Appunti di strategie comunicative e negoziali lingua inglese

FACE- E. GOFFMAN

Goffman was the scholar who introduced the idea of self-image (image of oneself) communication studies. This concept has its origins in China, but it was Goffman that constructed the idea of the field of language. The face doesn't represent a part of the body but an image of self which we want to show to other people during interactions. We want other people to perceive our image. Ex. In a meeting, I want to appear professional, well-educated, competent and witty.

FACE-WORK

Efforts to communicate a positive image of yourself in order to prevent loss of face. Simultaneously, people want to prevent the loss of face, but they do them best. This is called face-work. The idea was also developed by Lim and Bowers in 1991. This wish to be approved has two facets: Solidarity face: the wish to be approved and included in a group. People want to be approved and considered as part of a group. Competence face: the desire people have to be considered professional and competent.They want their ability to be recognised. The distinction has been considered particularly important for the negotiation discourse, because when we negotiate, we tend to have these two means satisfied, since we want people to include ourselves and to be considered competent. How do speakers maintain their solidarity face?

• Speakers seek alignment before expressing disagreement in order to be accepted, you seek alignment; in this way you facilitate the acceptation of your opinion by other parties
• Speakers are tentative and indirect when making demands, rather than formulate as orders, you may formulate indirectly
• Speakers give justifying accounts when asking delicate questions (accounts) ex. asking for discounts. The question is delicate, I need to protect myself.

How do listeners maintain their solidarity face?

• Listen - it is "the cheapest courtesy of all"
• Nod

How do speakers show their competence face? Use

The way in which manage harmony or disharmony among people.

• Face
• Sociality rights and obligations: they refer to the fact that we all develop expectations in relation to the perceived sociality rights and obligations on the basis of:

1. Equity: right to be treated fairly, not imposed upon/exploited.
2. In this respect 2 components

should be considered: the notion of cost and benefit (which should be roughly kept in balance in any interaction); the notion of autonomy and imposition (refers to the extent to which someone can control us if they have the right to do so, for example, a boss). 2. Association: the right to be involved with others, through interactional involvement/detachment (referring to conversational involvement in a conversation, where we expect a certain amount of interactional involvement, not to be ignored or overwhelmed); affective involvement/detachment (sharing interests and concerns with others). N.B. What is considered appropriate varies depending on the context, relationship, sociocultural norms, and personal preferences. - Interactional goals: people have specific relational and transactional goals. Failure to achieve these goals can cause frustration and annoyance. How to manage rapport: - Harmony (positive rapport) can be threatened through face-threatening behavior. - Rights

threatening behaviorü

Goal threatening behaviorüAs a result, one may feel irritated or lose face.

Helen Spencer Oatey’s model

The model is helpful in negotiation and also in interaction. This model draws on the politeness theory and the concept of face. Building rapport is essential in negotiation.

According to Spencer Oatey, all language can affect people’s interpretation of how appropriately face, sociality rights and interactional goals are managed and can therefore affect rapport.

Domains in which rapport should be managed

1. Illocutionary domain: studied by Brown and Levinson (scholars who dealt with face threatening acts) in the theory of politeness; they look at how to perform speech acts (requests, refusals, disagreement) in a way in which they are not face threatening indirectness – politenessà
2. Discourse domain: topic choice and topic management; personal/sensitive topics; change of topics
3. Participation domain: refers to the procedural aspects,

1. Rapport Orientation:
   • Rapport enhancement orientation: the purpose is to enhance rapport. It is not in the interest of the participants to threaten other people's face, in order to maintain good relations people give face to each other
   • Rapport management orientation: the purpose is to minimize threats to face
   • Rapport neglect orientation: there is little concern or lack of concern for the relationship
   • Rapport challenge orientation: people deliberately cause others to lose their face
2. Contextual Variables:
   • Power: unequal role relationship. Spencer Oatey distinguishes 5 different kinds of power:
     1. Reward power: control over positive outcomes
     2. Coercive power: control over negative outcomes

Stylistic domain: choice of tone (serious/joking), genre-appropriate lexis, syntax, terms of address

Non-verbal domain

Factors influencing strategy use

• Turn-taking
• Overlaps
• Inclusion of people present
• Use of listener responses (ex. nodding) and response tokens

22/03/2019

1. Expert power: knowledge or expertise ex. teacher
2. Legitimate power: right to prescribe or expect something (if somebody is your boss, he has a right to prescribe you certain tasks or to expect you to be in a certain way ex. boss/teacher)
3. Referent power: admiration (if B wants to like A, then B has referent power over A; it depends whether people would be to be liked by their superiors).

Distance: possible components are:

• Social similarity difference
• Frequency of contact
• Length of acquaintance: how long people have known each other
• How well people know each other
• Sense of like mindedness: if people feel to be similar
• Positive/negative affect: whether people like each other or not

These components might be overlapping.

Number of participants: it is more embarrassing to be criticized or praised in front of other people than privately.

The choice of rapport management strategies also depends on the costs and benefits in terms of time, effort, financial costs.

In the world of social interaction, costs lead to debts by means of apologies or expressions of gratitude (ex. if somebody does you a favor an imbalance creates; you can restore balance by expressing gratitude).

Social and interactional roles: roles that participants play. They:

• Influence the power and distance of the relationship
• Help specify the rights and obligations: they are linked to the roles people have (ex. a student has certain obligations and rights)

Type of communicative activity: examples of communicative activities are job interviews, lectures, lessons, trials. Key elements:

• The goals of the participants
• Types of allowable contributions: social or legal constraints on what can be communicated (ex. in a job interview, candidates are expected to praise themselves, but without being too proud of their achievements). To certain communicative activities correspond certain allowable contributions.
• Degree to which the Gricean maxims are adhered to

suspended- Turn-taking and topic control: whether there are specific turn-taking rules that are operant and whether there are constraints regarding people who introduce topics. 28/03/2019 Paralanguage - Intervento Dr. Kurtyka Metacommunication: communication about communication; defined by Gregory Bateson. Metacommunication is the intentional or unintentional implied meaning of a message accompanying the verbal message (ex. supporting or contradicting it), not expressed in words. It depends on context and attributions: the same message accompanied by different metacommunication can mean something different, even its opposite (ex. irony). It can show relationships between the interlocutors. See slide "some examples" Paralanguage is a very important component of the message and its meaning. Metacommunication is: verbal (7%) paralanguage/kinesic behavior (38%) non-verbal (55%) Paralanguage was defined as a discipline by Trager in 1958: a non-linguistic and non-verbal component ofspeech.- It modifies meaning (you can change the meaning when you change the paralinguistic element) - It conveys the speaker's feeling and emotion - It can be expressed consciously or unconsciously (ex. control of voice) - The conversational use of spoken language cannot be properly understood without paralanguage - It is present in segmental features (the phonetic/phonological level; individual sounds or phonemes each à phoneme = a segment of speech) and suprasegmental features (larger fragments of speech, whole words or phrases ex. word stress, intonation, pitch, rhythm, pauses. Some of them convey emotions and à politeness). Components of paralanguage 1. Primary qualities (basic personal voice features): - Voice timbre: the organically-determined permanent voice registers or pitch that sets individuals apart and allows us to distinguish them. It is determined by the length/thickness of our vocal bands. The longer/thicker they are, the slower their vibrations (lower pitch); the shorter/thinner they are, the faster their vibrations (higher pitch). - Voice intensity: the volume or loudness of the voice. It can convey emotions such as anger, excitement, or sadness. - Voice quality: the overall sound of the voice, including factors such as breathiness, hoarseness, or nasality. It can convey emotions or indicate certain physical or psychological conditions. 2. Secondary qualities (voice features that can be modified or controlled): - Voice pitch: the highness or lowness of the voice. It can convey emotions, indicate gender, or express emphasis. - Voice rate: the speed at which words are spoken. It can convey emotions, indicate excitement or boredom, or influence the listener's perception of the speaker's credibility. - Voice rhythm: the pattern or flow of speech. It can convey emotions, indicate hesitation or confidence, or influence the listener's engagement with the speaker. - Voice pauses: the intentional or unintentional breaks in speech. They can convey emotions, indicate hesitation or thoughtfulness, or allow the listener to process information. 3. Nonverbal vocal cues: - Laughter: a vocal expression of amusement or joy. It can convey emotions, indicate social bonding, or serve as a conversational turn-taking signal. - Crying: a vocal expression of sadness or distress. It can convey emotions, elicit empathy or support, or indicate a need for comfort. - Sighing: a vocal expression of relief or resignation. It can convey emotions, indicate relaxation or frustration, or serve as a conversational filler. In conclusion, paralanguage plays a crucial role in communication by adding depth and nuance to spoken language. It allows us to convey emotions, express our personality, and enhance the overall meaning of our words.formatted as follows:

Timbre refers to the quality of a person's voice. It is influenced by various factors:

• Pitch: the highness or lowness of the voice. Higher pitch is associated with a thinner vocal fold, while lower pitch is associated with a thicker vocal fold.
• Vibrations: the longer/thicker the vocal folds, the lower their vibrations (lower timbre). The shorter/thinner they are, the greater their vibrations (higher timbre).
• Geographic differences: Americans have lower timbre than Spaniards. Spaniards have lower timbre than Latin Americans.
• Social perception of timbre: positive/negative connotations.

Resonance refers to the way sound is amplified in different parts of the vocal tract:

• Oral resonance produces a resounding voice and is associated with large body size, energy, good health, masculinity, etc.
• Pharyngeal resonance (throaty voice) suggests positive traits in men (maturity), but negative ones in women.
• Nasal resonance does not suggest any features in anyone.

Loudness refers to the intensity or volume of the voice. It gives special meaningful effects to words, syllables. Personal conversational level (loud, soft, quiet) can be re-