Power theorists

Question 1

Fairclough
Power in spoken discourse

Answer 1

unequal encounters
powerful participant imposes conversational constraints on the less powerful participator
e.g. teacher-student/manager-employee

Constructs/ ideologies

Question 2

Fairclough
Power within the disocurse

Answer 2

choice of language
e.g. formal register (sophisticated language such as elevated synonym choices or epistemic modal auxiliary verbs that demonstrate authority e.g. “You will do this”.

Constructs/ ideologies

Question 3

Fairclough
Power behind the discourse

Answer 3

The producers of the text have an external power behind linguistic features e.g. ideological/hierarchical/political/legal thus lexical choices reflect a wider power at play.

Constructs/ ideologies

Question 4

Fairclough
Synthetic personalisation

Answer 4

Second person pronouns create relationship between text producer and receiver
constructs a ‘product image’ appealing to the lifestyle of a potential consumer
(verbal cues) drawing on the members’ resources of cultural/cognitive models

Constructs/ ideologies

Question 5

Wareing

Answer 5

• Influential = influence & persuade others to do something
• Instrumental = maintain & enforce authority/ gain complicity

Political = politiicans, police
Personal = occupation/ role e.g. professional status of teachers/ managers
Social = calss, gender, ethnicity, age

Question 6

Giles Accomodation

Answer 6

individuals adjust their speech to create, maintain, or decrease social bonds and interactions

Question 7

Face theory

Answer 7

• coomunication can damage someone’s face
• FTA or FSA
• -tive face & +tive face

Goffman, Brown & Levinson

Question 8

Asymmetrical/ non-reciprocal address

Answer 8

The way ppl. address eachother reflect a different status

Question 9

Use of imperatives

Answer 9

• superiors to the subordinate
• equal relationships = tends to be less direct.
• men = more imperatives
• women = more expressive.

Question 10

Unfamiliar language

Answer 10

Using lang. that a person is unfamiliar with can be a way of asserting status

Question 11

Non Verbal Communication (NVC)

Answer 11

• Dominance can be expressed through appearance. e.g. uniform.
• Body language and prosodic features

Question 12

Vocative

Answer 12

• Titles are more likely to be used in formal situations.
• Research suggests people feel confident in terms of address if the person is close subordinate, or distance superior.

Question 13

Signs of dominance

Answer 13

Position of dominance in conversation might be apparent: initiating, changing and closing of topics, saying more than the other person, ignoring what the other person says, asking questions

Question 14

IRF model

Answer 14

• Initiation Response Feedback
• in classroom discourse can reinforce power dynamics, particularly when the teacher dominates the exchange.
• IRF can perpetuate the teacher’s authority and limit student agency.