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Critical Issues in Information Systems

Critical Issues in Information Systems. BUSS 951. Supplementary 5 Tenor: Whose involved in the Text?. Tenor Defined. the social role relationships played by interactants examples: student/lecturer, customer/salesperson, friend/friend

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Critical Issues in Information Systems

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  1. Critical Issues in Information Systems BUSS 951 Supplementary 5 Tenor: Whose involved in the Text?

  2. Tenor Defined • the social role relationshipsplayed by interactants • examples: student/lecturer, customer/salesperson, friend/friend • you know instinctively that the social role you are playing has an effect on how you use language

  3. Tenor Defined • you are unlikely do speak to the greengrocer the way you speak to a priest • SFL suggests a number of ways for finding out in texts ‘whose involved in the social activity’

  4. Tenor Defined • three different continua are used: • power • affective involvement • contact

  5. POWER equal unequal TenorPower Continuum • power continuum is used to classify situations according to whether the roles we are playing are those in which we are equal or unequal power boss/employee lecturer/student parent/child friend/friend

  6. TenorContact Continuum • contact continuum is used to classify situations by whether the roles we are playing bring us into frequent or occasional contact CONTACT frequent occasional grocer/customer lecturer/student spouses

  7. TenorAffective Involvement Continuum • affective involvementis used to classify situations by whether the roles we are playing bring us into high or low affective involvement(high or low emotional levels) AFFECTIVE INVOLVEMENT high low grocer/customer work situations friends lovers family

  8. Tenor • these aspects are more than just interesting descriptionsof interpersonal aspects of situations • there is a direct claim being made about language and situational context

  9. Tenor • these aspects of our role occupation in a given situation will have an impact on how we use language • in management and information systems we often use terms like formal and informal • but SFL enables us to theorise these terms...

  10. Formal -vs- Informal Situations • informal situationsinclude: • equal power • frequent contact • high affective involvement • formal situationsinclude: • unequal, hierachical power • infrequent, or one-off, contact • low affective involvement

  11. Formal -vs- Informal Situations • the language that we use can vary quite significantly from informal to formal situations • informal situations: • vocabulary used that expresses attitude- fantastic, shitty, unbelievable • attitudinal lexisused for positive or negative evaluation ‘purr’ or ‘snarl’ words

  12. Formal -vs- Informal Situations • formal situations: • tend to keep attitudes to ourselves • when we express feelings we use ‘objective language’: unfortunate, surprising • lexis varies in its degree of standardization: chokies (informal- slang or abbreviations used) or chocolates (formal- neutral or acronyms) • politeness markers used

  13. Tenor Vocatives • vocatives are terms of address- the words that people call each other when for example, they wish to get each others attention: • Dear Sir • Your Royal Highness • Hey You! • choice of vocative reveals important tenor dimensions

  14. Tenor Vocatives • when power is equal, vocative use is reciprocal- • eg. if I call you by your first name, you will call me by mine • where power is unequal, vocative use will be non-reciprocal • eg. you may call your Doctor, Dr. Jones, but he’ll call you by your first name

  15. Tenor Nicknames; Vocatives • when contact is frequent, nick-names are often used • Johnno [Johnathon], Pete [Peter], Shirl [Shirley] • where contact is infrequent, often no vocatives are used • buying bread- no vocatives used

  16. Tenor Vocatives • when affective involvement is high- terms of endearment may be used • Georgie-Porgy, Petie-Pie, Honey Bunch, Darl • where affective involvement is low, we use formal ‘given’ names

  17. Example 1 • Hey, Freddie! Get off your butt and give me a hand here. Shove that chair over closer to the desk

  18. Example 2 • Oh, Dr. Smith. I’m just trying to tidy my office up a bit and I wondered if you’d mind maybe giving me a quick hand to move some furniture? If you’ve got time, I mean. It won’t take a moment. Now if we could just move this chair over a bit nearer to the desk there. Thanks very much

  19. Why bother? • during analysis we could apply these ideas to transcripts of user interaction, systems design, and management decision making • gives us the ability to work out a lot about the social arrangement of situationsand the roles people play in them

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