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Professional English (Piotti)
DISCOURSE Conversation is spoken rather than written language, there is a tendency to chat (such as interactions in social media), tends to be face to face and is interactive since it presupposes a spontaneous and quick feedback, it can be formal or informal. The context in which the conversation takes place plays an important role (tone, subject matter, formal/informal). Discourse: Language above the sentence level , it uses language patterns which are organized in units larger than one sentence and every sentence is related to the other. Discourse is any meaningful use of language. It’s not a functional size, it doesn’t matter how long it is. There are many ways to classify discourse:
- Medium and channel used (mode of discourse = spoken or written. Is it meant to be read or spoken?)
- Topic/what is going on (field)
- Formality (tenor) = the relationship between the participants
- Genre (communicative purpose, style and audience) = e.g. whether the audience is of expert or not
- Monologic (one speaker/writer) = number of people constructing the discourse Ex. the baby cried, the mommy picked it up -> the pronoun stands for the baby. There is a cohesive relationship between the first and second unit. Who is the mommy: -the baby’s own mother? -Another mommy, i.e. some other baby’s mother? The most likely answer is that it is the baby’s own mother. Even though the text doesn’t say that, we can guess the answer by taking into consideration what we know from the real world-> extra linguistics. It’s a relation of causality. It is also natural to read the sentence as :
- narrative sequence: the baby cried and then the mommy picked it up
- causality relationship: the baby cried, so the mommy picked it up (In order o stop him crying) It is the baby's own mother, we can understand this because of a familiar script and also thanks to the definite article-> it is used before something, it is used to indicate something unique (the Moon, the Earth), and for something that is clear to you. Camerun suggests that we make sense of discourse by making guesses based on knowledge about the world
Phenomenon of the ELLIPSIS-> elementi di una frase che mancano ma possono essere facilmente compresi grazie alla conoscenza della lingua e alla realtà extralinguistica (contesto). Language is used in order to do something and mean something, language is produced and interpreted in a real-world context, any utterance can be meaningful and does not depend on the medium/channel. PROFESSIONAL DISCOURSE
- Horizontal dimension-> is the setting where the interaction takes place,the interactions are across a whole range of occupational setting (office, factories, hospital, government).
- Vertical dimension/sociolinguistic dimension-> how the interaction is taking place, it takes into account who the participants are and what's their relationship. Lay- professional encounters such as a relationship between health professional and patients. When we analize discourse we have to take into account who the participants are and understand their relationship and distance and state weather the Conversation is symmetrical or asymmetrical. -> Asymmetrical : it takes place between two people that are not at the same level such as a boss talking to his worker -> Symmetrical : symmetrical connections are exactly what they sound like; a connection with equal download and upload speeds, we can think of a conversation between two coworkers. What distinguish this type of discourse from “normal” discourse? What are the Language features of professional discourse? (Drew and Heritage)
- Structure: workplace discourse may be structured in specific ways: lay-out (genre), metalanguage -> introductory words and expressions that participants use in order to: clarify their communicative purpose; to state what they are going to talk about; to organize discourse. ex. I don't know if you heard, but if you haven't it's confidential= speaker has some news to tell. ex. I got a suggestion... by the way with this= speaker indicates that he wishes his upcoming discourse to be understood as a suggestion. Some metalinguistic expressions also used in written discourse such as ex. this chapter talks about; in the following pages, i will......
VARIATION IN WORKPLACE AND PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE The context is a highly complex notion and there are various definitions conceptualised in many research traditions. -> Hymes 1972 offers a model to analize speech acts S setting: location in time and space P participants: who? What role? E ends: purpose? Outcome? A act sequence: what speech acts? In what order? K key: tone or manner? I instrumentalities: what channel or medium? N norms of interaction: what rules for producing / interpreting speech acts? G genres: what ‘type’ does speech event belong to? The context of situation was also analysed by Halliday according to three parametres: REGISTER= field + tenor + mode -> identified in 1985. The register is formed by a set of linguistic features characterising discourse across different settings and gives details of the situation. Language in use changes based on:
- the extralinguistic context
- the communicative event and how it is taking place (spoken/written)
- who the participants are.
Each feature is marked linguistically and formally so the communicative event makes us predict the linguistic feature in this event. A.) Mode of discourse: how? ->refers to what part the language is playing. We have three parameters:
- PROCESS SHARING = (in written texts you can't intervene: the addressee receives the text in its final form);
- CHANNEL = It is the modality through which the message is expressed. It can be:
- Phonic (spoken); face to face conversation or telephone conversation
- Graphic (written); letter, novels, fax
- Mixed (written to be spoken or spoken to be written down); chats, text messages
->The most important difference between the first two is that phonic Communication involves space and temporal contact between participants, and this is marked linguistically through the use of Deixis (use of Language to make reference to the time, space and people involved) ex. Is hot in here, isn't it?
- MEDIUM = Medium of Communication are:
- Physical medium-> person talking can be seen and heard by audience, meetings, video-conferences, interviews
- Mechanical medium -> written or eletronic media such as e-mails, letters, billboards, sms, social media, magazines. The language used has to be appropriate with the context of situation B.) Field of discourse: what? Why? Where? The field of discourse refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is taking place. The field is the type of social activity, it's the goal of the action and describes what is happening.
- >For example: there is a candidate who is trying to get a job. The application letter is the genre and not the field. The nature of the social activity and what is being achieved through the acts of communication, the kind of acts being carried out, their goals and specific knowledge shared by participants Language clues used: -Vocabulary: jargon, acronyms and abbreviations -Grammar: speech acts and mood C.) Tenor of discourse: who? The tenor of discourse refers to who is taking part to the conversation, (their statuses, roles, the control of one participant over the other) + turn taking rules and restrictions, asymmetry
_- Identify the institutional roles of speakers/writers and audience/readers. What textual clues (i.e. structure, lay-out, vocabulary, grammar, style, etc.) helped you identify their roles?
- What is the medium (i.e. spoken vs. written)? What textual clues (i.e. structure, lay-out, vocabulary, grammar, style, etc.) helped you identify the medium?_ Extract n°1-> is a letter refusal to a job Application, the medium is written and the relationship is asymmetrical since the writer is a recruiter for a company and the destinatary of the letter is someone who decided to apply for a workplace Extract n° 2-> it's an informal Conversation between Jim and Liz two colleagues or between a boss and a subordinate, we can see that Liz is the dominant party since she replies promptly and firmly to Jim that, on theother hand is more hesitant and not very sure ex. Uhm, an'.., the medium is spoken Extract n° 3 -> this is the outline of a business meeting, prepared by one of the participants (it could be the person who called the meeting). The aim of this text is to make sure all the relevant topics are covered during the meeting. The professional context is made clear by vocabulary (i.e. meeting , director , reports , business ). The Channel is written and the writer has a the authority to call the meeting and states the different topics analised during the meeting Extract n°4 -> the Channel is spoken and the Conversation is rather informal and we can see that there are frequent pauses between the different sentences. The relationship is asymmetrical because, the two participants involved in this Conversation are a Doctor and a patient and clearly the Doctor has the dominant role because of his autority, experience and also expert knowledge and he tells his patient the diagnosis and then following cure to his bronchitis. Professional lexis such as bronchitis, antibiotics, prescription. MEETINGS "Meetings are of the utmost importance in the decision-making and Problem-solving of organizations" They are multi-party, they have a specific structure made of: an opening session ( the Problem, topic is defined) , an exploratory phase ( the issue is developed), a resolution section (participants agree and decisions are summarized). Meetings follow a pre-set agenda, a List of topics which will be discussed and every participant is given a written agenda before of it. Meetings are often asymetrical interactions because the participants
have different degrees of knowledge, and there is always a part that knows more about someting respect other participants = CHAIR , who opens a meeting, keeps track of the Progress and negotiate consensus. In particular chairs state the topic which will be discussed during the meeting, and makes use of Discourse markers that are useful for:
- Organise discourse
- Maintain the listener's envolvement ex. You know, you see...
- Rephrase and mark hesitation ex. I mean, well... -> speakers use them to Signal that they are adding to what they said with a more suitable expression
- mark boundaries between the different topics and stages of the speech ex. Now, anyway, well, so Example text: " We support a two-state solution leading to a final and to a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, with Israel and the Palestinian side living side by side within secure and also mutually recognised borders. Now I think it is important to again and again say that also we should underline to our Israeli partners the importance of refraining from any action that may prejudice final status negotiations. Now the Commission expects the next Israeli Government to reaffirm its commitment to a negotiated solution by a full implementation of the Quartet’s roadmap, and to show this in deeds as well as words" What about other participants? What do they do? I. Aknowledge understanding II. Show interest, appreciation of what other are saying III. Agreement IV. Disagreement and criticism V. Provide feedback How are these actions reflected in the language? The most obvious action activity that they Carry out is the CHANNELLING = Response tokens are Language forms by means of which a person gets back to the speaker by providing some kind of feedback, they can be subdivided into 2 Groups: A. Minimal response or back-channeling are language forms that the listener provides the talker a simple feedback, ex. Yes, OK Minimal response are:
- Adjectives such as good, fine, great
- Adverbs ex. Absolutely, certainly, definitely
1.) exchanging information phase (nontask sounding); parties get to know the interests and needs of the other side 2.) bidding (task-related exchange of info); marks the beginning of the actual negotiations and involves making first offers or proposals 3.) bargaining (persuasion); it's the core and critical phase where negotiators argue their case, then try to persuade the other party, ->Signalling the start of bargaining ; ex. We've looked at what you have proposed, and we are ready to respond ex. after serious considerations, we are prepared to respond to your proposal. -> responding to a proposal ex. Regarding your proposal, our position is.... = more Direct ex. As far as your proposal is concerned, we think that... = is less Direct thanks to the use of "Think". When we mitigate what we are going to say that means that you are taking care and paying attention to the other party -> THINK, ASSUME= strategies of verbal politeness used in order to mitigate the impact of the speech on the other party Why do we mitigate? We mitigate beacuse we realize that what we say May have an impact on the other party and that he May feel obliged to do some actions and feel attached. (Ci rendiamo conto che ciò che diciamo può avere un impatto e che l'altra persona possa sentirsi obbligato a fare alcune cose e sentirsi attaccato.) -> identifying obstacles : there are different ways to identify obstacles ex. The main obstacle seems to be = performs an important role and its function is used to mitigate the statement because we are not sure about what we say or even if we are pretty sure we want to leave space to the other party of the discussion. Functions behind mitigation strategies depends on the context, for example, when we talk about mitigating functions we are dealing with some kind of phenomena that applies to the use of modal verbs and particles. Modal verbs have double function:
- Epistemic function-> ex. Someone is knocking at the door and I say: "it must be Luke", it is an assumption based on my knowledge, because you know that Luke always arrives at a certain time. So we are using modal verbs o express varying degrees of commitment
- Deontic function -> ex. you must speak now, something that you have to do: it is an OBBLIGATION and must express the volontà del parlante. -> dealing with obstacles ; the following phrases show three different kind of politeness forms ex. What is the underlying Problem here? = this is more direct
ex. Let's take a closer look at this problem = one party recognise that there is a Problem and uses an imperative form, so it is a way to frame the request in a more polite way so we can say that he is making a proposal and a suggestion. It means " diamo insieme un'occhiata al problema" -> it is an inclusive use of us, he is framing his request as a suggestion. What is the effect on the other party? It makes the other party feel more included, so that he is a group member. ex. I would like to analyse this situation and get to the bottom of the Problem -> asking for concession ; it is the boundary phase between last part of the bargaining and settling phases ex. We feel there has to be a trade-off here = impersonal form, we frame our statement as a kind of feeling that doesn't depend from us (serve per mitigare)
- > declining an offer ; is the last bargaining phase, there are different strategies in order to mitigate the negative impact that it can cause on the other party ex. I'm afraid your offer doesn't go far enough = i'm apologizing to you ex. Unfotunately we must decline your offer for the following reasons = we regret declining your offer but we can't do otherwise, i cannot avoid declining your offer but i want to apologize to you 4.) settling and concluding (concession and agreement); the compromise and agreement is reached while avoiding argument. If it is succesful it ends in a mutually satisfactory agreement and it's the decision making phase. N.B in the US many companies provide employees with negotiation training on: Language skills, social and diplomatic skills, knowledge specific of the diplomatic profession including diplomatic history and International relations. -> checking and delaying ; ex. We would have to study this. Can we get back to you on this later? He is asking the permission to do something late. exercise Exchanging information: turns 1- 5 Bidding: turn 6 Bargaining: turns 7- 20 Reopening bargaining: turns 28 - 29 Settling and concluding: turns 30 - 32
ex. Oh, it’s really-it’s really easy to do it. I mean: hh actually, I think if you just wanna send them to a friend or something, you could order them through the gratis order form -> really= its function is to highlight the importance of an element, and it is a form of persuasion. 2.) instruction receiver -> reacts to what is being told, he is the less dominant speaker but we can assume that both the giver and receiver cooperate together,he is expected to provide some feedback and acknowledge understanding or forms of expressions showing interest and appreciation. Which are those linguistic features used by the informaton receiver? I. Minimal responses II. Non-minimal responses III. Politeness strategies Procedural discourse May take form in two tipe: -> form of giving instructions -> Form of giving directives or instructions related to a specific request, whenever is coming in this form, is generally prompted by queries from subordinates and colleagues. There are different factors that influence the linguistic form of directives:
- Institutional rank and role (ex. Institutional relationship)
- Personal relationship between speakers (social distance)
- Setting, wether the directive represents a routine (involves routine tasks and clear) or non-routine activities
- Concern for relational goals-> politeness strategies+ solidarity+ positive face needs = used in order to make the other party feel appreciated
- Ethnic factors
- Cultural factors-> there are cultures more concerned than others
POLITENESS STRATEGIES
A set of unwritten conventions, norms that we acquire in social interaction, in a given culture and context. BEING POLITE = 1. showing good manners and respect for the feeling of others
- Being socially correct Two views of what being polite means:
- Social-norm view: Good manners, Pleasant behaviour that follows usual rules of society
- Pragmatic view: Awareness, respect and care for other people’s feelings. Social norms take on a moral dimension and are:
- prescriptive social norms -> actions we don't do as they are enforced by law and are written, so if we break those norms we will have to Pay sanctions. Ex: illegal weapons, false evidence at trials, menacing and being aggressive.
- Experiential social norms -> unwritten routine behaviour acquired from our experience and are actions we are under social pression not to do and we often don't do them (relational goals) so Breaking norms= no sanctions but people expect or don't expect certain actions ex. Thanking and replying to it or complimenting. What's the interpretation/pragmatic View of politeness in Language? The use of communicative strategies are meant to mantain and promote social relation and rapports. Ex. Lunch scenario: choice of linguistic strategies to achieve relational goals: -requesting (being passed sthg) and maintaining social harmony despite inconveniencing the addressee of our request -complimenting host for dinner: a form of kindness and social harmony -responding to complimenter’s kindness without sounding presumptuous How does language realise experiential social norms/ behaviour? Using politeness strategies A. Cooperative principle (Grice)-> he is the ideator of the pragmatics principle, he stated that when people interact with each other they are cooperating Quality : do not say what you Believe is false,
