Language and Power PDF

LANGUAGE AND POWER Language is for Communication and Power cognition and affects for the analysis of power in  Social functions include co-constructing social reality interpersonal and intergroup negotiation (Stolte...

LANGUAGE AND POWER Language is for Communication and Power cognition and affects for the analysis of power in  Social functions include co-constructing social reality interpersonal and intergroup negotiation (Stolte, 1987). between and among individuals, performing and  The fifth, social identity approach digs behind the social coordinating social actions such as conversing, arguing, exchange account, which has started from cheating, and telling people what they should or should control/dependence as a given but has left it not do. unexplained, to propose a three-process model of power  Public marker of ethnolinguistic, national, or religious emergence (Turner, 2005). According to this model, it is identity, that people are willing to go to war for its psychological group formation and associated group- defense, just as they would defend other markers of based social identity that produce influence; influence social identity, such as their national flag. then cumulates to form the basis of power, which in turn  Versatile communication medium, often and widely leads to the control of resources. used in tandem with music, pictures, and actions to amplify its power. Lukes (2005) has attempted to articulate three different forms or faces of power called “dimensions.” Conceptual Approaches to Power  The first, behavioral dimension of power refers to Concept of Social Power decision-making power that is manifest in the open  Bertrand Russell- philosopher and social contest for dominance in situations of objective conflict activist “defied any definition’; “elusive” of interests.  Foucault (1979)  Non- decision-making power, the second dimension, is “Power is everywhere, not because it embraces everything, power behind the scene. It involves the mobilization of but because it comes from everywhere.” organizational bias (e.g., agenda fixing) to keep conflict  Functional Theorists- “Power to” of interests from surfacing to become public issues and  Conflict Theorists- “Power over” to deprive oppositions of a communication platform to raise their voices, thereby limiting the scope of decision- Conceptual Approaches to Power making to only “safe” issues that would not challenge  View power in terms of Structural Dominance in society the interests of the power-wielder. by groups who own and/or control the economy, the  The third dimension is ideological and works by government, and other social institutions. socializing people’s needs and values so that they want  Another approach views power as the production of the wants and do the things wanted by the power- intended effects by overcoming resistance that arises wielders, willingly as their own. Conflict of interests, from objective conflict of interests or from opposition, psychological reactance to being coerced, manipulated, or unfairly treated. and resistance would be absent from this form of power, not  A complementary approach, represented by Kurt because they have been maneuvered out of the contest as in Lewin’s field theory, takes the view that power is not the case of non- decision-making power, but because the the actual production of effects but the potential for people who are subject to power are no longer aware of any doing this. It looks behind power to find out the sources conflict of interest in the power relationship, which may or bases of this potential, which may stem from the otherwise ferment opposition and resistance. power-wielders’ access to the means of punishment, reward, and information, as well as from their perceived Language–Power Relationships expertise and legitimacy (Raven, 2008)  A fourth approach views power in terms of the balance of control/dependence in the ongoing social exchange between two actors that takes place either in the absence or presence of third parties. It provides a structural account of power-balancing mechanisms in social networking (Emerson, 1962), and forms the basis for combining with symbolic interaction theory, which brings in subjective factors such as shared social I. Power Behind Language 1. Language reveals power (Kachru , 1992) – inner, outer, and expanding  merely reveals the power The emergent wealth and power of these nations has  produce an intended effect maintained English despite the decline of the British Empire after World War II. In the post-War era, English has become 2. Language reflects power internationalized with the support of an “outer circle” nations A. Ethnolinguistic vitality and, later, through its spread to “expanding circle” nations. “The language that a person uses reflects the language II. Power of Language community power” 3. Language Maintains Existing Dominance Ethnolinguistic Vitality Model ( Bourhis et al., 1981;  Language maintains and reproduces existing dominance Harwood et al., 1994) in three different ways represented respectively by the ascent of English, linguistic sexism, and legal language i. Language communities in a country vary in absolute style. size overall and, just as important, a relative numeric concentration in particular regions. The ascent of English “ Linguistic Imperialism “  English has become a global language, an international ii. Another base of ethnolinguistic vitality is institutional lingua franca, and an indispensable medium for representations of the language community in nonnative English speaking countries to participate in government, legislatures, education, religion, the media, the globalized world (Phillipson, 2009) and so forth, which afford its members institutional leadership, influence, and control. Such institutional Linguistic sexism representation is often reinforced by a language policy  Research on linguistic sexism has shown, for example, a that installs the language as the nation’s sole official man-made language such as English (there are many language. others) is imbued with sexist words and grammatical rules that reflect historical male dominance in society. iii. The third base of ethnolinguistic vitality comprises Its uncritical usage routinely by both sexes in daily life sociohistorical and cultural status of the language has in turn naturalized male dominance and associated community inside the nation and internationally. The sexist inequalities (Spender, 1998). Similar other dominant language of a nation is one that comes from examples are racist (Reisigl & Wodak, 2005) and ageist and reflects the high ethnolinguistic vitality of its (Ryan et al., 1995) and ageist (Ryan et al., 1995) language community. language styles. Ethnolinguistic Vitality Legal language styles An important finding of ethnolinguistic vitality  The legal profession maintains its professional research is that it is perceived vitality, and not so much its dominance with the complicity of the general public, objective demographic-institutional-cultural strengths, that who submits to the use of the language and accedes to influences language behavior in interpersonal and intergroup the profession’s authority in interpreting its meanings in contexts. Interestingly, the visibility and salience of matters relating to their legal rights and obligations. languages shown on public and commercial signs, referred to as the “linguistic landscape,” serve important informational 4. Language unites and divides a nation and symbolic functions as a marker of their relative vitality,  A nation of many peoples who, despite their diverse which in turn affects the use of in-group language in cultural and ethnic background, all speak in the same institutional settings (Cenoz & Gorter, 2006; Landry & tongue and write in the same script would reap the Bourhis, 1997). benefit of the unifying power of a common language.  The tension can be seen in competing claims to official- A. World Englishes and Lingua Franca English language status made by minority language Global language; communities, protest over maintenance of minority Language of international organizations, academia, languages, language rights at schools and in courts of trade, mass media, entertainment, internet etc. ; and law, bilingual education, and outright language wars Outsourcing international call centers. (Calvet, 1998; DeVotta, 2004).  5. Language creates influence Oratorical Power Power of Single Words  A charismatic speaker may, by the sheer force of  Words – sounds- objects and relations oratory, buoy up people’s hopes, convert their hearts  Connotative meaning with their own social-cognitive from hatred to forgiveness, or embolden them to take up consequences arms for a cause.  Linguistic category model (e.g., Semin & Fiedler, 1991).  Oratorical power may be measured in terms of money  The model distinguishes among descriptive action verbs donated or pledged to the speaker’s cause, or, in a (e.g., “hits”), interpretative action verbs (e.g., “hurts”) religious sermon, the number of converts made. and state verbs (e.g., “hates”), which increase in  Another measurement approach is to count the abstraction in that order. frequency of online audience responses that a speech Linguistic category model (e.g., Semin & Fiedler, 1991). has generated, usually but not exclusively in the form of  The linguistic category model (LCM) seeks to applause. Audience applause can be measured fairly understand social psychological processes through the objectively in terms of frequency, length, or loudness, lens of language use. Its original development required and collected nonobtrusively from a public recording of human judges to analyze natural language to understand the meeting. how people assess actions, states, and traits.  Rhetorical formats that aid the orator to accomplish the  Sentences made up of abstract verbs convey more dual functions include contrast, list, puzzle solution, information about the protagonist, imply greater headline- punchline, position-taking, and pursuit temporal and cross-situational stability, and are more (Heritage & Greatbatch, 1986). difficult to disconfirm. The use of abstract language to  A contrast, or antithesis, is made up of binary schemata represent a particular behavior will attribute the such as “too much” and “too little.” behavior to the protagonist rather than the situation and  Governments will argue that resources are not available the resulting image of the protagonist will persist to help disabled people. The fact is that too much is despite disconfirming information, whereas the use of spent on the munitions of war, and too little is spent on concrete language will attribute the same behavior more the munitions of peace to the situation and the resulting image of the  A list is usually made up of a series of three parallel protagonist will be easier to change. words, phrases or clauses.  According to the linguistic intergroup bias model  “Government of the people, by the people, for the (Maass, 1999), abstract language will be used to people” is a fine example, as is Obama’s “It’s been a represent positive in-group and negative out-group long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did behaviors, whereas concrete language will be used to on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, represent negative in-group and positive out- group change has come to America!” behaviors. The combined effects of the differential use “We are all one.” of abstract and concrete language would, first, lead to  According to social identity theory and related theories biased attribution (explanation) of behavior privileging (van Zomeren et al., 2008), the emergent group identity, the in-group over the out-group, and second, perpetuate politicized in the process, will in turn provide a social the prejudiced intergroup stereotypes. psychological base for collective social action. This  The model is based on the idea that people tend to use process of identity making in the audience is further abstract language to describe actions which they believe strengthened by the speaker’s frequent use of “we” as a to be stereotypical of a certain group, and concrete first person, plural personal pronoun. language to describe unusual or uncharacteristic behavior. 6. Conversational Power  A positive action by someone you don't like, for  A conversation is a speech exchange system in which instance, would tend to be described in concrete terms, the length and order of speaking turns have not been because you regard it as uncharacteristic, while a preassigned but require coordination on an utterance-by- negative action would be abstract, because you view it utterance basis between two or more individuals. It as typical. The reverse is true for people you do like. A differs from other speech exchange systems in which positive action would be described in abstract terms speaking turns have been preassigned and/or monitored because you would regard it as characteristic, and by a third party, for example, job interviews and debate concrete if it is not. contests.  Through current-speaker-selects-next the speaker can influence who will speak next and, indirectly, increases  the probability that he or she will regain the turn after GOALS OF THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS the next. A common method for selecting the next Consistent with mission of the University, the College of speaker is through tag questions. The current speaker (A) Liberal Arts aims to: may direct a tag question such as “Ya know?” or “Don’t 1. be the Center of Excellence in the field of Communication you agree?” to a particular hearer (B), which carries the Arts and Humanities as well as the Social Science in Western illocutionary force of selecting the addressee to be the Mindanao State University, the Country and the global next speaker and, simultaneously, restraining others community; from self-selecting. 2. train the students to be productive citizens who are fully  A turn in hand provides the speaker with an opportunity aware of their roles and participation in the society who are to exercise topic control. He or she can exercise non- globally responsive to the issues and concerns that generally decision-making power by changing an unfavorable or affect them, their country and the society; embarrassing topic to a safer one, thereby silencing or 3. promote competence among students in their respective preventing it from reaching the “floor.” Conversely, he program to prepare them in the social world of work for a or she can exercise decision-making power by better and wholesome quality of life; continuing or raising a topic that is favorable to self. Or 4. provide opportunity for students to develop their the speaker can move on to talk about an innocuous communication skills and creativity; topic to ease tension in the group. 5. produce a new breed of competent Social Science practitioners in their areas of specialization imbued with a 6. Narrative Power high sense of social responsibility, and empowered to  Narratives and stories are closely related and are respond to the needs of various local and global communities; sometimes used interchangeably. However, it is useful 6. strengthen the cultural, moral, physical and spiritual values to distinguish a narrative from a story and from other of students through proper guidance counseling interaction related terms such as discourse and frames. and intercultural dialogues;  A story is a sequence of related events in the past 7. facilitate the students’ production of research and recounted for rhetorical or ideological purposes, extension output in their field of specialization; whereas a narrative is a coherent system of interrelated 8. Promote sense of social awareness on gender sensitivity and sequentially organized stories formed by and eco-friendly environment among the students for incorporating new stories and relating them to others so harmonious social interaction in various situations. as to provide an ongoing basis for interpreting events, envisioning an ideal future, and motivating and justifying collective actions (Halverson et al., 2011).  The temporal dimension and sense of movement in a narrative also distinguish it from discourse and frames. According to Miskimmon, O’Loughlin, and Roselle (2013), discourses are the raw material of communication that actors plot into a narrative, and frames are the acts of selecting and highlighting some events or issues to promote a particular interpretation, evaluation, and solution. Both discourse and frame lack the temporal and causal transformation of a narrative.  Pitching narratives at the suprastory level and stressing their temporal and transformational movements allows researchers to take a structurally more systemic and temporally more expansive view than traditional research on propaganda wars between nations, religions, or political systems (Halverson et al., 2011; Miskimmon et al., 2013).  The Philippines’ Historical Revisionism Reflects A Growing Global Erasure of Facts By:Camelia Heins