Streetcar AO1 Language Theories

Body language

Body language

• Korte, 1997

• Kinesics: personal body movement eg. gestures, posture, eye and facial movement

• Haptics: touching another person

• Proxemics: Movement in relation to another character’s personal space

Facework

• Goffman 1955

• Theory: people can use language to support or attack each other

• Face threatening acts: attempting to harm someone’s status (‘denting’ their face) Recipient can repair own face or dent back

• Positive face: need to be liked and respected, can be enhanced by complimenting someone

• Negative face: right to not be imposed upon, can protect negative face by avoiding direct confrontation and being polite and cooperative

Accommodation theory

• Giles, 1973

• Theory: people adjust speech to accommodate the other participants

• Upwards convergence, downwards convergence, mutual convergence: changing speech upwardly (more posh), downwardly (more casual) or mutually (both change accent) to accommodate other person

• Divergence: strengthening differing accent to distance oneself from other person

Speaker switch

• Beattie, 1983

• Smooth speaker switch: exchange of turns, no simultaneously speech, first speaker’s utterance appears complete

• Simple interruption: first speaker’s utterance incomplete, but rest is same

• Overlap: first speaker’s turn reaches completion but is overlapped by beginning of second speaker

• Butting-in interruption: no exchange of turns, simultaneous speech present

Conversational Maxims

• Grice, 1975

• Quality: truthfulness, don’t talk rubbish

• Quantity: reasonable amount of information, not waffly or too blunt

• Relation: don’t be irrelevant

• Manner: be clear, avoid ambiguity, make sense, be brief

Speech acts

• Austin, 1962

• Locutionary act: surface meaning of a sentence

• Illocutionary act: intended meaning of the utterance

• Perlocutionary act: effect on the hearer (persuading, convincing, scaring, enlightening), may not be intended by speaker

Locutionary speech acts

• Searle, 1975

• Assertives: a statement

• Directives: requests, commands, advice

• Commissives: promises

• Expressives: express speaker’s attitudes: congratulations, thanks, apologies

• Declarations: change the reality of a situation: pronouncing someone husband and wife