Quotable Quotes 💬

Social values & attitudes [culture]

• Influence on writing conventions, lexical preferences, (textual) structures, politeness

strategies

• “Cultural values play a role in determining what participants do in verbal interaction, what and

how face is projected and maintained, what avoidance strategies are utilised when face is

threatened, how ‘ritual equilibrium’ is maintained and restored, etc” (Kachru & Smith, 2008)

• “Conventions of writing differ across varieties” (Kachru & Smith, 2008)

• Politeness parameters: “status”, “intimacy”, “kinship”, “group membership”, etc

• e.g. “Kinship terms” (Kachru & Smith, 2008) – Older men among the Nuer people of Sudan

will address their younger counterparts as “gatada”, meaning ‘my son’, while younger men

address their male elders as “gwa”, meaning ‘father’ (Evan-Pritchard, 1948)

• “Cultural values determine which parameters interact with each other, and which ones are

weighted more heavily in comparison with the others” (Kachru & Smith, 2008)

o Set formula of greeting (Ferguson, 1976) e.g. “Respected Professor”, “Dear Sir”

o Positive and negative politeness strategies (Brown & Levinson, 1978)

▪ “The greater the effort expended in face-maintaining linguistic behaviour, the

greater the politeness” (Brown & Levinson, 1987)

▪ “Hedges are used in societies in order to reduce friction in that they leave the

way open for the respondent to disagree with the speaker and the speaker to

retreat” (Lakoff, 1974)

• “For some languages, politeness must be encoded into every structure: there are obligatory

markers of status, defence, and humility. Other languages express politeness less overtly, or

differently: perhaps by smiling or in the stance, or distance kept between participants in an

encounter” (Lakoff, 1974)

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 • American (Inner Circle) culture: according to Grice’s Maxims (1975)

o “It is appropriate to use direct imperatives with the politeness marker please” (Kachru

& Smith, 2008)

o “In Western culture, generally speaking, individual face wants are attended to more

systematically than the demands of status or age or rank in interactions” (Kachru &

Smith, 2008)

• Arabic culture: “rhetoricism”

o “Arabs tend towards exaggeration, emotionalism, overstatement, and what is

sometimes called ‘purple prose’” (Moujtahid, 1995)

o “swayed more by words than ideas, and more by ideas than facts” (Patai, 1973)

+ “Thank you” = “kathar khearak” = “may Allah increase your well-being”

+ “Get well soon” = “may there be upon you nothing but health, if Allah wills”

• Japanese culture: “space”, the relationship between reader and writer (Jenkins & Hinds,

1987)

Social values & attitudes [identity]

• Language expresses “the way individuals situate themselves in a relationship to others, the

way they group themselves, the powers they claim for themselves and the powers they

stipulate to others” (Lippi-Green, 1997)

• “Identity, whether it is at an individual, social, or institutional level, is something which we are

constantly building and negotiating all our lives through our interaction with

others” (Thornborrow, 2004)

• Language used to indicate social allegiances; “Us” vs “Them” (Van Dijk, 1998), solidarity vs

distance, power asymmetry, etc.

• In defining ourselves as a group, we may use language to “exercise a dominant influence on

our perception of social structure” (Crystal, 1987)

• Solidarity: achieved through familiarity or when interlocutors share a common attribute

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 o The “notion that the right to initiate the reciprocal [solidary linguistic form] belongs to

the member … having the better power-based claim” (Brown & Gilman, 1960)

o If the subordinate interlocutor violates this sociolinguistic rule, he will have had

“overstepped some boundary” (Brown & Gilman, 1960) ! initiation of solidarity fails

o Stylistic variation occurs as speakers take into account whom they are talking to, and

alter their speech style accordingly i.e. concept of audience design (Bell, 1984) and

linguistic convergence (Giles & Powesland, 1975)

• Address terms: creates/reinforces non-reciprocal power relationships (hierarchy & inequality)

o Use of the second-person pronoun “you” e.g. French ‘tu’ vs ‘vous’, Russian ‘ty’ vs

‘vy’, Japanese honorifics

+ Students mandated to use “ma’am”, “sir”, etc to create respect for teachers, while

teachers still refer to students by their first names

+ Mississippi sociolinguistic rules required African-Americans to show deference to all

Anglo-Americans through linguistic choices i.e. “sir” vs “boy”

• Loaded language: words used in a semantically correct way, but with an intention of

reinforcing one’s opinion of an individual/group

o “Every language has the capacity to take the form that its users require” (Bolinger,

1980)

o “Every spoken word or phrase convey meanings which are not present in the words:

anger, affection, inquiry, displeasure, reassurance, uncertainty, restraint,

haughtiness, submission, authority…” (Bolinger, 1980)

• Linguistic taboos: extremely strong politeness constraint

o Used to show freedom from social constraints, draw attention, mock authority, etc.

+ Creeks of Oklahoma – avoid “fakki” (soil), “apiswa” (meat)

+ Thai students in EL-speaking countries – avoid “fag” (sheath), “phrig” (chili pepper)

• Euphemistic language: “a word which is substituted for a more conventional or familiar one

as a way of avoiding negative values” (Fairclough, 1989)

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 • Power: Use Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1989)

o Note that CDA is explicitly concerned with investigating how language is used to

construct and maintain power relationships in society

o Conferred by social position, having the backing of an institution, lect used, etc.

o Discourse plays a crucial role in “manufacturing the consent of” others (Herman &

Chomsky, 1988)

o Linguistic features are elaborated on under [media]; they include inclusive/exclusive

pronoun use, active/passive sentence constructions, tense and aspect, adjectives,

adverbs, nouns, verbal/mental/verbal/existential processes, sentence types (positive

or negative), (low/medium/high) modality, grammatical mood, cohesion (connectors,

reference), coordination/subordination in clauses, rhetoric, etc.

o Interactional Discourse: Relevant in turn-taking system

▪ Ideal form is informal conversation between equals, where all participants

have equal rights at each point in the formula; but “its actual occurrence in

our class-divided and power-riven society is extremely limited … it ought not

to be taken as a norm” (Fairclough, 1989)

1. Interruptions

2. Enforcing explicitness – forcing interlocutor out of ambiguity/silence

3. Controlling topic

4. Formulation – rewording of what has been said/wording of what may be

assumed to follow from what has been said & what is implied by what has

been said ! used to check understanding, reach agreement, or to control

+ “As paraphrases, reformulations do not merely repeat the question in a literal,

word-for-word manner; they recast the prior in a way that alters its

character” (Heritage, 1985)

+ Classroom discourse in exchange structure model (Sinclair & Coulthard,

1975)

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 Construction &/ reinforcement of perspectives [storytelling]

• Stories: “expressions of so-called episodic/situation models” (Van Dijk, 1998)

o Reproduces knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, norms and values of a group of people

o May serve persuasive function through maintenance and legitimation of dominant

power and ideologies

o May be used to ridicule/criticise

• Model: “mental representation of an episode/event/action taking place in a specific social

situation” (Van Dijk, 1998)

o Embodies our interpretation of an event

o Features our personal opinions about such an event

o Context model: represents communicative situation itself by monitoring what of the

event model the story-teller will eventually express e.g. by incorporating the assumed

expectations and interests of the audience

• Language and Racism:

o Macro i.e. social inequality vs micro i.e. “everyday racism” (Essed, 1991)

o Minorities receive overall negative evaluation

▪ Generalisations

▪ Personal anecdotes lend credibility

▪ Tend to be uncommon, remarkable, and hence “interesting”

▪ Minorities tend to be portrayed as “culprits” and a threat to the majority

“victims”

o “Persuasively define the ethnic status quo as ‘natural’, ‘just’, ‘inevitable’ or even as

‘democratic’” (van Dijk, 1996)

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 Construction &/ reinforcement of perspectives [media]

• Through choices in terms of vocabulary, grammar and textual structures – to emphasise

certain details and downplay others, in order to “communicate attitudes and

assumptions” (Simpson, 1993)

• ‘Angles of telling’ (Thomas, Wareing & Singh, 2004)

• Language is a “projection of positions and perspectives … a way of communicating attitudes

and assumptions” (Simpson, 1993)

• “News is not a reflection of reality, but a product shaped by political, economic and cultural

forces” (Fowler, 1991)

• ‘Ideological square’: (Van Dijk, 1998)

o “Suppress/de-emphasise information that is negative about Us”

o “Suppress/de-emphasise information that is positive about Them”

o “Express/emphasise information that is positive about Us”

o “Express/emphasise information that is negative about Them”

• Rewording: “an existing, dominant, and naturalised wording is being systematically replaced

by another one in conscious opposition to it” (Fairclough, 1989)

• Overwording: “preoccupation with some aspect of reality – which may indicate that it is a

focus of ideological struggle” (Fairclough, 1989)

• Nominalisation: “leave attributions of causality and responsibility unclear” (Fairclough, 1989),

also makes the sentence seem more matter-of-fact

• Passivation: “obfuscation of agency and causality” (Fairclough, 1989), also widens the divide

between the reader and event so that the former is less involved

• Tense & aspect:

o Present simple tense – constructs event as fact/reality

o Present perfect tense – signals immediate relevance

o Past simple tense – signals that the past event is no longer important/relevant

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 • Rhetoric: “manage the comprehension processes of the recipient, and hence, indirectly the

structures of mental models” (Van Dijk, 1998)

o Includes metaphors, hyperboles, comparisons

o Includes repetition moves (syntactic parallelism, rhyme, alliteration) – “further

increase the attention paid to such semantic properties of the discourse, and thereby

enhance the possibility that they will be stored, as intended, in the preferred model of

an event” (Van Dijk, 1998)

• “Ordering in newspaper articles is based upon importance or newsworthiness, with the

headline and first paragraph in particular giving what are regarded as the most important

parts, and the gist of the story” (Fairclough, 1989)

• “Expressing a topic in a headline in news may powerfully influence how an event is defined

in terms of a ‘preferred’ mental model” (Van Dijk, 1991)

• Relative incompleteness vs overcompleteness (Van Dijk, 1991)

Language & Gender

• Sexism in English:

o Asymmetry e.g. the word “man” referring to both humankind in general and a male

o Unmarked terms used for males e.g. “lion” vs marked terms used for females e.g.

“lioness”; derived from the meaning of the associated diminutive suffixes in terms

such as “laundrette” (a little laundry) and “maisonette” (a small house)

o Semantic derogation, where words which refer to women acquire demeaning/sexual

connotations e.g. wizard/witch, master/mistress

o Unequal representation of women contribute to perceptions held by both men and

women which result in women having less power over their own lives and other

resources than men

• Sexism in Conversations:

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 o Unequal conversational patterns are reflective of larger power disparities between

men and women

• Dominance Theory: “But that very language and the conditions for its use in turn structure a

patriarchal order” (Spender, 1980)

• “The very semantics of the language reflect [women’s] condition. We do not even have our

own names, but bear that of the father until we exchange it for that of the husband” (Morgan,

1977)

• Difference Theory (Tannen, 1988):

o Status vs support Report vs Rapport

• Males engage in competitive overlap

o Independence vs intimacy
(interruptions), where they claim and
o Advice vs understanding keep their turns

o Information vs feelings • Females engage in cooperative

overlap (backchannelling) to support
o Orders vs proposals and affirm the interlocutor

o Conflict vs compromise

Language & Age

• Age is an important cultural category: there is a strong tendency in English to place the

adjective expressing the most ‘defining’ characteristic closest to the noun. (Peccei, 2004)

• Under-5s and over-65s seem to have a disproportionately large number of specialised age

group labels, which specifically single them out as having a special status.

• Under-5s are “apprentice speakers” and have limited vocabulary; over-65s are experienced

users but may have less acute hearing and require longer processing time to produce and

understand complex sentences. (Peccei, 2004)

• Similarities between CDL and EDL (Coupland, Coupland & Giles, 1991)

o Cultural expectations of under-5s and over-65s: preconceived beliefs of a child’s/

elder’s linguistic competence and communicative ability

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 o To assert power of the caregiver in relation to the child//elder, establishing the

caregiver’s right to command compliance

o To reflect an attitude of affection and nurturance towards the recipient and a

willingness to accommodate to their needs

o Over-accommodation (Edwards & Noller, 1993)

• Grammatically and syntactically simpler sentences

• Slower and louder speech, higher pitch, exaggerated intonation

• More questions and repetitions, directive/instructive language

• Use of pet names/terms of endearment

• Interruptions and overlaps

• “Talking over” - talking about the individual in their presence and referring to
them as we (false inclusive), he, or she

• Some elders may find it “patronising” or “demeaning” (Giles, Giles & Nissaum,
1991)

• Underlying evaluations

o “Being a child continues to express more about power relationships than

chronology, although the two are intimately intertwined. Children’s powerlessness

reflects their limited access to economic resources, their exclusion from political

participation and the corresponding cultural image of childhood as a state of

weakness, dependency and incompetence.” (Franklin, 1995)

o “When you’re old, people treat you like you’re invisible.” (Winokur, 2001)

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