Year 12 Theorists

Question 1

Stubbs’ dichotomy (written)

Answer 1

Written language: Formal, public, planned, non-interactive, non co-present, standard english

Question 2

Stubbs’ dichotomy (spoken)

Answer 2

Spoken language: Casual, private, spontenous, participatory, face-to-face, non-standard

Question 3

Negative Politeness (Brown and Levinson)

Answer 3

A technique used to avoid imposition on the hearer: avoid embarrassment and awkwardness

Question 4

Positive Politeness (Brown and Levinson)

Answer 4

Looks to minimise threat to hearers positive face: make them feel good

Question 5

Sadker and Sadker

Answer 5

Boys are less likely to be reprimanded for calling out in class

Question 6

Bing and Bergvall

Answer 6

People who don’t fit into the male-female dichotomy are marginalised through language

Question 7

Face Theory (Erving Goffman)

Answer 7

The way we look to present ourselves is our face; to cooperate with speaker is to save face, lack of cooperation is face threatening

Question 8

Politeness Principles (Lakoff’s three Maxim’s)

Answer 8

1. Don’t impose on the receivers life: but if you can’t, use apologetic language
2. Give options: avoid forcing other speakers into a corner
3. Make the receiver feel good: pay complements, take interest

Question 9

Accommodation Theory (Howard Giles)

Answer 9

We adjust our speech to either accommodate our audience (convergence) or to distance ourselves from them (divergence)

Question 10

Grices’ Maxim’s

Answer 10

1. Quantity: The amount of speech is correct for the conversation
2. Relevance: Is it relevant to the topic
3. Manner: Is it (the way you speak) confusing?
4. Quality: Is it the truth as you know it?

Question 11

Reception Theory (Stuart Hall)

Answer 11

Producers ‘encode’ their texts, audiences ‘decode’ them

Question 12

How do audiences ‘decode’ the ‘encoded’ texts (Hall’s Reception Theory)

Answer 12

1. Dominant: they decode the text as the publisher intends
2. Negotiated: they understands what’s been encoded but doesn’t agree with the meaning
3. Oppositional: reader opposes what the producer has put

Question 13

Fairclough on Power

Answer 13

There is instrumental power and influential language

Question 14

What is instrumental power? (Fairclough on Power)

Answer 14

Where the producer has authority behind the language

Question 15

What is influential language? (Fairclough on Power

Answer 15

Where the language used is persuasive but the producer has no authority

Question 16

Speech/Discourse communities (Holmes and Stubbe)

Answer 16

People who engage and share resources speak in a verbal shorthand

Question 17

Speech/Discourse communities (Eckert)

Answer 17

Creates a link between sole, group, setting in social order but it excludes outsiders

Question 18

Speech/Discourse communities (Spolsky)

Answer 18

Sociolect not only gives new labels and concepts but establishes group from outsiders

Question 19

Speech/Discourse communities Kallotaj

Answer 19

Slang and jargon have no difference as they both do the same thing

Question 20

Colour Symbolism (Robert B. Moore)

Answer 20

English can be overtly racist and reinforce negative stereotypes due to colour symbolism:
White = good
Black = bad

Question 21

Androcentrism

Answer 21

men are seen at the top of society

Question 22

Male-as-norm

Answer 22

Male terms are used for both male and female collectives (mankind)

Question 23

Deficit (Jesperson)

Answer 23

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

Question 24

Criticism of Jepserson

Answer 24

1. Otto didn’t conduct any proper research
2. Otto based his work on fictional literature
3. Otto quoted others who didn’t do research

Question 25

Deficit (Lakoff)

Answer 25

The difference in men and women’s language is due to ‘womens subordinate social status’

Question 26

Deficit Features (Lakoff)

Answer 26

Women use tags when uncertain - women use empty adjectives - hypercorrect grammar - special lexicon - question intonation - no taboo - back channelling

Question 27

Dominance (Zimmerman and West)

Answer 27

Men dominate conversations: 96% of interruptions in mixed-sex convos were made by men

Question 28

Zimmerman and West Critisim

Answer 28

All subjects were white, middle class college aged therefore there was a lack of diversity

Question 29

Difference (Deborah Tannen)

Answer 29

Men and women speak differently due to their differing gender roles:
Status vs support - advice vs understanding - order vs prospect - conflict vs compromise

Question 30

Difference (Christine Howe)

Answer 30

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

Question 31

Taboo Language (Stanley and Mills)

Answer 31

More taboo language was used to insult females
Women’s behaviour is policed more

Question 32

Conversational Shitwork (Fishman)

Answer 32

Women make conversations happen by using tag questions, vocatives and back channelling