Language & Power - Class Notes

2 kinds of power:

- Instrumental power = used by individuals to maintain authority
- Influential power = used to influence & persuade others

- A way of classifying types of power according to Wareing (1999) is in terms of whether they represent political, personal or social group power:

- Political = held by politicians, the police and those working in law courts
- Personal = those who hold power as a result of their occupation or role, e.g. teachers or employers
- Social Group = those who hold power as a result of social variables such as class, gender and age. 

What does it mean to be powerful?

- When someone is powerful it means they hold influence or authority over others. This can be through; confidence, knowledge, experience, decisiveness, responsibility, respect, assertiveness or being a role model.

- In a college class, teachers hold the power as a result of their occupation, qualifications and experience.

- In a family, parents are most powerful due to age & biological ties. However with siblings, the older sibling is generally the most powerful, also due to age. This is due to social variables.

How is this evident in language?

- imperatives - orders/commands - formal lexis used - jargon

In interviews it is evident in language when an interviewer is in power due to;

- instrumental power - have power to give us job so are assertive and decisive - use of maxim of manner and maxim or relevance - formal lexis - our unfamiliarity with their discourse

However, we also exert power in an interview due to;

- influential power - maintaining eye contact - use of declarative's and modal verbs - projecting confidence in body language