Year 12 Theorists Flashcards
Stubbs’ dichotomy (written)
Written language: Formal, public, planned, non-interactive, non co-present, standard english
Stubbs’ dichotomy (spoken)
Spoken language: Casual, private, spontenous, participatory, face-to-face, non-standard
Negative Politeness (Brown and Levinson)
A technique used to avoid imposition on the hearer: avoid embarrassment and awkwardness
Positive Politeness (Brown and Levinson)
Looks to minimise threat to hearers positive face: make them feel good
Sadker and Sadker
Boys are less likely to be reprimanded for calling out in class
Bing and Bergvall
People who don’t fit into the male-female dichotomy are marginalised through language
Face Theory (Erving Goffman)
The way we look to present ourselves is our face; to cooperate with speaker is to save face, lack of cooperation is face threatening
Politeness Principles (Lakoff’s three Maxim’s)
- Don’t impose on the receivers life: but if you can’t, use apologetic language
- Give options: avoid forcing other speakers into a corner
- Make the receiver feel good: pay complements, take interest
Accommodation Theory (Howard Giles)
We adjust our speech to either accommodate our audience (convergence) or to distance ourselves from them (divergence)
Grices’ Maxim’s
- Quantity: The amount of speech is correct for the conversation
- Relevance: Is it relevant to the topic
- Manner: Is it (the way you speak) confusing?
- Quality: Is it the truth as you know it?
Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)
Producers ‘encode’ their texts, audiences ‘decode’ them
How do audiences ‘decode’ the ‘encoded’ texts (Hall’s Reception Theory)
- Dominant: they decode the text as the publisher intends
- Negotiated: they understands what’s been encoded but doesn’t agree with the meaning
- Oppositional: reader opposes what the producer has put
Fairclough on Power
There is instrumental power and influential language
What is instrumental power? (Fairclough on Power)
Where the producer has authority behind the language
What is influential language? (Fairclough on Power
Where the language used is persuasive but the producer has no authority
Speech/Discourse communities (Holmes and Stubbe)
People who engage and share resources speak in a verbal shorthand
Speech/Discourse communities (Eckert)
Creates a link between sole, group, setting in social order but it excludes outsiders
Speech/Discourse communities (Spolsky)
Sociolect not only gives new labels and concepts but establishes group from outsiders
Speech/Discourse communities Kallotaj
Slang and jargon have no difference as they both do the same thing
Colour Symbolism (Robert B. Moore)
English can be overtly racist and reinforce negative stereotypes due to colour symbolism:
White = good
Black = bad
Androcentrism
men are seen at the top of society
Male-as-norm
Male terms are used for both male and female collectives (mankind)
Deficit (Jesperson)
Women’s language is worse than men’s: women talk a lot - use ‘and’ to link sentences due to emotion - men make more words - women have smaller vocab - women use adverbs too much - women tend towards hyperbole
Criticism of Jepserson
- Otto didn’t conduct any proper research
- Otto based his work on fictional literature
- Otto quoted others who didn’t do research
Deficit (Lakoff)
The difference in men and women’s language is due to ‘womens subordinate social status’
Deficit Features (Lakoff)
Women use tags when uncertain - women use empty adjectives - hypercorrect grammar - special lexicon - question intonation - no taboo - back channelling
Dominance (Zimmerman and West)
Men dominate conversations: 96% of interruptions in mixed-sex convos were made by men
Zimmerman and West Critisim
All subjects were white, middle class college aged therefore there was a lack of diversity
Difference (Deborah Tannen)
Men and women speak differently due to their differing gender roles:
Status vs support - advice vs understanding - order vs prospect - conflict vs compromise
Difference (Christine Howe)
Men have strategies for gaining power such as putting across views.
It makes it harder for listeners to participate in the conversation.
Women are more active listeners (back channel)
Difference between conversations start at socialisation
Taboo Language (Stanley and Mills)
More taboo language was used to insult females
Women’s behaviour is policed more
Conversational Shitwork (Fishman)
Women make conversations happen by using tag questions, vocatives and back channelling
