Language + power

• Fairclough- unequal encounters

  • people in power decide what is correct and appropriate in conversation
• John Swales- discourse communities

  • In discourse communities people have the same goals and specialist lexis
  • a certain level of knowledge is required to use it
• Brown + Levinson- face theory

  • positive face is forming bonds and placing yourself in a virtuous position
  • negative face is getting your view across uninterrupted and maintaining distance socially
• Giles- accommodation

  • we can converge our language to accommodate a customer or colleague and not threaten them with jargon