Language Variations

Language Variations

1. Style, context and register;

   • style is a way of comparing different ways of communicating that a single speaker employs.
   • Text messages often use a set of abbreviations to fit a message into, the way a text message is written may communicate something about the sender.

2. Speech functions, politeness and cross-cultural communication

   • In pragmatics, utterances are analysed in terms of what they do to the state of the world.
     • Politeness markers and hedging are two strategies for modifying the pragmatic effect of an utterance.
     • commisives - utterances in which the speaker obligates themselves to do something.
     • directives - utterances which result in the hearer carrying out some wish of the speaker.
     • assertives - utterances in which the speaker makes a claim about themselves or the state of the world.
     • expressives - utterances that communicate how a speaker feels about a situation.
     • declarations - utterances that bring something into effect.
   • The imperative is the most direct way of issuing an speech act, and it prioritises the clarity of meaning
   • The direct form of an imperative also carries the most threat to the "face" of the hearer (and potentially the speaker)
     • Face is a social value that every person claims in an interaction.
       • Face has been described as being positive or negative
         • Positive face is the desire for others to approve of what a speaker says or does.
         • Negative face is the desire for the speaker to do what they want without any restrictions

3. Analizing discourse

   • 4 types of discourse
     • Narration, description, exposition, and argument.
   • Linguistics, a method of analysing the structure of texts or utterances longer than one sentence, taking into account both their linguistic content and their sociolinguistic context; analysis performed using this method.
   • In politeness theory, face refers to our self-image that becomes exposed and hence potentially under threat in conversation.