Language and Occupation- Pragmatics, Grammar, Discourse

Language and Occupation- Pragmatics, Grammar, Discourse

Pragmatics outcomes:

• Become familiar with the work of John Swales and his definition of discourse community
• Recognise the characteristics of members of a discourse community applying Swales's theories
• Recognise asymmetry in occupational relationships
• Become familiar with the research of Drew and Heritage on asymmetry and language use
• Apply the theories of Drew and Herriage to occupational interactions
• Analyse the role of phatic speech in occupational language applying the theories of Koester

Grammar outcomes:

• Apply sentence function analysis to occupational interactions

Discourse outcomes:

• Apply discourse structure analysis to occupational interactions

Discourse community

In hs 2011 The concept of Discourse community, John Swales defines a discourse community as having members who:

• (E.G. McDonalds restaurant)
• Have a set of common goals- selling the food
• Communicate using a least one means or "genre" of communication- Soken
• Use specific lexis- Menu, order ad boxes
• Have a required level of knowledge and expertise to participate in the community- They had to be staff at McDonals who have some experience

Asymmetry

• In many cases, occupational language is used within asymmetrical relationships
• Asymmetrical relations are those that exist within hierarchy of power
• Increased power can be a result of job role and/or knowledge
• Interactions in asymmetrical relations may take account of shared understanding of…