Psychology 409b 1/23/2006

The Power of Dialogue Variations

By Alton Antonio

Deborah Tannen, Gender and Discourse, Oxford University Press, 1994 p.31-47

I. The Relativity of Linguistic Strategies

A. Strategies demonstrating dominance or subordination

            - Indirectness, Interruption, Silence versus Volubility, Topic Raising, Adversativeness

            1. Indirectness - Defensiveness vs. Rapport

                        a) Defensiveness - speaker’s choice to express his/her own thoughts and change it if it does not coincide with a positive response

                                    - a sign of subordination and submission

                        b) Rapport - getting one’s own way not by demand, but by the other person wanting the same goal

                                    - the ability to get one’s demands met without expressing them can be shown as a sign of power in a subtle way

                        c) Depends on a cultural-context

- the interpretation and perspective of the dialogue depends on the setting, the status, and the relationship between the two speakers in order to establish who has the power

            2. Interruption - Asymmetry of a conversation

                        a) The overlap of one’s voice over another’s causes an imbalance in the conversation

                        b) One’s intention in a conversation is determined by how he/she voices his/her thoughts

                                    - cooperative overlap: casual conversing of friends and family

                                    - differentiation overlap: difference in style between the two speakers

            3. Silence versus Volubility

                        a) Silence - a sign of power or powerlessness?

                                    - depends on the context it was used upon

                                    - ex: a husband refusing to answer his wife making her beg for his answer (power)

                                    - ex: in Mountain Language, outlawing one’s ability to speak (powerlessness)

                        b) Volubility - a cultural-context perspective

                                    - ex: a American child who is expected to speak up while demonstrating a recitation of the alphabets

                                    - ex: British children who “are to be seen and not heard”

            4. Topic Raising - More topics equal more power?

                        a) assumed that the person who raises the most topic in a conversation holds the power

                        b) depends on the differences of style between speakers

- ex: a person who feels that the other has nothing else to contribute to a raised topic will venture into raising another topic for vs. the person intending to say more on the raised topic was waiting for the appropriate turn-exchange pause will feel that another topic is a aggressive strategy.

            5. Adversativeness: Conflict and Verbal Aggression      

                        a) males are more aggressive and engaging in conflicts; commanding rather than suggesting

                                    - ex: opposition of boys entails affiliation within the team--male bonding

                        b) females are more cooperative intending to avoid conflicts; suggestions rather than commands

                                    - ex: girls effort to support their friends in a game of four square--getting other people out of the square with motive to get a friend in

                        c) depends on a cross-cultural perspective whether aggression is considered power or solidarity

                                    - ex: East-European Jewish friendly arguments is a sign of being sociable (solidarity)

                                    - ex: Germans and Americans different views on conversing with new acquaintances (opposition)

                                                > Germans find Americans unsociable when refusing to argue politics

                                                > Americans find Germans belligerent for their arguments

            6. Some factors to consider in understanding the use of language in dialogues

                        a) speakers’ conversational styles

                        b) interaction between the speakers

                        c) cross-cultural perspective

                        d) cultural-contexts

Related Links:

1. http://logos.uoregon.edu/explore/socioling/

Sociolinguistics is a link in which there is an application of a relationship between language and society and their interconnectedness with similarities and differences.  This website also questions whether there is a differentiation between men and women.  Also, this website inquires the age old question- Who talks more, men or women?

2.  http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm

Language and gender is a link in which there are many subtopics dealing with the relationship between conversations and gender.  There is a subtopic in which it explains and demonstrates the dominance theory.  Also this website references Deborah Tannen and her findings in her book, You Just Don’t Understand.

3. http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/2052/genddiff.html

The Ladies Room is a link in which demonstrates the differences in between men and women in their communication between one another in four topics—body language, facial expressions, behavior and speech patterns

My Homepage: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409bs2006/Antonio/antonio-home.htm

Class Homepage: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm