Key Power Theories

Grice's Maxims

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Robin Lakoff

Brown and Levinson

Deborah Cameron

Giles' Accommodation Theory

Sinclair and Coulthard

Norman Fairclough

Michael Foucault

Manner - be polite

Quality - be truthful

Relevance - keep to the point

Quantity - don't say too much or too little

Politeness principle

Don't impose

Give options

Make your receiver feel good

Face threatening act - when someone's positive face is threatened by a speaker.

Positive face - when you feel valued, liked and appreciated by someone's language.

Negative face - when you feel imposed on by someone's language. May be used when the speaker wishes to keep a social distance between the participants in the conversation.

Political correctness

Names such as 'fat controller' are considered incorrect, whereas 'vertically challenged' is seen as correct.

Divergence - using language to increase social distance between speakers.

Convergence - using language to make the social distance smaller.

Came up with IRF - initiation, response, feedback.

Power behind discourse

Power in discourse

Every use of language is a use of power.

Every piece of discourse is a negotiation of power.

Critical discourse analysis e.g. who talks the most, who asks the most questions, who sets the topic, who controls the topic, who gets to give feedback?

Synthetic personalisation

Wareing

Political power

Personal power

Social power

Linguistic relativism - language influences thoughts.

Linguistic determinism - language determines thoughts.