Grice's Maxims - Applied to the Teacher and Student Text

Grice's Maxims - Teacher and Student Text

Quote from the text:

Teacher: Right. Well the "winter" stands for society that is er priggish and . (looks at Alex, who is toying with his pen) What does "winter" stand for, Alex?

Alex: (smiles) What if I don't answer?

Analysis

Alex deliberately flouts the maxim of relevance in this text, by answering a question from his teacher which he is obliged to answer, with a following question. This interrogates his teacher by challenging her instrumental power and dominance in the classroom, and almost battles for status in order to look more powerful in front of his classmates. This actually results in any influential power that the teacher may or may not have, being taken away from her in a competitive way. From the contextual information we can understand that the teacher is going to have a strong personal (role) power according to Wareing's types of power. However we can tell particularly in this text that that power is questioned when Alex challenges her and tries to gain some influential power by defying the rule of relevance in Grice's Maxims. Although his reply is still weakly linked to the previous conversation, as it is about answering the question, he still does not answer it and shifts the agenda of the conversation, which is usually seen in powerful roles. This gives him more social power, according to Wareing's types of power, due to the affect that flouting the rule had on the dynamics of power roles in the classroom.

Language and Power Question

Language and Power

Language and Power Question Plan

·         Overview – Use ‘because’ and ‘although’. Evaluate context, Barrister has more instrumental power due to nature of the court, Mr Niel has less instrumental power. Power asymmetry, why? How? Barrister sets agenda due to personal (role) power. Non-fluency features indicate natural, spontaneous speech where power roles could be more natural as people are not thinking about what they are saying as much. However could suggest that Barrister has planned questions before and may be displaying more power due to preparation

·         Paragraph 1 – Mr Neil tries to use influential power to battle for status in order to not make himself look stupid and avoid face threatening acts (FTAs), because he laughs, and also interrupts on two occasions. Cooperative or competitive overlap? He also does so in order to look respectable, so that he doesn’t look guilty.

 

Barrister uses emphasis which patronises the witness, ‘so many times Mr Neil’, ‘two and two together’ and ‘police’ which he has thought about carefully so that the people listening recognise the emphasised lexis which may give negative conceptions of Mr Neil and make him look guilty. Tries to achieve ultimate goal, for Mr Neil to be found guilty. Uses repetition of personal pronoun ‘you’ to make Mr Neil feel intimidated and impeded upon. Barrister displays influential power by use of language as well as displaying instrumental power.

 

Language and Power Answer

Because of the nature of the court setting, there is an obvious differentiation of the power roles between the barrister and Mr Niel. The barrister has much more instrumental power due to his status in court, and Mr Niel has much less instrumental power as he is the one being questioned. However this does not take away the fact that Mr Niel may or may not display some influential power, based on his answers to persuade or influence the judge's view on his guilty position. The relationship between the two, displays obvious power asymmetry because the barrister uses leading questions like "when er you had er (.) done something to the gate he wanted you to repair a gate?", because in fact he knows that is the case but he is trying to get Mr Niel to admit that is true in order to make him look guilty in front of the court. The barrister also sets the agenda by asking the questions, which is using Wareing's types of power, personal power. This uses his role to display how he is more powerful and therefore the less powerful participant, Mr Niel, must answer to him.

The non-fluency features by both of the participants can be interpreted in different ways, as of course it indicates natural, spontaneous speech which we recognise from the context siutation, but also that Mr Niel pauses a lot before speaking, as he is almost being imposed upon by being asked questions and this can be seen as a Face Threatening Act (FTA) as it flouts Goffman's face needs. In contrast, we could question why the barrister uses more non-fluency features such as pauses and fillers, as it is likely that he would have prepared his questions beforehand, and this is why he has more of an advantage when it comes to displaying power. But however does not explain why he uses more non-fluency features, and so I would suggest that it could purely be due to his idiolect or the fact that he has pressure on himself to ask the right questions and make Mr Niel look guilty.

There are several occasions when Mr Niel uses influential power to battle for status in order to make himself seem truthful and honest and perhaps to avoid FTA's. He laughs after he is asked a question by the barrister and follows with "that's not true no", and this bald, on record way of replying to the barrister coincides with Brown and Levinsons politeness strategies, and gives a straight answer and also shows that he doesn't really care what the barrister thinks of him. Mr Niel also interrupts on two occasions, when the barrister says "you can't remember whether they came to see you or not?" he interrupts and says "I don't think they did no". This could be seen as competitive overlap as he may be trying to gain power and get his point across, but however I think it could be more of a co-operative overlap, because he may have not realised that the barrister was going to continue talking.

The barrister uses emphasis on regularly when interrogating Mr Niel, which can be seen as a tool to patronise him. He uses it when saying "so many times Mr Niel", "two and two together" and "police". He carefully selects the lexis or phrases to emphasise in order to trigger ideas in the audience's mind that could have negative connotations assosciated with Mr Niel's guilt. The barrister does so in order to achieve his ultimate goal, for Mr Niel to be found guilty, and so these techniques are used along with use of influential power that he has, due to his choice of lexis like "suspected" and "incident" in order to influence the judge's opinion. He also combines this with his personal power to create a strong powerful role, which contributes towards Fairclough's unequal encounter theory, as he shows he is the most dominant participant and furthermore more superior to Mr Niel.

Grouping Written Texts - 24.02.15

Grouping Written Texts

Texts A, C and F all share similar effective uses of a lexical field in their text. However texts A and F are strong inclusions as they have similar, strong and apparent uses of a lexical field, and text C is a weaker inclusion as it uses a less apparent and weaker lexical field. In text A, it is a description of a granola-snacks as a product packaging anduses its lexical field to persuade customers to buy their product, as the themes of 'taste' are reifnorced throughout the small amount of text that is given. It uses lexis like 'sweet' and 'fruity-tasting', 'satisfying' and 'sweetened' to evoke these feelings of taste to the reader, but also it uses repition as a alternative technique to link to the lexical field and further develop the recognition of 'taste'. It uses 'great tasting food', 'Taste the Difference', 'taste tested' and 'fruity-tasting' to continually bring the idea to the readers attention that it truly is a great-tasting and quality product. Similarly in text C, the lexical field is also taste, however it lies mainly on graphology to get the message accross. It also is a weak inclusion to this grouping as the lexical field is not as apparent as this product packaging lacks a description of the product itself. The lexical choices such as 'nature valley' gives connotatios of an active, healthy lifestyle, but also the rich, organic tastes of nature. It also uses 'crunchy' so that readers can get an idea of the texture of the product and 'canadian maple syrup' so that consumers can imagine this product in their minds which could encourage and persuade them to buy it. However, in text F, a strong lexical field of war is used, and effectively uses these ideas blended well throughout the text which continually underpins the ideas of war and uses that to describe the contrasting event of piecing a puzzle together. It uses lexis 'like 'rounded up', 'segregated', 'struggle' and 'revolution', which are an effective use of strong and powerful nouns together to form this lexical field. In this case, the lexical field is used to entertain the reader as the seriousness and devastations that are associated with war, will evoke these feelings in the reader but when they realise the true meaning of the writing, and that it is simply based on the struggles of two people comstructing a cardboard puzzle, of what I would assume, it can be found quite humourous.

Texts B and E use contrasting uses of sibilance and consonance, which are two devices to emphasise the particular phonemes in a sentence for effect. In text B, sibilance is strongly and significantly used to describe an appealing beach holiday in the Maldives. This text, similar to text C, also mainly relies on graphology to represent the main ideas of the advert as the picture of the beautiful beach says it all about this holiday. It evokes feelings of relaxation and calmness. It uses lexis like 'swim', 'ninety-seven sustainably chic...' 'spin', 'bespoke', 'surf' and 'famous waves', to create a desirable and paradisiacal effect, which furthermore persuades the readers to go on this holiday. This use of sibilance also creates a relaxing tone, which reflects and mirrors what the holdiday will actually be like, so the reader can get a small insight as to what it might be like before they go. In contrast, text E uses consonance also to persuade, however it uses the phoneme device differently as it uses the repeated 'f' sound. It says 'foundation infallible', 'brush-perfect finish', 'foundation fingers' which similarly evokes an idea of beauty in the reader and makes them think they will have 'perfect finish' skin like the beautiful model on this advertisement if they also use this foundation. However, I think it may be also trying to reach out to a target audience perhaps to people who are quite busy and maybe do not have a lot of time on their hands, and so with this 'brush-perfect finish', they dont need to spend a lot of time with different brushes trying to perfect their makeup look when they don't have much time, because this foundation already offers that, and reinforces these ideas with consonance.

Texts D and F both have similar purposes to entertain, and are both strong inclusions as it is both of their primary purposes. Text D uses an extended metaphor which is the use of zoomorphism to describe their hungry self. The writer uses 'a baby lion is growling', and builds up feelings of fear and anxiety about the line but actually uses this effectively to describe how hungry they are. This is a clear device to enteratin the reader because they have to try harder to work out what is really going on in the text and furthermore the reader may enjoy reading the text more if its more challenging to work out. Text D also uses powerful nouns and verbs to describe how they are feeling in their apparent situation, it uses 'growling', 'lion', and 'moment will last forever', which conveys the strong feelings of the character towards the lion which contrasts at the end of the text and this also entertains the reader as it could be seen as humourous or witty. In text F, it similarly uses an analogy which uses war to represent the construction of a puzzle. Again, the reader will only realise the true meaning of the text until the end and therefore they have to try harder to work out what it means, and this again is a clever device to entertain the reader. It also, similar to text D, uses strong verbs and nouns to make the clear ideas of war understood to the reader. It uses 'segregated', 'pieces', 'restricted' and 'attacks' and this clearly passes on these thoughts in the readers mind, but also creates a punchy, wittiness as it is very clever how the writer has used these powerful words to describe the piecing of a puzzle.

Grouping Texts to Persuade

Grouping Texts to Persuade

Texts E, CC, H and K all share either a primary or secondary purpose to persuade. Text K is a strong inclusion to this group, as it is an advertisement for a beauty product therefore its primary purpose is to persuade customers to buy their product. It uses an instruction of how to use the product with strong imperatives blended with rich adjectives such as ‘rub the creamy gel into a luxurious lather’ and ‘massage into damp skin. Adding the adjectives with the imperatives, it makes the product sound much more luxurious and desirable. . Another way in which text K uses techniques to persuade, is it uses French lexis like ‘cremé de gel’ that perhaps might evoke connotations of cleanliness, luxuriousness and beauty, because when consumers see French products they might associate it with things like fashion and perfume which is desirable, like Chanel.

Text H is also a strong inclusion to this group as similarly, it uses rich adjectives that the reader cold directly link to the product, like ‘yummy’ and ‘delicious’. However this could also be an attempt of accommodation to target a younger audience, as these lexical choices and bold and colourful graphology suggest it might be targeted towards children, or perhaps parents with young children. The packaging also advertises a game on the back which states it is a ‘family game’, it uses the imperative ‘play tv matchmakers’ which also persuades them to play the game but primarily to actually buy the product.

In contrast, text E is a much weaker inclusion to this group, as it is only a secondary purpose, because it is a transcript of a conversation between a customer and an employee, where one speaker, in this case the customer, has a higher status or more power in the conversation, as the employee wants them to return as a valued customer. Towards the end of the conversation, the employee uses negative face by saying ‘I’m not getting much right today’. This lowers their status as a worker and makes the customer feel more powerful or perhaps more respected, in order for them to maybe visit the shop again. However this is an underlying prompt to persuade the customer without them actually knowing it therefore is only a weak inclusion to persuade.

Text CC is another weak inclusion as it similarly is a conversation but between two friends. The way this text is similar to text E is that there is still one more powerful speaker. Maureen is the more powerful and she uses subtle hints in order to persuade Juliane to try and get the tickets. She says ‘so now we can’t go’, uses emotive lexis which makes Juliane feel guilty and consequently persuades her to try and get the tickets. Maureen’s dominance in the conversation also means that she doesn’t have to actually persuade her with powerful verbs and nouns or use of conversion, as she speaks very little and Juliane is still persuaded by her.

Affordances of communication in technology: Instagram.

Affordances of communication in technology: Instagram

Instagram is a huge public social networking site that is only accessible through an app on a smartphone or tablet, which significantly affects the persuasion to buy certain products that aid this type of communication and social networking via the internet, which is a great marketing technique for companies that sell this kind of technology, for example Apple. It is great for the younger generation because a high proportion of young people possess a smartphone and/or a tablet, therefore this age group are more likely to use it, but nevertheless, it also encourages the older generation to buy new technology to be able to connect using this developed social networking app.

Instagram encorporates mixed mode, which include qualilites of speech and writing, as you can post pictures, videos and writing. This includes comments on posts and also private messages through 'Instagram direct'. This allows more personal types of messages with private pictures, but also messages that the person alows to be public. Commenting on photos can have constraints, because you may not always understand the exact tone of what the person is trying to say as you cannot make a judgement on their paralinguistical features, such as body language. However, emoticons allow you to comment using different faces that can allow the recipient to get a better understanding of what you are saying and what you mean when you comment or send a message. This makes it easier for the reader to acknowledge sarcasm, irony or even just a change in tone.

The picture on the left shows private communication through Instagram. As you can see, the user who has sent the message hasn't chosen to send a picture with the message, however this function allows you to send an unliminited amount of pictures and messages privately. The user has also send emoticons to express the emotion witgh the messagek, and you cab also see how long ago that the message was sent on the right hand side.

The picture on the right shows public communication through Instagram, and shows how writing, emoticons and links to other pages are used on one post. This is used by the process of 'tagging', which notifies another user to look at the particular post they are being directed to. The emoticons are used to express feelings and emotions that the commenter wants the recipient to understand, which is very effective.

Changes in Communication over Time - Research Task

Changes in Communication over Time 

Thanks to Martin Cooper, his first phone call will go down in history. The first ever phone call made. He made the call on a Motorola DynacTAC from New York, that marks the occasion of the 40th anniversary. 

It is extraordinary, that this phone was '9 inches tall, comprised 30 circuit boards, had a talk time of 35 minutes, and took 10 hours to recharge.' Well look how it has come on now, 40 years on, with the use of 3G and internet on our now called 'smartphones', the mobile phone industry truly has taken off. 

But still innovators are looking further at how our modern day smartphones can be advanced further. I don't quite understand how they can make them any smaller, or thinner, I mean it's mind boggling to think how small they are and what they are capable of. 

I seriously cannot comprehend what will happen within the next 40 years, and Dr Short says: "It's very difficult to predict 40 years' time because the pace of innovation is speeding up. I would say that we'll all be mobile, globally, everyone will be mobile." "I'd also say that we'll be connecting many more machines via wireless mobile technology as well."
I know I can't wait to see what the technology the future will bring us, many more fascinating and mind-blowing things, I would imagine.

Analysis of a transcript from a communication exercise. 03-11-14.

Transcript Extract

....

Sophie: so literally in the  middle of the page (.) are you ready?

Isabel:   [laughs] 

Sophie: oh my god, are you laughing at my spot? (0.5)

Isabel:   no! [laughs] that's on record! 

Sophie: okay, so in the middle of the page (.) there's a backwards 'C', and it's about (3) four centimetres long (1)

Isabel:  yeah (.)

Sophie: and where it ends (.) there's like (.) a 'C' the right way round, the same size, right (.) are you listening? 

Isabel: yeah [laughs]

Sophie: right (.) now in the middle of that... (2)

Isabel:  in the middle of what?

Sophie: in the middle of the 'C' you just drew (1) the backwards one (.)

Analysis

In the text the power of the two speakers is equal, because we are both similar ages and have equal status and respect for one another. However, because of the task, Sophie will speak more as she is describing what needs to be drawn and is instructing me, and therefore it requires longer amounts of time to speak. I am usually just back-channelling to show understanding or using an interrogative about the task, in which I am usually encouraging the speaker almost channelling 'underneath' Sophie as she speaks. This could be interpreted that she has more power, but because of our knowledge of the context, this is not the case.

There are a few timed pauses within the extract, usually when I am thinking about the instruction I have been given, or when Sophie is working out the spacing on the page or thinking about how she can explain the shapes to me to draw them effectively. Another timed pause in the transcript is when Sophie says: 'now in the middle of that', and this shows that I did not have the pragmatic understanding to follow on from the instruction and draw what she was about to explain, and therefore had to ask 'in the middle of what?'. This shows that we can be co-operative with one another and together can communicate strongly and effectively.

In the conversation, I do laugh regularly, particularly in this extract. This suggests that we are comfortable around one another and perhaps the context in relatively informal. In contrast, it could also suggest that I am more powerful, because I'm allowed to laugh when I like or when I feel it's appropriate however Sophie only laughs when it is acceptable for her to do so after I have laughed myself. It can be interpreted in different ways, however again, because of my knowledge of the context, I know that I am not more powerful.