Brief Power in Language Lesson Notes (11/9/14)

Instrumental Power:
Power behind discourse. Power in language coming from high social/professional status. For example, the power a teacher has over their pupils.

Influential Power:
Power in discourse. Power asserted through language used. For example, the use of synthetic personalisation in advertisements.

All power in language depends on the context.

Parents have instrumental power over their children however, depending on context, may be more likely to use influential power.

When disciplining their children parents will be more inclined to use imperative syntax "don't do that".