Language Power Types of Social Power Instrumental Power

Language & Power

Types of Social Power Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Positional power Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Personal power Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring Newspapers over readers Doctors over police officers Parents over children Teachers over children Head teachers over teachers Actors over audiences Customers over shop assistants Bullies over victims

Identifying Power n n n On the following slides are some examples of different types of power taken from some students’ written work How do these examples fit into the four categories? What role does language have to play in the exercise of power in these examples?

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring It’s possible to talk a bully out of thumping you.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring When my younger sister was at primary school she wanted to be friends with a group of girls but they wanted to shut her out of the group. In order to do this they made up a code language which only the members of the group knew.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring A computer analyst would be using words … which would exclude an outsider whose job does not come in contact with this type of work since he would not understand the work and language being used.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring If you know nothing about car maintenance, a young, black, working‑class car mechanic will have more power in this context due to his/her knowledge of his/her job and the technical terms related with the job.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring When children are learning the language, teachers can introduce them to certain words and omit others.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring Publishers. . . have the power not to publish certain books which they might not like. Because of this we don’t receive the books in our shops.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring Received Pronunciation which is thought by the prescriptivists to be correct English originated from the public schools and is used and spoken by people with authority such as the Queen and the Royal Family.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring If something is described as “ethnic cleansing” it seems less evil than if the same actions were described as “mass murder”.

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring When my mother bought pegs from a gypsy. . . I asked why she had bought them. She replied that she didn’t want a curse put on her and that gypsies can be very powerful if they want to be!

Instrumental Power Influential Power Practical power Pedagogical power n n Power through physical actions, violence, skill, money, goods or services Using knowledge and ideas to influence people Positional power Personal power n n n Power gained from your position in a hierarchy; this may be– backed ultimately by the law. Using power to influence people through personality, nurturing or caring If a policeman approaches a middle class man who has been caught speeding he may be more inclined to dismiss his behaviour if he manipulates his speech in order to get out of the situation.

Discussion n n Which of the examples did you find easier to categorise? Which examples were more difficult? Were some of the examples difficult to connect to the idea of power? Can you think of examples from your own experience of how language can be used to exert power over other people?