Norman Fairclough- Power in/behind discource, synthetic personalisation

Norman Fairclough

 

Synthetic personalisation

Synthetic personalisation is the process of addressing mass audiences as though they were individuals through the use of inclusive language. This theory developed from critical discourse analysis which is a branch of sociolinguistics concentrating on how power is articulated. Norman Fairclough is credited with developing the concept.  An Example where synthetic personalisation is used would be air travel (have a nice day). The process of synthetic personalisation is popular in advertising as it allows a company to build a relationship with the consumer and therefor easier to sell their product to. The use of second person pronouns contributes significantly to the process of synthetic personalisation within the mass media. It is extremely common to encounter constructions such as "See you after the break" on television shows prior to commercial breaks.

 

Norman Fairclough (2001) Power behind Discourse

Concerned with the organisation of institutions and the effect of these various power relations on the language.

 

 

Norman Fairclough (2001) Power in Discourse

Concerned with situations where power relationships are set up and enacted.

Language at work 

Edelsky

Edelsky (1981)

Defines floor as a specific type of speaking turn which contains the 'acknowledged what's

going-on within a psychological time/space'.

In the second part of the thesis both the floor ideas of Parker and Edelsky are applied to

meeting corpora to see if the theory is appropriate for modelling floor in conversation. Parkers

floor model is easy to apply and describes the sequence of speaking turns, but it ignores some

important aspects of conversation. The application of Edelsky’s floor ideas gives a better

insight in the flow of conversation. It distinguishes different types of utterances and makes it possible to distinguish a ‘main’ conversation flow from background speech.

Based on the floor ideas of Edelsky a floor annotation scheme is developed. The scheme

consists of two main categories to distinguish between utterances that are or are not part of the

floor. Also some subcategories are distinguished to gain more insight into how a floor is

established and which floor transitions occur in a conversation. The floor annotation is

evaluated using a reliability analysis based on the annotations of three annotators. It turned

out that the reliability of the scheme was relatively low, but may be improved by merging two

floor categories that were often confused.

Finally the relation between gestures and floors is analysed. Not all floor transitions are

accompanied with gestures, but floor giving as well as floor capturing gestures could be used

as cues for floor transitions.



English survey

ENGLISH SURVEY

I am an A level student currently studying English Language. I am conducting a survey to try and understand people’s perceptions of the English language and what effects our language. If you don’t wish to answer a question please state where necessary. Thank you.     

 

1. What is your age? (Please tick where appropriate)

 

•18-24 years old

 

•25-34 years old

 

•35-44 years old

 

•45-54 years old

 

•55-64 years old

 

•65-74 years old

 

•75 years or older

 

 

2. Please specify your ethnicity.

 

 

3. What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed?

 

 

4. What is your current occupation?

 

 

5. What is your current geographic location?

 

6. How would you define “ethnicity”?

 

 

7. What do you consider to be “proper English”?

 

 

8. Would you consider the queen to speak “proper English”?

 

 

9.  Do you consider immigration to have had a positive or negative effect on the English Language? Why?

 

 

10. Do you consider the afro Caribbean dialect to be “proper English”?

 

 

11. Do you think British afro Caribbean’s vernacular has influenced and changed British white people’s day to day language? How/why?

 

 

 

12. Where were you born?

 

 

13. Do you think the afro Caribbean influence has ruined the English language? Why?

 

 

 

14. Do you think non-afro Caribbean people living in areas of a high concentration of afro Caribbean people have changed their accent and dialect more compared to people living in areas of a low concentration of afro Caribbean people?

 

15. Is this a good thing?

Linguists

Saussure

Sign - a sign is something that can be interpreted as having a meaning, which is something other than itself, and which is therefore able to communicate information to the one interpreting or decoding the sign. According to Ferdinand de Saussure the sign relation is dyadic, consisting only of a form of the sign (the signifier) and its meaning (the signified). Saussure saw this relation as being essentially arbitrary motivated only by social convention. Saussure's theory has been particularly influential in the study of linguistic signs.

Grice

Politeness-

The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.

The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.

The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.

The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

Goffman

Face- Face is the public self-image that every adult tries to protect. Erving Goffman wrote about face in conjunction with how people interact in daily life. He claims that everyone is concerned, to some extent, with how others perceive them. We act socially, striving to maintain the identity we create for others to see. This identity, or public self-image, is what we project when we interact socially. To lose face is to publicly suffer a diminished self-image. Maintaining face is accomplished by taking a line while interacting socially. A line is what the person says and does during that interaction showing how the person understands the situation at hand and the person's evaluation of the others he or she interacts with. Social interaction is a process combining line and face, or face work.

Positive face is the desire to be liked, appreciated, approved, etc.

Negative face is the desire not to be imposed upon, intruded, or otherwise put upon.