com 350 exam 3

Face

one's public self-image

Principle of least collaborative effort:

people will try to minimize their collectiveeffort in conversation People tend to first provide brief descriptions and then elaborate if needed People prefer to repair their own utterances (self-repair) than allowing another to do so (other-repair) because self-repair requires less collectiveeffort (i.e., fewer conversational turns)

Indirect speech acts:

"an act of speech where one illocutionary act is performed indirectly by way of performing another" (Searle, 1975)

Which of the following statements uses the most concrete language, according to the Linguistic Category Model (LCM)?

A is talking to B

Motives for adjustment

Affective motives: related to identity concerns -Converge when we want others' social approval -Diverge/maintain when we want to establish positive distinctiveness Cognitive motives: related to communicative efficiency -Converge when we wish to facilitate communicationand increase comprehension -Diverge/maintain when we wish to refocus communicationor hinder comprehension

Lisa speaks with a Southern accent. Jane speaks with a Standard American accent. When Lisa and Jane talk, Lisa makes her accent sound more Southern, but Jane does not change her accent. This is an example of:

Asymmetrical divergence

Linguistic Intergroup Bias (LIB)

Asymmetry in language use! -Positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviors tend to be described using abstract language! -Negative ingroup and positive outgroup behaviors tend to be described using concrete language Consequences! -Concrete language encourages situational (i.e., unstable) attributions ---Negative ingroup and positive outgroup behaviors are represented as atypical, exceptions to the rule! -Abstract language encourage dispositional (i.e., stable) attributions ---Positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviors are represented as typical, stable traits (i.e., "it's in their nature to act that way")! -This helps to maintain positive ingroup stereotypes and negative outgroup stereotypes!

Linguistic Expectancy Bias (LEB)

Asymmetry in language use! -Unexpected behaviors tend to be described using concrete language! -Expected behaviors tend to be described using abstract language Consequences! -Because we generally expect ingroup members to display positive behaviors and outgroup members to display negative behaviors, this also helps to maintain positive ingroup and negative outgroup stereotypes

Category labels

Asymmetry in language use! -We mark things we see as unexpected/stereotype-inconsistent (e.g., we say "family man" and "career woman" but not"family woman" and "career man") Consequences! -Marking things we see as unexpected creates a subtype or exception to the category and allows us to maintain our existing stereotypes while acknowledging a specific (atypical) case

Five superstrategies of politeness (from least to most polite)

Bald-on-record: direct, blunt, maximally efficient (adheres to Grice's maxims)!E.g., "Shut the door" Positive politeness: claim common ground: show approval: complement; use "we" language!E.g., "You're always so helpful, shut the door" Negative politeness: conventional indirectness; hedge; give deference; avoid coercion; apologize!E.g., "I'm sorry to bother you, but would you mind shutting the door?" Off-record (indirect): vague, ambiguous; hints; violate Grice's maxims!E.g., "It's cold in here" Don't commit the FTA!

_________ refers to adjusting one's communicative behaviors to become more similar to another's.

Convergence

Evaluations

Convergence is generally evaluated positively, especially when it is attributed to positive intent, rather than the situation Divergence/maintenance are generally evaluated negatively, especially when they are attributed to negative intent, rather than the situation Multiple meanings: adjustment often has multiple meanings and how it is evaluated depends on who is evaluating it -Convergence to an outgroup is likely to be perceived as convergence by outgroup members and evaluated positively, but as divergenceby ingroup members and evaluated negatively -Divergence from an outgroup is likely to be perceived as divergence by outgroup members and evaluated negatively, but as convergence/maintenance by ingroup members and evaluated positively

three types of adjustment

Convergence: adjusting one's communicative behavior to become more similar to another's Divergence: adjusting one's communicative behavior to become more dissimilar to another's Maintenance: maintaining one's "default" way of communicating (no adjustments)

Two competing desires during social interaction (in fundamental conflict)

Desire to perform FTAs Desire to cooperatively manage each others' face To balance these competing desires, people engage in facework or politeness -Politeness typically involves deviation from maximally efficient communication (i.e., violates Grice's maxims)

The utterance "Open the door" can best be classified as a/an:

Directive

Taxonomy of speech acts (5 different types of illocutionary acts)

Directives: get hearer to perform some kind of action (e.g., requesting, ordering, questioning) Assertives: make a statement about how things are or will be (e.g., asserting, concluding, informing, reporting, predicting) Commissives: get the speaker to commit to some future action (e.g., warning, threatening, promising) Declaratives: create a change in an institutional sate of affairs (e.g., declaring war, performing a marriage) Expressives: express a psychological state (e.g., thanking, complaining, greeting, apologizing)

Kingsbury (1968) -people doattempt to take others'perspectives Fussell & Krauss (1989) -perspective-taking is not perfect and people often make errors about what is common ground, because:

Effort:it takes more effort to formulate a message from another's perspective than one's own Time pressure: people are less likely to take another's perspective under time pressure Egocentric bias: people have a tendency to base their judgments of others'mental states on their ownmental statewhich may lead to the false consensus effect, or tendency to overestimate the extent to whichothers are similar to them

The utterance "I feel happy today" can best be classified as a/an:

Expressive

When the literal and intended illocutionary point of an utterance are the same, that utterance is called an indirect speech act. (T/F)

False

Every utterance is a speech act because it involves the simultaneous performance of three acts:

Locutionary act: act of speaking (actual utterance produced by speaker)! Illocutionary act: act done in speaking (force or intention behind the utterance; speaker's goal)! Perlocutionary act: act achieved by speaking (effect of utterance on speaker)

We often adjust toward where we believeothers are communicatively, not where they actually are

Our expectations (which may be based on stereotypes) may be wrong Can lead to over-accommodation(too much adjustment) or underaccommodation(too little adjustment)

Mutual concern for face

People have an inherent desire to maintain their face. Because face is something that is established in interaction and something others "give" us, people show a mutual concern for face - protecting others' face also protects our own face

Complexities

People often use multiple politeness strategies in a single utterance Negative politeness is sometimes experienced as more polite than off-record politeness Sometimes we intentionally attack others' face Positive and negative face concerns may be weighted differentlyin different cultures

The act of viewing a situation or understanding a concept from an alternative point of view is called:

Perspective-taking

Two components of face

Positive face: desire for social approval, connection! Negative face: desire for autonomy

Grice's Maxims

Quantity: content is as informative as the situation requires (not too much or too little) Quality: content is truthful, has evidenceoManner: content is clear, unambiguous Relation: content is relevant to conversation

Strategy choice depends on the perceived 'weightiness' (W) of the FTA, where W = S + P + R

Social distance of speaker and hearer! -The greater the social distance between the speaker and hearer, the greater the weightiness Power of hearer over the speaker!The more power the hearer has over the speaker, the greater the weightiness Ranking of FTA as an imposition in a given culture!The more of an imposition the FTA holds (e.g., request for $50 vs. $1), the greater its weightiness The greater the weightiness (W) of an FTA, the more polite people will be when performing it (i.e., will select a more polite superstrategy) In some situations (e.g., emergency), desire to communicate efficiently may override any desire to manage face

One reason people converge to others is to get their social approval. (T/F)

True

Convergence and divergence can both take multiple forms:

Upward/downward: refers to adjustment that has some social value -Upward: adopting a more prestigious form -Downward: adopting a less prestigious form Full/partial: refers to the degreeof adjustment Symmetrical/Asymmetrical: refers to whether or not one person's adjustments are reciprocatedby the other -Symmetrical: mutual adjustment in the same direction (e.g., both people converge) -Asymmetrical: unilateral adjustment (e.g., one person converges, other maintains) Unimodal/Multimodal: refers to the number of dimensionspeople make adjustments on -Unimodal: adjustment on a single dimension -Multimodal: adjustment on multiple dimensions -----People can convergeon one dimension, but simultaneously divergeon another Short-term/Long-term: refers to the durationof adjustment -Short-term: adjustment during one or only a few interactions; non-recurring -Long-term: sustained, repeated adjustment over multiple interactions; recurring -------May result in dialect change

Linguistic category model

We can describe actions using four classes of words that vary in their level of abstraction Descriptive action verbs (most concrete): objective description of a specific, observable behavior (e.g., A hit B) Interpretive action verbs: interpretive description of behavior (e.g., A hurt B) State verbs: description in terms of enduring, psychological states (e.g., A hates B) Adjectives (most abstract): description in terms of general dispositions (e.g., A is aggressive)

Suppose that William punches Ben. If William is an outgroup member, people are most likely to use which of the following statements to describe William's behavior?

William is aggressive

Shibboleth

a word or phrase that can identify someone as a member of a distinct social group

Grounding

act of making a contribution part of common ground Presentation phase: conversational contribution Acceptance phase: evidence provided by interlocutor of their understanding of contribution -Direct acknowledgement(e.g., uh-huh, nod, etc.) -Relevant response -Continued attention

Perspective-taking

act of viewing a situation or understanding a concept from an alternative point of view Successful communication requires mutualperspective-taking Infants are unable to take others' perspective until they develop a theory of mind, or recognition that other people have their own minds and can have different perspectives Perspective-taking is an attempt to establish common ground

speech act

an utterance that has a performative function

Linguistic bias

asymmetry in language use based on the target's social group membership(s)

Face-threatening acts (FTAs):

communicative acts that threaten face

Accommodation

communicative adjustment Can occur on many dimensions, including language, dialect, accent, speech rate, pitch, nonverbals, etc. Sometimes takes the form of code-switching, or using two or morelanguage varieties in the same conversation

negative politness

conventional indirectness; hedge; avoid coercion; give deference; apologize ie: "can you shut the door?"

According to politeness theory, positive politeness is more polite than negative politeness. (T/F)

false

Common ground

hared knowledge, beliefs, and suppositions Successful communication requires an accurate assessment of what is common ground Inferences about what is common ground are based on: -Physical copresence -Linguistic copresence -Community membership Common ground is fluid and negotiable; it is created collaborativelyduring interaction through a process called 'grounding'

positive politness

sub strategies: claim common ground; show approval; complement; use "we" language; joke ie: "honey, pass me the salt"

bald-on-record

sub strategies: direct, blunt, maximally efficient (adheres to Grirce's maxims) ie: "shut the door", "you're wrong"

off-record (indirect)

vague, ambiguous; hints; violate Grice's maxims ie: "it's cold here"