer 7

Using lang. that a person is unfamiliar with can be a way of asserting status

Question 8

Non Verbal Communication (NVC)

Answer 8

• Dominance can be expressed through appearance. e.g. uniform.
• Body language and prosodic features

Question 9

Vocative

Answer 9

• Titles are more likely to be used in formal situations.
• Research suggests people feel confident in terms of address if the person is close subordinate, or distance superior.

Question 10

Signs of dominance

Answer 10

Position of dominance in conversation might be apparent: initiating, changing and closing of topics, saying more than the other person, ignoring what the other person says, asking questions

Question 11

IRF model

Answer 11

• Initiation Response Feedback
• in classroom discourse can reinforce power dynamics, particularly when the teacher dominates the exchange.
• IRF can perpetuate the teacher’s authority and limit student agency.