Language and Occupation

Occupational lexis: lexical items that are part of that occupation's semantic field
Restricted occupational lexis: specialist vocab that is only ever used in a specific occupation
John Swales (2011) defined a discourse community as having members who
1. Share a set of common goals
2. Communicate internally, using and owning one or more genres of communication
3. Use specialist lexis and discourse
4. Possess a required level of knowledge and skill to be considered eligible to participate in the community
Occupation and international English
1. There is now lots of interaction between people who are not native speakers of English at work
2. This change often calls for specific, standard modes of English to be used
3. Kim and Elder (2009)
  1. Research on communication difficulties experienced by Korean pilots and air traffic control when communicating with American colleagues
  2. Problem wasn't the poor English of Koreans, but the native speakers not using agreed phrases
    1. They would abbreviate unhelpfully and elaborate unnecessarily, and would use idioms e.g. you're pulling my leg (Koreans wouldn't understand these)
Occupational pragmatics and power
1. Refers to the idea of using assumed meanings where people know how things work because they share inferences (shared understandings)
2. Strongly connected to power as there is power in knowledge
3. If you know the rules of a community, you can participate in it, if you don't, and you don't know how to acquire knowledge of the rules, you are destined to be an outsider
Drew and Heritage (1993)
1. Suggests that members of a discourse community share inferential frameworks with each other
2. There are strong hierarchies of power with organisations, with asymmetrical relationships marked by language use
3. E.g. there are constraints on individuals on the language they use, when employees put something onto social media which could put their company into disrepute
Koester (2004)
1. says that using phatic talk, being sociable and engaging in personal chat is an important aspect of effective working, and that solidarity is important in workplace communication
Swales
1. Written communications are structured in terms of "moves"
2. 1. Establishing credentials: stating who you are
3. 2. Introducing the offer: offering product or service, essential detailing of the offer, indicating value of the offer, enclosing documents, using pressure tactics
4. 3. Offering incentives
5. 4. Soliciting response
6. 5. Ending politely
Server
1. Occupational Lexis
  1. terminal
  2. manager
  3. bill
  4. ICF
2. Context
  1. time
  2. age
  3. customer
  4. gender
  5. season
3. Language Patterns
  1. Q+A
  2. Phatic talk
  3. Structured conversation
4. Non-standard English
5. Hierarchy between managers and servers
6. Polite tone, clear voice and understandable pace
Hairdresser
1. Occupational Lexis
  1. style
  2. cut
  3. dye
  4. toner
  5. wash
2. Context
  1. gender
  2. time
  3. how well you know the person
3. Language Patterns
  1. Q+A
  2. balanced customer and employee
4. Phatic talk
5. Standard grammar to customers
6. High pitched and normal volume
Lawyer
1. Occupational Lexis
  1. voir dire
  2. very restricted
  3. influenced by other languages
  4. waiver
2. Context
  1. clients
  2. the case (sensitive)
  3. defending/accusing
3. Language patterns
  1. connectives
  2. monologues
  3. questions
  4. long
4. Received Pronunciation
5. Plosives
6. Formal

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Language and Occupation

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	Created by Lily Woods about 9 years ago