{"id":762,"date":"2018-08-19T20:42:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T00:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/?p=762"},"modified":"2019-06-03T10:15:52","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T14:15:52","slug":"language-of-the-powerful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/2018\/08\/19\/language-of-the-powerful\/","title":{"rendered":"Language of the Powerful"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most fascinating concepts learned in Linguistic Anthropology Fall 2017 is that of the language of the powerful and the powerless. Powerful language<\/a> is characterized by being more active, assertive, and commanding while powerless language<\/a> is more hesitating, unsure, and can be characterized by self-doubting. To give an example, a powerful statement would be \u201cLet\u2019s go to Chili\u2019s this Tuesday\u201d while a statement marked by powerlessness can be characterized as \u201cUh I guess I\u2019m in the mood for Chili\u2019s but I wouldn\u2019t mind going somewhere else, what do you think?\u201d. Notice the difference? The first sentence is more of a \u201cI will\u201d while the second is more doubtful but it also relates to the way it\u2019s uttered. Tone is all too important, while going over the question part of the statement, did you imagine it being spoken in a higher tone with an unsure inflection? Those are points to be mindful of when detecting whether a person is speaking with a powerful or powerless speech.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To provide some more context into this subject, one of our readings was about a study where researchers\u2019 examined language in the courtroom, from lawyers to witnesses. They weren\u2019t primarily looking for what everyone was saying but how<\/em> they were saying it.<\/p>\n

You see, before this research was conducted, powerless language was called women\u2019s language<\/a>\u00a0as reported by Georgetown faculty. This is because women were seen in a more subversive role, therefore, powerless language was associated<\/a> with how women speak.<\/p>\n

From the courtroom research however, the hallmarks of powerless language wasn\u2019t spoken from only women, but was shared by others. So, what give?<\/p>\n

Well, powerless language isn\u2019t determined based on a person\u2019s identified gender but rather their perceived power<\/a> in a social situation. A person who\u2019s experiencing their first time on the witness stand may be nervous at the prospect of public speaking, especially in front of a judge. It was therefore observed that powerless language didn\u2019t just come from women but men as well.<\/p>\n

The implications of this are fascinating. For one, it shows how theories evolve with new information and evidence that gives researchers’ a more accurate picture of what really happens. Secondly, powerless language shows how its not determined by gender but rather<\/a> a person’s given interpretation of their own power within a social environment.<\/p>\n

Observations like this gives us the reader something to look out for in our daily interactions and perhaps be more mindful of the way we speak too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most fascinating concepts learned in Linguistic Anthropology Fall 2017 is that of the language of the powerful and the powerless. Powerful language is characterized by being more active, assertive, and commanding while powerless language is more hesitating,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,6,13,12],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blog","tag-language","tag-language-clouds","tag-language-maps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3323"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/lmlc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}