Transcript Analysis

A: I was the project manager and I lost money (.) but the reason I lost money (.) and I could’ve made a fortune in that shopping centre this morning [ if we’d started this morning ]

AS: [ I could’ve (.) could’ve ]

A:   [ because im good at ]

AS: could’ve yeah could’ve would’ve should’ve yeah but ye didn’t right (.)

A: no sir alan I didn’t

AS: no ye didn’t yeah (4) I think ive heard enough to make a very very difficult decision here today

B: sir alan may I say one more thing please

AS: (4) if you insist

B: I think in this whole competition if you sit back and remain quiet and under the radar (.) people assume they’re safe (.) I’ve been bold and I know I’m vocal and [ that puts me (.) that puts me in a vulnerable position]

AS: [ oh you have been bold alright don’t worry about that ] (.) trouble is ya know (.) you never back off (.) you know what im gonna tell you what im gonna do with you (.) im getting sick and tired of you denying all of this you know (.) im sick of looking at you at the moment get out that door get back to the bloody house okay (.) get back to the house yeah (.) because you gonna be the next team leader im sick of looking at ye at the moment get out that door and get back to the house

In this transcript, it is clear that AS holds the instrumental power in this exchange due to the context of the conversation, and that persons A and B refer to him as ‘Sir’. Although ‘Sir’ is usually associated with upper class and being well-spoken, AS generally uses an informal register and is very dominant in this exchange due to his instrumental power. The informal register can be seen as AS saying the words ‘you’ and ‘ya’ and ‘ye’ and words like ‘bloody’ which shows AS’s accent/dialect affecting how he speaks. This informal register is typically inappropriate for this context but as this transcript is from a TV show it may be a deliberate choice to make it more entertaining for the audience.

AS uses a lot of interruptions, which neither persons A or B try to resist due to AS’s instrumental power. From AS’s choice of words (namely “bloody”) you can infer some of the paralinguistic features such as tone or mood of AS. From the use “bloody” you can tell that AS’s tone may be raised and that he might be getting annoyed, impatient and/or angry with A and B.

Twitter Investigation

Hypothesis:

Organisations use influential power via twitter to build interest in their site.

Methodology:

• Select every 10^th tweet from the organisations twitter feed.
• Selection of 16 tweets
• One organisation

Analysis:

Personal Pronouns = 4 times = Once every 4 tweets average

“We” – 75% = referring to the organisation, non-inclusive of the audience

“Your” – 25% =referring to the reader, non-inclusive of the organisation

Personal pronouns were featured but more infrequent than anticipated only appearing every 4 tweets on average. Further, only ¼ of the personal pronouns used refer to the reader whereas ¾ of the personal pronouns refer to the organisation but are non-inclusive of the reader. In a bigger sample the use of “we” may include the reader and the organisation but this wasn’t the case in my sample.

Hashtags = 15 times = Once every tweet average

Hashtags are largely more common throughout the sample as they serve to draw the reader from their timeline. Unlike pronouns, hashtags appear every tweet on average, but this average may be unreliable as the range of hashtags used in tweets in the sample ranged from 0 to 3. The relatively high number of hashtags can largely be attributed to the formulaic layout of the organisations tweets, which usually begin with a hashtag to set the topic of the tweet.

Conclusion:

The hypothesis was accurate to an extent as the sample of tweets contained a large amount of techniques that exercised influential power, mostly through the use of hashtags or personal pronouns. In a larger sample from multiple organisations this may not be the case as different organisations may find different methods of exercising influential power to be as effective in building support for their website/good/service.

Cliche Romance Passage

 It was nearly early morning and the bar had quietened quite considerably in the last half an hour or so, with the odd regular or drifter still occupying a stool at the bar. As she finished wiping down the beer soaked wooden surface of the bar with a soft cloth she propped herself up on elbows and began involuntarily drifting out of consciousness, fighting to stay awake. She reminded herself that this was forgivable, seeing as how her boss had asked her to work full shifts the past four nights.

She finally let herself succumb to her fatigue knowing that the regulars were unlikely to wake her up, with most of them being near unconscious themselves. No sooner than she fell asleep was she abruptly woken by the snapping of fingers close to her face. The sudden awakening caught her by surprise so she jolted, causing her elbow to slip out from under her and the bridge of her nose to clash with one  of the  many beer taps lining the bar. Rubbing the her now sore nose, she looked up at the source of the snapping; a tall figure probably about 6”, dark, short hair with broad shoulders hunched over the bar with a face that conveyed annoyance/impatience and tapping a folded banknote on the bar. She may have even found him attractive had the ass not just rudely woke her up, even if it was to do her job. A husky voice followed soon after which caught her off-guard:

“So can I get a drink?” he said, a small smile threatening to form on the corner of his mouth as he continued tapping the banknote on the counter. She stood there for a second, flustered and for some reason confused as to what to do.

Language & Gender Theory

Dominance Theory

This theory is that in conversation involving both genders that the male participants are more likely to interrupt than female speakers. A study done by Don Zimmerman and Candace West of the University of California in 1975 on determined that in 31 pieces of conversation male participants made 46 interruptions to the female participants 2. The study concluded that as men interrupt more often that they are/trying to dominate the conversation.

Gender, Social Class and Speech Sounds

Peter Trudgill researched the language differences between men and women based on social class in the 1970’s.  His study observed how each gender pronounced suffixes and which gender shortened suffixes (dropping the ‘g’ off of words ending ‘-ing’). The study found that women were more likely to use the prestige pronunciations of words, aiming for a higher social class than they had been entered as. In contrast, men were more likely to use low prestige pronunciations and seek covert prestige by seeming more ‘down to earth’.

Deborah Tannen and difference

Deborah Tannen summarised the language differences between male and female by 6 contrasts:

• Status v Support
• Independence v Intimacy
• Advice v Understanding
• Information v Feelings
• Orders v Proposals
• Conflict v Compromise

Status v Support

This contrast indicates that men seek to achieve dominance or prevention of dominance in conversation whereas women seek confirmation/support for their ideas. Men see the world as a place to gain and keep status whereas women see the world as a network of connections seeking support.

Independence v Intimacy

Because men seek to gain and keep status, they tend to focus on independence whereas women tend to focus intimacy.

Advice v Understanding

Men tend to seek a solution to a problem whereas women seek understanding and support in dealing with the problem.

Information v Feelings

Men tend to be blunt and to the point whereas women tend draw out conversation/discuss more marginal things.

Orders v Proposals

Women often suggest things in an indirect way whereas men are more likely partial to use direct imperatives.

English Grouping Task

Texts B, D and F all involve to the use of imperatives to achieve the different intended effects of the text. Text B is an advert, published in The Independent newspaper, for a law firm appealing to Independent reader to contact them if they think that they have been mis-sold an investment and lost money because of this. It uses the imperative ‘DON’T DELAY. TIME LIMITS FOR CLAIMING APPLY’ to encourage the reader to take up the offer and not hold off. Having ‘DON’T DELAY’ at the beginning of the advertisement strikes a sense of urgency in the reader, suggesting that if the don’t do it now that they might run out of time and be excluded from this offer. The ad then follows this by saying ‘TIME LIMITS FOR CLAIMING APPLY’ which possibly reaffirms the sense of urgency in the reader but also suggests a sense of uncertainty to reinforce the ‘DON’T DELAY’, as the reader may think that the time limit for them might be soon and that they better be quick about enquiring for a claim. This imperative is neither cloaked nor mitigated as if it was cloaked then the urgency of the advert would be lost on the reader and possibly stop the text from achieving its purpose, which is to persuade the reader to call the business. Mitigating the imperative in this example would also harm the appeal of the ad as the connotations of a law firm is that they are strong and powerful in their field of work and by mitigating the imperative in the advert it could give the reader the idea that this firm is weak as it would almost sound like the firm is begging for the business.

Text D utilises imperatives similarly to Text B in that it uses the imperative to set the theme of the text to the audience. The difference between the two texts is that Text D is a social media message for the purpose of entertainment and discussion rather than contacting the business. Text D opens the text with the imperative ‘We want your nominations for our #TeamOfTheWeek feature’, which immediately puts across the message of the text with no confusion. This imperative also utilises inclusive language to give a more personal address to the reader, which makes them more likely to respond to the text if they feel that the text is personally addressing them. The imperative also includes ‘we want’ which suggests to the reader that the author of this text is coming to them for their opinion, and as the source of this text is the official Twitter account for the Football League 1, it could make the reader feel more important as the League itself wants their opinion for their feature, which applies to all the fans across all the football clubs in the league. This imperative also uses a positive face to elevate the status of the reader so the reader possibly feels greater inclined to help the author of the tweet by responding to their request. This text also differs from Text B in that the purpose of the imperative and the purpose of the text would not be damaged by mitigating the imperative, in fact mitigating the imperative in this case would actually further the appeal of this text as without mitigating the imperative the text comes across quite blunt and could possibly turn the reader away from responding to the text.

Text F uses imperatives as the use of imperatives is essential to the text. Text F is different to texts B and D in that it isn’t trying to open a dialogue with the readers, as Text F is an excerpt of Govt. legislation, detailing laws and the consequence for breaking them. The text comprises almost entirely of imperatives, an example of one being ‘punishable by; 6 months/maximum fine on summary conviction [or] 5 years/maximum fine on indictment’. This imperative is neither mitigated nor cloaked, as with text B, it would be inappropriate in the context of the text. It is inappropriate for legislation to be mitigated as it could give the impression that the audience can ignore this with little consequence and cloaking the imperative would confuse the message of the text. The imperative uses a bald on record face with the audience as the author of the text is not concerned with losing face and only with getting the message of the text across.

Texts B, C and D all share the common purpose which is to persuade their respective audiences. Text B, the newspaper advert for the law firm, heavily utilises inclusive 2^nd person pronouns: ‘Have you suffered losses because you were missold an investment’. By doing this the text promotes a deeper, more personal connection with the text through sounding like it’s addressing the audience as an individual rather than more impersonally, as a group. The audience for the Independent newspaper is the upper middle class and beyond/the more affluent or well-to-do in society and so more likely to be the people who have the disposable income to be making large investments, as compared to the typical audience of the a newspaper like the Daily Mirror for example, and these are the people that the advert is targeting. Text B also uses an example client to provide proof to the reader who may be skeptical of the firm and their bold claims by saying ‘Listen to our client on BBC Radio, we recovered £86,000’. This extract is effective at persuading the reader in a couple of ways, it references the BBC, which an extremely famous national institution which is well-known for good journalism, showing to the reader that this huge group recognizes their work and adds a level of prestige to the firm giving the impression that’s its exclusive, like many prestigious groups are. It also gives an example of the range of reward that the reader could receive (£86,000) for using the firms services, which when coupled with mention of the BBC, the reader knows that the figure is not exaggerated to mislead the audience.

Text C is the weak inclusion for this group as persuasion is the texts secondary purpose rather than its primary purpose like texts B and D. Text C is the blurb for a box-set of the third season of TV show Game of Thrones. The persuasive aspect of this text mostly comes from the content of the entire text rather than techniques when compared to the other texts in this grouping. This text does however end the text by using a power of three: ‘bonds are strained, loyalties are tested and cruel fates are met’. By using this at the end of the text, it leaves the actual content of the series deliberately vague whilst simultaneously giving the reader a sample of the content in it, hopefully leaving the reader intrigued and wanting to watch to find out.  
Text D is similar to text B in that persuasion is its primary purpose unlike Text C. Text D is also similar to Text B in its use of 2^nd person pronouns to create a personal connection with the readers. This text does this in ‘We want your nominations’ and ‘who impressed you’, which hopes to elicit the same response in the reader as if it had been another fan who had asked them, and by the text putting itself down to the same level of the reader, the reader is more receptive of the invitation for dialogue. This text puts heavy emphasis on the 2^nd person pronouns, most notably the pronoun ‘you’ and ‘your’, which makes the reader feel like them and their opinions are the theme of the text rather than the text itself. Outside the text itself, the reader can see other readers responding to the text with their own views like the text has encouraged them to, which could possibly cause the reader to weigh in with their on views and opinions as the text promotes a group discussion rather than a one sided, short discourse with the author of the text.

Texts A and E both use, to an extent, informal register to contribute towards achieving the primary purposes of the texts. Text A is a weak inclusion and is a short article from the Daily Mail newspaper, published online. The typical audience for the Daily Mail is the working/lower middle class and so to relate to the audience more easily the text is more informal than other newspapers like the Independent, which is aimed towards a more affluent group of society. An example of the relative informality in this text is ‘A McLaren supercar worth £250,000 was left almost entirely destroyed’, which although not appearing very informal is less formalised than other similar publishers in the industry. The idea of this slight informality is that the reader is less likely to be turned away from the paper due to the over-formalised language that a lower class person may associate with being ‘posh’ or ‘snobby’.

Text E is a strong inclusion in this group. Text E is a phone conversation between two people about the purchasing of train tickets. The informal register in this text is more overt than in Text A. The text uses colloquial words like ‘quid’ to show that there is a level of closeness between the two participants as they talk very casually to each other. The casualness of the relationship between the two participants means that the dialogue flows more smoothly than if the two participants were trying to keep it unnecessarily formal. The informal register in this text also makes the dominant speaker more apparent in the conversation. Throughout the duration of Text E, the two participants vie for the dominant role in the conversation. Both participants use strategic interruptions to assert their power in certain points during the dialogue whilst simultaneously expressing their anger/annoyance through the paralinguistic features such as the tone and pitch. The purpose of the text is to inform and the informal register means that the friendly relationship between the two participants aids the text in achieving that purpose as the participants are extremely blunt about the  topic of discussion.

Grouping Task

Texts 1, 4 and 6 all use imperatives to achieve the main purposes, which are to persuade and inform. Text 6 is the conditions of use for a First bus ticket and has heavy use of imperatives to achieve it’s purpose, an example of this being ‘PHOTOCARDS must be carried at all times’, which is direct and leaves the statement no room to be worked around and no room for interpretation. This text uses a bald on record face throughout as the firm is not concerned with losing face with the ticket holder as the conditions are set rules that the  holder has to follow, which is emphasized by the use of all-caps on the word ‘photocards’. This is made apparent more so as the text lacks the use of mitigated imperatives, as it would weaken and/or defeat the point of the text as it would have intensity on the condition being met, and does not use cloaked imperatives as it would have no use and only serve to confuse the ticket holder, which would contradict the purpose.

Text 4 differs from text 6 in the type of imperative and face it uses to achieve its purpose, which is to persuade rather than inform. The way text 4 does this is through the use of a cloaked imperative. The text is a transcript of a phone call in which one participant (who is the father of the other participant) and uses a cloaked imperative in saying ‘Get some milk in Lidl on the way home?’ The imperative is cloaked with an interrogative in order to make the participant receiving the request more likely to accept as it gives the recipient the notion that the person asking knows they are imposing on them and that they can refuse even if they have no reason to do so. In contrast, the para-linguistic features of this sample such as the raise in tone at the end of the sentence suggests that the sentence is actually an imperative and the sentence is actually a command dressed up as a question in order to achieve the text purpose, which is even more apparent when you consider that if the asking participant was really trying to avoid losing face, the imperative would have been mitigated as well as cloaked as an interrogative. In addition, the relationship between the two participants (father and son) also suggests that the person asking the question is also banking on their natural authority coming into play in persuading them to fulfill the request. 
Text 1 also heavily relies on the use of imperatives to achieve its purpose primary purpose of persuading. The text is an appeal card from Amnesty International and is appealing to the recipient of the card to sign their name and information on the card as part of an appeal to release a union worker from prison in Bahrain. The front of the card has large, bold and all-caps writing stating ‘Free Mahdi Abu Dheeb’. The imperative used is not mitigated nor cloaked as they would serve little purpose in aiding the purpose of the text. Mitigating this imperative could possibly harm the message of the text as it would sound desperate, make the resolve of freeing the man depicted weaker and make the entire situation sound less important than the text wants the audience to think it is. The imperative used is also very direct with the audience as if to say that they themselves have the ability to free the subject of the appeal and as the audience has voluntarily signed up to receiving these appeal cards, the imperative plays on the audiences humanitarian side in order to convince the audience to sign the card. The imperative uses a bald on record face rather than a positive or negative face as it could give the audience a feeling of authority or strength, which could give an impression that this organisation is capable of doing the things that they appeal to the audience to help them with.

Twitter Posts - Affordances and Constraints

A twitter post is a piece of text from the website Twitter. A tweet consists of up to 140 characters and can include images and vines as well as utilise hashtags (e.g. #IAmACeleb) to join discussions on topics along with others using the same hashtag. The character limit both allows people to be blunt and to to the point, stopping walls of texts but at the same time stopping people from having longer and more in-depth discussions. Users can reply to someone's tweet and start dialogue with others being able to join at any point if they want. People can follow others, meaning that when they tweet it appears in their timeline. Tweets can also be retweeted meaning that the tweet reappears in the timeline of everyone who follows the person who retweeted it so they can also see the tweet. The downside to twitter is that some people can use it to abuse others and hide behind their profile so there are little to no real life consequences.