Theories

Question 1

What are Grice’s maxims?

Answer 1

Manner, Relevance, Quality and Quantity

Question 2

What are Leech’s maxims? [T.A.M.A.S.G]

Answer 2

Tact [reduce negativity], Approbation [minimise criticism], Modesty, Agreement, Sympathy, Generosity

Question 3

What are the 4 areas of Brown & Levinson’s theory?

Answer 3

Positive politeness, Negative politeness, Off-record, Face threatening acts

Question 4

What are the 2 sides of Giles’ Accommodation Theory?

Answer 4

Convergence [making the eay you speak similar to them] and Divergence [Making it different]

Question 5

What are the 5 levels in Joos’ Formality register? [F.I.C.C.F]

Answer 5

Frozen, Intimate, Casual, Consultative, Formal

Question 6

What is Lakoff & Goffman’s theory about?

Answer 6

Framing: how a text type ‘frames’ something

Question 7

What is the difference between Influential and Instrumental power? [Fairclough]

Answer 7

Influential: trying to convince you to do something.
Instrumental: a command, you must do something.

Question 8

What is Synthetic Personalisation? [Fairclough]

Answer 8

When the text type tries to make it seem like they know you. [Using second person pronoun ‘you’]

Question 9

What are the 3 sections of power according to Wareing?

Answer 9

Political, Social and Personal

Question 10

What is O’Barr and Atkin’s theory?

Answer 10

Situational power: the power of a person changes per each unique situation.

Question 11

What is Stubbe and Holmes’ theory?

Answer 11

Occupational power: your power relies on your occupation/job/rank e.g politican

Question 12

What is Spender’s theory? (1970s)

Answer 12

• Dominance
• Men make female language silent in both written and spoken interactions

Question 13

What is Lakoff’s theory? (G) (1970s)

Answer 13

• Deficit
• Female language is weaker than male language
• Women use empty adjectives; hedges, tag questions, weak expletives
• Men use imperatives, stronger expletives and interrupt more.
• Phatic vs transactional

Question 14

What is Tannen’s theory? (1970s)

Answer 14

• Difference
• Men and women’s language is equal in power but used differently
• Females are supportive, cooperative, understanding, and propositional rather than demanding
• Men are competitive, give advice, and give orders and info.

Question 15

What is Howard Giles’ theory?

Answer 15

• Attitudes to dialects (1970s)
• R.P speaker was rated highest for quality of argument but it was other accents that created a shift in opinion
• Standard accent = authoritative, other accents = persuasive

Question 16

What was William Labov’s theory?

Answer 16

• Martha’s Vineyard (
• Original inhabitants diverged their accents from the upper class tourists and converged it to that of the fishermen
• Fishermen held in higher esteem by original inhabitants than visitors
• Sociolect became dialect of the people living there
• Generational split (younger than older)

Question 17

What was William Labov’s second theory?

Answer 17

• New York department stores
• Tested in 3 different fashion stores
• The more expensive the store the higher the chance the employees would use R.P or standard English, especially if asked to repeat a sentence

Question 18

What was Trudgill’s theory?

Answer 18

• Norwich (1974) investigating emphasis on a ‘T’ and dropping the ‘g’
• Men are more likely to use NSE than women, and believed they used it more often than they did
• Women more likely to use SE and believed they used it more often than they did

Question 19

What was Milroy’s theory?

Answer 19

• Belfast (1980)
• People in closed social networks used NSE more frequently
• NSE less common with women because they were in less dense social networks
• In areas of high unemployment, women used more NSE due to denser networks