Language and Occupation

Question 1

What is an asymmetrical relationship?

Answer 1

Unequal power balance between two people.

Question 2

What is Convergence?

Answer 2

Move language styles and patterns to more closely match those of other speakers.

Question 3

What is Divergence?

Answer 3

Move language styles and patterns to be increasingly different from those of other speakers.

Question 4

What is a Discourse Community?

Answer 4

A group of people with shared interests and belief systems who are likely to use language in similar ways.

Question 5

What is an Illocutionary Speech Act?

Answer 5

The implied meaning that a text producer wants you to understand.

Question 6

What is Influential Power?

Answer 6

A type of power that is persuasive rather than imposing.

Question 7

What is Instrumental Power?

Answer 7

A type of power that is explicit and often imposed by a higher authority.

Question 8

What is Jargon?

Answer 8

The vocabulary and manner of speech that define and reflect a particular profession which may be difficult for others to understand.

Question 9

What is Legalese?

Answer 9

Legal register associated with the domain of law.

Question 10

What is a Lexicon?

Answer 10

The words used in a language or the words used in a language by a person or group of people.

Question 11

What is a Locutionary Speech Act?

Answer 11

The literal meaning of something.

Question 12

What is a Perlocutionary Speech Act?

Answer 12

The perceived meaning that the text receiver understands.

Question 13

What is Phatic Talk?

Answer 13

Socially orientated talk

Question 14

What is Power Asymmetry?

Answer 14

A power imbalance between speakers shown by the unequal way they address each other.

Question 15

What is the Plain English Campagin?

Answer 15

A campaign established to ensure that documents produced by companies are clear and understandable.

Question 16

What did Drew and Heritage study about workplace discourse?

Answer 16

Identified the key difference between everyday conversation and workplace talk e.g. goal orientated speech and turn taking rules and restrictions.

Question 17

What did Drew and Heritage discuss about inferential frameworks?

Answer 17

Inferential frameworks: members of a discourse community share implicit ways of thinking, behaving and communicating. Constraints on language use are dictated by workplace hierarchies.

Question 18

What did Herbert and Straight state about compliments in the workplace?

Answer 18

In the workplace compliments flow downwards, from higher status to lower status workers.

Question 19

What did Holmes and Marra discover about gender in the workplace?

Answer 19

Women use just as much humour as men in the workplace; citing the same reasons for their humour. Women are more likely however, to encourage supportive and collaborative humour.

Question 20

What did Hornyak discuss about work talk to personal talk?

Answer 20

The shift from work talk to personal talk is initiated by the highest ranking person in the room.

Question 21

What is Howard Giles’ Accommodation Theory?

Answer 21

Accommodation theory: The idea that people have different levels of formality of language at their disposal, and will converge or diverge their language depending on their situation.

Question 22

What did Janet Holmes state about women managers?

Answer 22

Women managers are more likely to negotiate consensus of an idea of plan, compared to men who will press through their agenda.

Question 23

What did John Swales discuss about discourse communities?

Answer 23

Professional discourse communities occur due to the professional lexis used to maximise efficiency in the workplace.

Question 24

What did Koester state about Phatic Talk?

Answer 24

Phatic talk is important for increasing productivity in the work place, by establishing positive interpersonal relationships and building solidarity between workers.

Question 25

What did Porter discuss about discourse communities?

Answer 25

Workplaces or professions with increasingly complex bureaucratic or technical procedures are more likely to develop stronger and more restricted discourse communities.