PSY 409b September 7, 2006
How Power and Solidarity Affect Communication
By Christina Delapena
Instructions for this activity are found at:
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/g25-oral1.htm
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Tannen,
Deborah (1996). Gender and Discourse. (
I.
Power and
Solidarity
a. Power
i.
Governed by
asymmetrical relationships.
ii.
One is secondary
to another.
b. Solidarity
i.
Governed by
symmetrical relationships
ii.
Characterized by
social equality and similarity.
c. Power and solidarity = paradoxical relationship to
each other.
i.
Power and
solidarity are opposites at first, but each entails the other.
ii.
Any show of
power brings about solidarity by involving participants in relation to each
other.
d. Example of wearing a 3-piece suit
i.
Wearing a
3-piece suit at a school = marks power
(with students--he's a professor).
ii.
Wearing a 3-piece
suit at a board meeting = marks solidarity
(with board members of meeting).
II.
Ambiguity
between Power and Solidarity
a. All linguistic strategies are most likely ambiguous
(one thing or another).
b. What appears to be power can be intended for
solidarity.
i.
Example: A woman
and a man walking on their way to a meeting.Ý
The woman asks the man, "Where's your coat?"Ý The man responds, "Thanks, Mom."
1. He thinks she is acting like a mother, telling a
child to put on his coat; symbolizes power.
2. A friend showing concern; symbolizes solidarity.
III.
Polysemy between
Power and Solidarity
a. Polysemy of power and solidarity shows having
multiple meanings simultaneously.
b. A friend repeatedly picking up checks when dining
together.
1. Is she just being generous (solidarity) or is she
flaunting her money, showing she's has more than you (power)?
2. Even if you believe she's being simply generous, you
may still feel both interpretations because her generosity (solidarity) shows
that she has more money than you (power).
IV.
Similarity/Difference
Continuum
a. Double bind of communication
i.
Anything we say
that represents our similarity violates our difference; and anything we say
that represents our difference violates our similarities.
1. "Don't think I'm different." = Could refer
to we are all human and have blood flowing through our veins.
2. "Don't think I'm the same." = A woman who
is excluded from activities because her main priority is to care for her
children and has no daycare.
Related
Links
Managing
Interaction II: Conversation
http://www.indiana.edu/~lggender/conversation.html
This
website is based on empirical research on women's and men's conversations. It
also focuses on gender and power. I found this website interesting because they
did experiments with males and females based on interruption/overlap,
backchannel feedback, and floor apportionment. Based on their findings, their
results concluded that power plays a role, but gender is stronger.
Suasive
Diction
http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/comp2/suasive.htm
This
website talks about suasive diction and how it is a language used to persuade a
reader by the clever manipulation of vocabulary. There is one section that
focuses on the pronouns of power and solidarity. This section explains what
pronouns express power and what pronouns expressÝ
solidarity.
Diglossia
and Power and Solidarity
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/messeas/diglossia/node14.html
This
website describes how certain pronouns in some cultures can express power
and/or solidarity. It talks about T and V pronoun and H and L pronoun usage. I
thought this website was interesting because I didn't know using certain
pronouns could express and solidarity.
My Homepage is: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409bf2006/delapena/delapena-home.htm
Class Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm