Language and Power Flashcards
Component 1 Section B
What is Instrumental Power?
Power that you hold, may hold position in society- you can use to maintain dominance
Enforceable- supported by ‘instruments of law’
Types: practical power, positional power
What is Practical Power?
Power through physical action, violence, skill, money, goods or services
e.g. year 10 bullies year 7 and threatens him
What is Positional Power?
Power gained from position in hierarchy; could be backed by law
e.g. your boss asks if you can do overtime, but mentions he will be firing some members of staff
What is Influential Power?
Use of own power to influence, assist or inspire others
Can be explicit (easily identifiable) or explicit (subtle- this is the most dangerous and deceiving)
Types: pedagogical power, personal power
What is Pedagogical Power?
Use of knowledge and ideas to influence others
e.g. teachers in comparison to students- they teach and influence
What is Personal Power?
Use of power to influence through personality, nurturing or caring
e.g. teacher settles you before entering an exam hall
What is Unequal encounter?
One person has more/ less power than another in a conversation
e.g. in a classroom
What is Synthetic Personalisation?
Addressing fake, made up language and statements to a large audience to make them feel as though they, as individuals, hold lots of power
Collective pronouns (we, us) are used- e.g. Hitler’s speeches
What is Power in discourse?
In power situations, language will be solely focused on and how it is being used in order to portray an idea in a certain way (how and what is said)
What is Power behind discourse?
Can be backed by theories and reasons in order to portray an idea
Bigger/ wider picture of power in discourse
Deeper meaning to language used
WHY it is said
What is Macro, Meso, Micro?
Macro: the wider context and situation of the text
Meso: the audience and purpose of a text
Micro: the text itself, literal, plain text
What are the strands of meaning?
Linguistic- literal, simple meaning on a text
Interpersonal- more complex, allows more imagination
Textual- interpretive, triggered by linguistic choices (ideology)
What is ideology?
ideation created by textual features
What is Jargon?
Special words and phrases used by particular groups of people- used heavily in the workplace
Advantages/ disadvantages of using Jargon?
advantage: easy to communicate within discourse communities
disadvantage: needlessly complicated
What is the Plain English Campaign?
Organisation which campaigns against jargon, ‘rubbish talk’ is unnecessarily complicated
Crystal clear mark appears on documents to show it provides the clearest possible info