Unit 3 AOS 2 Formality

Positive Face 

Need to be connected/need to be liked, accepted, treated as a member of a group & to know his or her wants are shared

is an individuals self esteem

Effect/analysis: Support in-group mem/promote social harmony, promote social cohesion

Negative Face

Need to be independent/to have freedom of action, & not to be imposed on by others or not imposing on someone’s time, possessions, effort, goodwill, personal space, & show deference or apology for doing so

Effect/Analysis: Estabs social dist/estab authority/elucidate (making something clear/explain) expertise, promote soc harmony

Obfuscate

Deliberate use of lang to mislead & or confuse audience, to evade undesirable topics, contentious topics, to shift topic &/or focus

Effect/Analysis: Cognative load increases on aud—> higher cognative demand—> reduced comprehension & engagment

In political, legal, or bureaucratic discourse, functions as mechanism of power, allowing speakers or institutions to control narratives, evade scrutiny or maintain authority by limiting transparency

Strategic Ambiguity: allows for plausible deniability, enabling speakers to remain non-commital or to reinterpret statements as needed. This is particularly evident in diplomatic or evasive political discourse

Cohesion 

Explicit linguistic devicesused to signal relo b/w diff parts of text w focus on lexical & grammatical relo

Devices: Lexical-repitition, synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, collocation, semantic field

References-deixis, anaphoric & cataphoric

Ellipses & substitution

Adverbials & conjuctions

Information flow-clefting, end focus, front focus, passive & nominalisations

Effect/Analysis:

Helps a text feel unified & structured, making it easier for the reader to understand & interpret meaning

Improves readability & comprehension

Enhances logical flow & progression of ideas

Reinforces connection b/w diff sections of a text

Ensures msg is communication effectively

Coherence

Def: relates to implicit logical connectedness w/in a text including reliance on inference w the focus on semantic relo

Devices:

Logical ordering of info

Logical connections b/w ideas & development

Logical connections b/w text & context

Consistency of participants, topic & veiwpoint

Relevance of concepts & relos

Changes are signaled (transistions)

Formatting signals underlying logic

Consistency of text conventions

How Can Formal Purposes be Achieved  Politeness: +ve & -ve

Jargon

Euphemism

Political correctness

Employing non-discrim lang (non sexist & racist)

Avoiding taboo topics & all related lang

Clarifying

Manipulating

Obfuscating

Paralinguistic Features

Are a large aspect of spoken language, as they allow us to enhance our message and to communicate using our faces and bodies

Turn Taking

In formal setting, co-op turn taking is expected and essential, as any overlapping speech or interruptions can be viewed as a face threat or a disruption of social harmony

Interrogative tags are a large feature in formal settings, as they can be used to clearly indicate turns

Tenor is a large factor of turn taking as the greater social distances, and power imbalances affect how all interlocutors interact w one another

Interogative Tags

AKA question tags, r short questions added to the end of a statement to confirm or check info, or to encourage a response from the listener

Purpose:

Confirmation

Engagement

Agreement

Example: It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?

Structure:

Tag questions usually uses an auxiliary verb (e.g. be, do, have) or a modal verb (e.g. can, will)

Tag questions verb usually the oppo of the main verb in the main statement (e.g. positive statement, negative tag)

Topic Managment

Often used to provide clarity of info

If topic is unclear, they risk threatening their own +ve face, thru lack of coherence

Reinforcing Social Distance: Politeness

One’s public self image thru lang & behavior that shows an awareness of another’s self image & may be counted as cooperation b/w those who interact

Reinforcing Social Distance: The Etiquette of Communicating-Postive Face

A person’s +ve face is the need to be liked, accepted, treated as a member of a group and to know his or her wants are shared. It’s all abt an individuals self esteem

Attending to someones +ve face is making that person feel liked, admired, ratified and included

You can threaten +ve face by ignoring someone & excluding them

Reinforcing Social Distance: The Etiquette of Communicating-Negative Face

A persons -ve face is the need to be independant, to have freedom of action, & not be imposed on by others

Attending to someone’s -ve face is evident when u do not impose on someones time, posessions, effort, goodwill, personal space & u show deference or apology doing so

Phonological Patterns

Alliteration: 'In a summer season when soft was the sun' - William Langland.

Assonance: Hazy shades of dappled light.

Consonance: Send a tender kiss.

Onomatopoeia: I heard the boom of the thunder as the storm passed overhead.

Function: Shows planning, consideration, especially in literature or speeches.

Rhythm & Rhyme

Purpose in Formal Texts: May show an element of planning & careful consideration. This is particularly evident in literature or other carefully crafted texts, such as political speeches

Morphological Patterns Examples

Affixation: 'The star was polluted by circumstellar material'

Abbreviation: 'The temperature tomorrow will be 15°C'

Shortening: 'Batteries not incl.'

Blending: 'A new biomarker may aid in the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease'

Conversion of word class: 'Would you like me to calendar that meeting?'

Compounding

Backformation

Initialism

Acronym

Contraction

Function in Formal Texts: Can be used to address new ideas or inventions in society. Can also be emph the seriousness of a situation or engage an aud w specific knowledge

Semantic Patterns

FLAMPOPISH

Figurative language

Lexical Ambiguity

Animation: 'Time galloped away from us and, before we knew it, it was August.'

Metaphor: 'Australia is a melting pot of cultures'

Personification

Oxymoron: 'Our recipe is an open secret'

Puns

Irony

Simile: 'She was as forceful as waves crashing on the beach'

Hyperbole

Function in Formal Texts: Allows for shared connections to be drawn from abstract concept. In political arena some partic can craft a shared bias or manip an aud

Can be used to obfuscate

Syntactic Patterns

Explicit linguistic devices used to signal relo b/w diff parts of text w focus on lexical & grammatical relo

Examples:Antithesis: 'We are going to plan for the worst, but hope for the best'

Listing: 'We have seen an increase in customer uptake, stock prices and profits'

Parallelism: 'I cannot condone this, and I cannot allow this to continue'

Function: Provides clarity or emphasis of arguments, rhetorical effect.

Jargon

Specialised lang for a particular field. Formal use can help to assert authority & expertise by demonstrating a detailed & complex understanding of subject matter.

Can make lang more precise, which has the benefits of reducing lexical density/the proportion of content words in comparison to function words, increase clarity for a knowledgeable aud

Can also be used as a mechanism to exclude or confuse individual groups. This is particularly the case when it is used before an aud that does not have specialised expertise. Jargon can also contain longer & more complicated terminology, thereby increasing lexical density.

Key Purposes:

Rienforcing/demonstrating expertise & authority

Promoting in-group solidarity

Obfuscating

Key Purposes & Impacts of Jargon

Rienforcing/demonstrating expertise & authority:

Signals to those in out-group similarly (they may not be familiar w intricate meanings of jargon)

By establishing expertise, u r likely to establish authority in the matter-u show that you ‘know ur stuff’, which inherently may put u in a leadership position (authority) to discuss the subject matter

Promoting in-group solidarity

Signals a shared understanding to people within the in-group, who r alr familiar w the jargon, that this lang user knows the jargon (& hence familiar w the topic asw)

Hence promotes solidarity because lang users all ‘know the same stuff’

Euphemism

Used in formal lang to navigate potentially sensitive & taboo topics to avoid offense. Can support social harmony thru lessening impact of a statement or indicating appropriate sensitivities to ideas & concepts that may be upsetting to an aud

Can be used to meet social politeness standards & ensures that the speaker or writer appeals to a wide variety of ppl, shape perception, obscure meaning, or reflect societal values

Given euphems avoid directness, they can sometimes lead to comm breakdown, particularly when info needs to be clearly stated & understood

Functions: politeness avoiding offence, or adhering to social norms/softens lang for social, political or psychological reasons

Mainly serves the recipient

Dysphemism

Involves the verbal resources of being offensive

Selective taboos are social sanctions placed on behavior that is regarded as distasteful or atleast impolite within a given social context.

Dysphemisms involves the breaking of social conventions

Dys lang is less common b/c formal lang tends to avoid harsh or offensive expressions. However, dys can be used to create a -ve impression or emph critisism. Can be used to stir emotion & sway public debate

Double Speak

‘Language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words’

Is purposely ambiguous w overly euphemistic or misleading lang choices that r used in order to obfuscate meaning or to misdirect the focus of an aud, makes truth more palatable

When using DS speakers and writers ‘talk about’ a topic instead of being explicit about their intent. As a result, double speak relies heavily on inference, implication, euphemism & lexical ambiguity

Speakers & writers may choose to overuse formal lang features such as emplaying large amounts of jargon, syntactic patterning & semantic patterning, as a way of further manip the true meaning of their comm

Value-laden & deliberately obfuscating/lang inteded to befuddle, manip & disguise or inflate ordinary & convenient facts

Mainly serves the user

Rhetoric

Language that persuades an audience to support a viewpoint

Common in formal contexts→ it can win over an audience, drawing on features that indicate a command of the language

Informing, persuading & motivating a reader or listener into action that supports the viewpoint of the writer or speaker

Often applied to someone’s use of lang to persuade another into action, whether that action be supporting a perspective, idealology or concept or physically doing something differently.

SAQ eg: x use of listing (L…), contributing to her rhetorical force and intending to convince [the audience]…

Typical Lang Features that Use Rhetorical Effect:

Subsystem patterns

Rhetorical appeals to emotions, logic & credibility

figurative lang

antithesis

repitition

euphemism

connotative lang

persuasive speech

Effect: win over aud, drawing on features that indicate a command of the lang. persuade another into action, whether that action be supporting a perspective, idealogy or concept, or physically doing something differently

Information Flow

Refers to how speakers convey meaning by organising & sequencing their lang to effectively communicate w their intended aud. Info flow inc front & end focused & clefting.

Some of the purposes of manip info flow r to emph important info, provide contextual info, create contrast, maintain interest & increase readability

Front Focus

Occurs when a speaker or writer places new or important info @ the initial or front part of a sentence

Effect: Adds emphasis to the object/puts most salient info first

When something appears before the subject it’s considered to be fronted

E.g. Potato cakes I like

Clefting Refers to the modification of the syntax of a sentence to emphasise one particular element. This allows that element to become the focus of the sentence, helping to increase cohesion.

Types:

It-cleft

Wh-cleft

It-Cleft

Always begins w 3rd person singular pronoun ‘it’, directly followed by a conjugated form of the primary auxiliary ‘to be’. The focus of the sentence follows, then the additional info completes the sentence in form of a subordinate clause.

Effect: Allows the element to become the focus of the sentence, helping to increase cohesion

E.g. It is the potato cake that i like eating

Wh-Cleft

Begins with a relative pronoun. Often a ‘wh’ word such as ‘what’, ‘who’ or ‘how’ as part of a subordinate clause. This is followed by a conjugated form of the primary auxiliary ‘to be’ near the end of the sentence, finishing w the element in focus

Effect: Emphasises/places prominence on the main element at the end of the sentence

E.g. What I like eating is potato cakes

Manipulating (Through Front & End Focus, Clefting & Formal Language)

Manipulating is giving prominence to one aspect of a linguistic message to bias the audience. The formal lang can be used to manip aud by focusing the message on one viewpoint w/out paying much attention to the alternative viewpoints.

Speakers may manipulate info flow thru front focus, end focus or clefting to emphasise the ideas that they promote. Formal lang can also be used to manip aud by promoting a particular viewpoint as fact rather than personal opinion

Non-Discriminatory Language

Enables users to carefully negociate social taboos -Study Design

Typically identified as more formal lang that intends to refer to a taboo w/out causing offence

Due to taboo or sensitive nature of many concepts, non-discrim lang does tend to still accidentally harm a group of ppl/cause ppl offence

This is cos ppl (and in-groups) r diverse & have a wide range of opinions on lang

Promotes inclusivity

Unifies by using general terminology.

Promotes inclusion by not making distinctions between groups.

Common in formal language, rapidly evolving.

Example: 'Firefighter' instead of 'fireman'.

Nominalisation

A verb or adjective turns into a noun; it’s nominalised form

Top Tips: look for suffixes ‘ment’ & ‘isation’

Come after a determiner, usually ‘the’

e.g. The development

Effect:

Shifts from an action to an abstract concept

Consequencially, appear more objective (depends)

Raises formality of register

Relative Clause

Type of dependant/subordinate clause that modifies or gives more info abt a noun in the main clause. It is a sub clause that is indroduced by/starts w a relative pronoun such as who, whom, whose, which or the relative word ‘that’

End Focus

Occurs when speakers or writers place new or important info @ end of sentence or clause. This delays the delivery of a main idea to give it prominence or create a sense of anticipation, suprise or resolution. In spoken texts, placing the most meaningful or important elements last means that this is the most recent piece of info an aud hears and most memorable

E.g. The time to paint the house has come

The government promised reforms to improve healthcare but the real change is yet to benefit me

Anaphoric Reference

When author or speaker refers (back) to something previously mentioned in convo or written discourse.

Achieved using pronouns or other referring expressions, such as possessive determiners

Effect: Creates cohesion making discourse more connected & easier to follow/avoids uness rep/links sentences together/helps listeners &/or readers process info smoothly by maintaining continuity

E.g. I gave Shayaan his coat as he had left it behind.

Cataphoric Reference

When author or speaker uses a pronoun or other expression to refer to something that will be (forward: something coming later) mentioned later in discourse

Effect: Can build anticipation & set up expectations/creates & enhances cohesion/emphasises key info

E.g. When he arrived, Andreas noticed that the door was open

If you want it, you can take my book

Subsystem Patterning

Promotes consistency, clarity, and precision.

Helps adherence to formal style and reduces errors.

Major Functions

Formal texts can serve multiple functions simultaneously.

Referential: Passing on information (speeches, announcements).

Emotive: Using semantic features/connotations (pausing in speeches).

Conative: Persuading the audience (negative politeness strategies).

Phatic: Upholding social conventions (greetings, politeness, neutral topics).

Metalinguistic: Explaining jargon (industry-specific terms).

Poetic: Focus on aesthetic features (semantic/syntactic patterning, rhythm).

Purposes and Intents

Demonstrates authority (expertise, hierarchy).

Fosters social cohesion (politeness).

Clarifies or obfuscates a message.

Builds rapport, manipulates others.

Positive Politeness

Unites people through empathy, encourages feeling valued.

Used when participants have shared goals or reduced social distance.

Emphasizes similarity, shows interest, uses humor, offers compliments, and uses inclusive language.

Negative Politeness

Promotes social cohesion, tactful communication.

Avoids confrontation via hedging and indirectness.

Used to assert social hierarchies when there is social distance.

Promoting Social Harmony, Negotiating Taboos, and Building Rapport

Fosters a peaceful, comfortable, and inclusive environment.

Promoting Social Harmony

Breaks down barriers between cultures/groups.

Achieved through non-discriminatory language, euphemism, and politeness.

Negotiating Social Taboos

Actions causing societal discomfort.

Euphemism and figurative language are used along with neutral lexicon, technical language, nominalization and manipulation of tense.

Building Rapport

Shows respect.

Meeting negative face needs provides agency.

Overly informal language can damage rapport if introduced too soon.

Reinforcing Social Distance and Authority

Signals to those in the out-group similarly (they may not be familiar with intricate meanings of jargon)

By establishing expertise, you are likely to establish authority in the matter-you show that you “know your stuff” which inherently may put you in a leadership position (authority) to discuss the subject matter

Formal language indicates social distance due to unfamiliarity.

Hierarchies are displayed with formal terms of address.

Making apologies shows deference.

Syntactic features can remove subject agency.

Establishing Expertise

Differentiates from those unknowledgeable.

Uses jargon, complex syntax.

Uses antonymy and parallelism to articulate relationships between ideas.

Experts may use metaphors/similes to construct analogies whilst using jargon with the appropriate audience.

Clarifying

Ensures clear communication.

Users ability to be specific, precise and accurate, by attempting to remove ambiguity inherent in the language.

Formal Contexts aim to reach a wide and diverse audience with varying values and expectations so clarity is of utmost importance.

Manipulating

Biases the audience by emphasizing specific elements.

Speakers and writers may manipulate information flow through front focus, end focus or clefting to promote their chosen viewpoint.

Formal language can be used to promote particular viewpoints as facts rather than opinions.

Features of Spoken Discourse

ften planned, edited, and rehearsed but can be spontaneous.

Prioritizes clarity and authoritative tone.

Planned pauses, discourse particles, non-fluency features, and paralinguistic features.

Openings

Closings

Adjacency Pairs

Minimal Responses/Backchannels

Overlapping Speech

Discourse Markers/Particles

Non-Fluency Features

Openings

Establish contact or introduce people/topics.

Scripted or rehearsed.

Follow conventional formats (Acknowledgement of Country).

Closings

End conversations.

Formulaic and professional, meet politeness standards.

Example: 'Thank you so much for your time'.

Minimal Responces/Backhannels

Affirmation, show support, signal enthusiasm.

Overlapping Speech

Less common than in informal texts.

Signals power imbalance or a lack of harmony.

Discourse Markers/Particles

Organize conversation, improve flow.

Soften blunt statements when there is a social distance imbalance.

Discourse Strategies and Cooperation

Maintained through formulaic structural approach.

Rigid and routine strategies ensure cooperation.

Topic Management

Turn-Taking

Management of Repair Sequences

Code Switching

Diexis

Refers to elements that signal ppl, places, objects, times/situations in which a discourse is occuring

Effect: fundamental aspect of lang

Allows speakers & writers to refer to things in relation to context making comm more dynamic & situationally relevant

Helps anchor speech or writing to a particular time, place or person

Pronouns & determiners

Personal pronouns

Spatial adverbs (Indicate where an action occurs). They answer the question "where?" and modify verbs, providing information about location or direction. Examples include "here," "there," "below," "inside," "above," and "outside,". They answer the question "where?" and modify verbs, providing information about location or direction. Examples include "here," "there," "below," "inside," "above," and "outside,"

Date/time expressions

Adjectives

Adverbs of manner - like, this, like, that, so, thus

Antithesis

Syntactic Pattern

Rhetorical device uses contrasting ideas within parallel grammatical structures to create a striking effect, often highlighting a difference or emphasising an idea

Eg. Thats one small step for man one giant leap for mankind

It was the best of times, it was the worst of time

Parallelism

Repitition of grammatical structures two or more times in succession

Effect: Often employes by authors to support a function or purpose, allowing them to create rythmic & memorable pieces of texts

Draws readers/listeners attention to a component of a text in a way that rienforces meaning & understanding

Lexical Ambiguity

The existence of two or more possible meanings w in a single word

Also called semantic ambiguity

When used intentionally it adds layers of meaning to a text, evoke emotion or produce comedic effect (puns)

When unintended misunderstanding & misinterpretation & cause repair sequences to be initiated w in conversational exchanges

Purposes of Formal Language

Used for politeness strategies

Rienforce social distance and authority

Establish expertise

Promote social harmony, negotiate social taboos & build rapport

Clarify, manipulate or obfuscate (create ambiguity)