Language in Power

anguage in Power

Wareing (1999)

Define social groups and power: 

  • Political - Power in the Law e.g. Police, Judge, Barrister 

  • Personal - Occupation / Power within a Job e.g. Doctor, Teacher and so on.

  • Social Group - Friends and Family, Class in society.  

Types of Power:- 

  • Instrumental (Written and Spoken)

  • Influential (Written and Spoken) 

Instrumental Power - Enforces Authority and is imposed by the laws, state, conventions and organisations. for e,g "SHUT UP NOW!" 

Influential Power - Persuasive and Inclines or makes us want to behave in a certain way. for e.g. "Please do not touch the wet paint." 

Fairchlough (2001) 

Power behind discourse - Context. (Who, What, Where, When, Why etc.) 

Power in discourse - Features and methods used to show power, for e.g. Material Verbs. 

Ideology - Meaning/Attitudes and world views displayed in language. e.g Terrorist over Freedom Fighters. (We call them terrorists, they call themselves Freedom Fighters.) 

Modal Verb (Auxiliary Verb)
Cannot be on its own:- Should, Can, Will, Shall, Could, Must, May, Would, Might, Ought.

Epistemic and Deontic Modality.

Epistemic = Suggests possibilities that are most likely to be true. e.g "You could do that."  

Deontic    = Displays certainty (how something ought to be.) e.g
"You must do that."

Power in Advertising

Dyer (1982)

An adverts main goal is to persuade. Adverts are taking over our lives and display an unattainable reality for e.g The Lynx advert, Spray some Lynx on and your bound to have ladies chasing after you in no time! (Which doesn't happen.) 

They are run by organisations who want us to part with our cash and are carefully thought out. 
For e.g. Have you ever noticed why during the daytime when programmes such as This Morning, and Jeremy Kyle show adverts to do with loans? It's possibly because it's aimed toward the unemployed.

Fairclough (2001)

  • Ideology - The adverts are created so that they can build a relationship between the text producer and the receiver.  

  • Product Image - "This Pen is the most excellent pen you will ever write with. . . come on, you know you want this amazing gold, diamond encrusted pen. YOU WANT IT."  - You need it and you want it. 

  • Build a relationship with the consumer through Personalisation. e.g. "Imagine flipping from. . ." the advert is addressing you. 

  • Celebrity Endorsement 

  • Implied familiarity - "You are", "You want", "You need." 

  • Synthetic Personalisation - False/ Fake -
    "HOW THE HECK DO THEY KNOW WHAT I WANT AND WHAT I NEED!?" 

  • Power is always in the corporations and its mostly Influential. 

Power in Spoken Discourse 

In spoken discourse there will be a powerful participent and a less powerful participent. 

  • Power Asymmetry - The power changes. e.g. Judge and the Defendant. 

Fairclough (2001) . . . Again. 

  • When a conversation takes placer there is unequal encounters. (Which means a Powerful participation and a Less Powerful participant) 

  • Normal rules of turn taking do not operate as the powerful participant will constrain the less powerful participant. e.g. A teacher speaking with a student. 

Politeness 

  • Politeness is an element of power. 

Brown and Levinson

  • Face = Self-Esteem. 

  • Positive Face - To feel valued, respected etc. 

  • Negative Face - To feel threatened, undervalued etc. 

  • F.T.A (Face threatening act) can be included within conversations. 

Stubbe (2003) 

Doing Power - Power does not come naturally, people will try to do it, mainly in homes and in a hierarchy of a work place for e.g A boss and his employee.