I've stolen some terminology from the discourse community of Reddit users in the title of this post. In small groups, you are to explain to a lay audience different linguistic theories relevant to language and occupation. These are as follows:
ELI5: What is a discourse community, and what are the six characteristics of one? What is a rhetorical situation and what is meant by "rhetor", "exigence", and "audience"? (Swales)
ELI5: Why does a speakers language converge with or diverge from the language of other speakers in a social group/discourse community? (Giles)
ELI5: What is the cooperative principle and are there "rules" for conversations? What are some examples of those rules in action? (Grice)
ELI5: What does a linguist mean by "face"? What is meant by "positive face"/"negative face"/"face threatening act"? (Goffman/Brown and Levinson)
ELI5: What is the role of humour in the workplace? Doesn't "joking around" detract from important work?
(Holmes and Marra)
Post your responses here. All of these theorists
ELI5: What is a discourse community, and what are the six characteristics of one? What is a rhetorical situation and what is meant by "rhetor", "exigence", and "audience"? (Swales)
ELI5: Why does a speakers language converge with or diverge from the language of other speakers in a social group/discourse community? (Giles)
ELI5: What is the cooperative principle and are there "rules" for conversations? What are some examples of those rules in action? (Grice)
ELI5: What does a linguist mean by "face"? What is meant by "positive face"/"negative face"/"face threatening act"? (Goffman/Brown and Levinson)
ELI5: What is the role of humour in the workplace? Doesn't "joking around" detract from important work?
(Holmes and Marra)
Post your responses here. All of these theorists
Grices Cooperative Principle:
ReplyDelete4 maxims:
• The maxim of manner: - speaker is clear, and brief, straight to the point, but not ambiguous in what they are saying. This means the listener shouldn’t find 2 meanings in what is being said and should understand clearly what the speaker is saying
• The maxim of quality: - when the speaker, only say the truth and doesn’t give any false information.
• The maxim of quantity: - the speaker tries to be informative as possible, however doesn’t exceed, or say too little. For example if the speaker is giving 5 bits of information they give those 5 bits of information in as much detail as possible, no more, no less otherwise they would be breaking the maxim of quantity.
• The maxim of relation: - the speaker is trying to be as relevant to the discussion as possible. They stay on topic.
We can either FLOUT or VIOLATE maxims:
Violating maxims means doing it discreetly so the listener doesn’t know for example violating the maxim of quality would be lying so the listen doesn’t know.
Flouting maxims means it’s done openly so the listen knows for example when people say stuff like 'He said he was happy, but the way he said it implied he wasn't really,' the imply something above and beyond what is being said intentionally.
Intonation – the tone of voice and how we say something
An example of violating the maxim of manner is –
‘She thanked her parents, Britney Spears and Jesus’
This could mean she is thanking 4 people, them being: her parents, Britney spears, and Jesus
OR
It could mean she is thanking her parents who are Britney Spears and Jesus.
"Quality" has a lot to do with intentions - so technically, the reader doesn't say anything she doesn't *believe* to be true.
DeleteWhy does a speaker’s language converge with and diverge with or diverge from the language of other speakers in a social group (GILES)
ReplyDeleteHoward Giles’s Accommodation Theory discusses how speakers will change their language to improve their communication with their audience. The idea of ‘Convergence’ is expressed through speakers using language to distance themselves from others. For example a doctor may need to converge with their patient to ensure they fully understand the situation. It may also contain a level of Jargon for example sports commentators will be expected to do this to show expertise.
Convergence decreases social distance between people and it is when speech is moved closer to that of the other person. ‘Divergence’ on the other hand is using an appropriate informal register, this emphasises difference between people and the speech style moves further away by increasing social distance.
Upwards convergence is where a regional speaker becomes more RP to show they like the RP speaker for example could be used by Chris Moyle’s Leeds accent where he is trying to use RP to impress the Queen.
Downwards convergence is where an RP speaker becomes more regional to show they like to regional speaker and example would be the Queen is using more of a regional accent to show she likes Chris.
Upwards divergence is where an RP speakers becomes more RP to distance themselves from a regional speaker for example when the Queen dislikes Chris Moyles.
Downwards divergence is when the regional speaker becomes more regional to distance themselves from the RP speaker. An example can be when Chris does not like the Queen
Mutual convergence is where both speakers move towards each other’s accent to show they like each other.
Mutual divergence is where both speakers move away from each other’s accents to show dislike.
Clear understanding demonstrated through your explanation. However, could you simplify some of your examples? At the upper bands of the criteria on Paper 2, Question 2 is the idea of "guiding" the reader - that is to say, writing for a non-specialist audience.
ReplyDeleteFace- how you want to be seen by other people and how you see yourself
ReplyDeleteOur positive face reflects our desire to be accepted and liked by others.
farhan and umair
Our negative face is how we want to have the freedom to do whatever makes us happy.
Face threatening
When we interact with other people many of our normal actions are potentially face threatening acts (FTAs). That is, they could potentially undermine the positive or negative face of the speaker, the hearer or both. For example, if I ask to borrow your pen I am potentially imposing on you and so threatening your negative face. Conversely, if I apologise to you I will be threatening my own positive face, in that I am acknowledging having imposed on you and asking for your acceptance of this (which you may reject).
I think there's more to it than this. What are the four specific ways (with examples) that face can be threatened?
DeleteA discourse community is a group of people all trying achieve the exact same thing. Swales says a discourse community:
ReplyDelete1. Is trying to achieve the same thing.
2. Communicates using a least one means or "genre" of communication.
3. Uses a specific lexis, which means they use certain words.
4. A level of knowledge and expertise is required to participate in the group.
A rhetorical situation is made up of a “rhetor” – a communicator – an “exigence” – an issue or message – and an audience – who is being written to.
Succinct and clear. Could you give us an example of a discourse community and its goals, genre, lexis and expertise (e.g. the discourse community "Chocolatiers" or "Nursery Teachers")?
Delete