Occupation examples and theory Flashcards
Examples of terms from the armed forces
MIA
Binge drink
Snapshot
Bogey
Camouflage
Acronyms in teaching
CPD
Progress 8
LAC
PP
How many acronyms starting with A are on the Met Police website?
61
What can acronyms (restricted occupational lexis) do?
Exclude outsiders (restricted code)
An example of convergence
Doctors may converge their language with patients to reduce use of technical lexis which patients may not understand
What was the old term for ‘statement of truth’ in the courts? (link to Plain English Campaign)
Affadavit
What was the old term for ‘in private’ in the courts? (link to Plain English Campaign)
In camera
Changes in language in the courts (year, which court)
These changes (e.g. affadavit to statement of truth) were made in 1999
Only in the civil court not the crown court
Norman Fairclough
- Instrumental power vs influential power
- ‘Unequal Encounters’ - Language choice is created and constrained by asymmetrical situations accepted as ‘normal’ e.g. manager/worker, teacher/student
Coulthard and Sinclair (IRF)
- IRF model (initiation, response, feedback) - this is the pattern for elicitation exchanges
- The IRF structure works through the accepted status and authority of the teacher in the classroom
What are the 3 main functions of teacher talk? (Coulthard and Sinclair)
- Informative
- Directive (imperative)
- Elicitation (question)
Holmes and Stubbe (2003)
- Coined the term ‘doing power’
- Power in the workplace
- Power is demonstrated by superiors as a way of carrying out their job role
David Crystal
- Occupational varieties of language are in temporary use - they are ‘part of the job’ - taken up as we begin work and put down as we end it
- Every occupational group will have linguistic distinctiveness. There are no class distinctions.
- ‘The more specialised the occupation, and the more senior and professional the post, the more technical the language is likely to be’
Deborah Tannen (1999)
- Power/solidarity paradox
- Every utterance is potentially ambiguous as to whether it is establishing power or solidarity
- This is because symbols or language that display power (differing status) and solidarity (equal status) are often the same
- Whether or not an utterance is supposed to demonstrate power or not can only be decided in terms of context or pragmatics
Drew and Heritage (1993)
- Suggest there are strong hierarchies in workplaces that lead to asymmetrical (unequal) relationships based on language use
- Suggested that members of a discourse community share unspoken, implicit knowledge, ways of thinking and communication styles
- One result is the idea that more powerful people dictate the language used by others
Koester (2004)
- Focuses on phatic talk (small talk) as a way of establishing relationships with others
- Being sociable and engaging in personal chat is an important aspect of effective working as it creates solidarity in the workplace
- ‘Workers need to establish interpersonal relationships and have interactions that are not just about work related procedures’
Brown and Levinson (1970s)
- Built on Erving Goffman’s face theory
- Face threatening acts such as promises and apologies threaten the speaker’s face
- Face threatening acts such as warnings and criticisms primarily threaten the hearer’s face
- 3 variables are social distance, power distance and the degree of imposition
Plain English Campaign
- Set up in 1979 to combat the use of confusing and unnecessary jargon
- It advises organisations on how they can use plainer language
- Organisations can apply for the Crystal mark which shows that the ‘Plain English Campaign’ has approved their document
John Swales clear example/web of discourse
- John Swales proposed the term ‘the web of discourse’, which is sometimes referred to as being part of a ‘discourse community’.
- This essentially states that within a work place, employees are part of a group who share a common purpose and goal and within that web, language use shares similarities and differences.
- For example, two employees may use the same jargon, but one of these employees might be the boss and as a result, the language use will be different.
Kollataj
Argues that some language uses (like slang) have a stigma in the workplace, but jargon does not
Spolsky
Says jargon helps you to become indoctrinated into the group however Spolsky also says that you can stand out (in a bad way) if you do not know/use jargon
Herrgard
Argues that in time-constrained situations (e.g. a kitchen), efficiency is key and so jargon works well here.
Gavruseva
- Argued that we have many different ‘discourse identities’
- In other words, you will probably talk to your boss, your friend and your customers all differently
Myers-Scotton
- States that we code-switch our language to one which will benefit us the most.
- This will often include moving up and down the registers (the language used in relation to formality) and the increased politeness markers (ways of ameliorating things, like fronting an imperative with ‘please’ like ‘please move those boxes’).
