Looking at
both of the transcripts, I noticed that they both show instrumental power. The
first transcript from The Apprentice, shows how Sir Alan Sugar holds the power
in the situation due to him being in charge and is the one who is employing the
candidates, therefore being of a higher power status causing power asymmetry.
You can see from the transcripts that one of the candidates (Phillip) is trying
to gain power over Alan Sugar by attempting to interrupt him while he is
speaking. Phillip interrupts Alan Sugar and tries to gain power with ‘no it was
a touch task’ which is then interrupted by Alan Sugar again with ‘no you didn’t
make any money’. This shows that Phillip’s attempt to gain power from Alan
Sugar is unsuccessful as Alan Sugar regains all of the power straight away.
In the
second transcript, which is from the TV show Educating Essex, it is similar as
it also shows instrumental power. This is because the conversation is mainly between
a teacher and a student. It shows that the teacher holds all of the power,
however, the student continuously attempts to gain power from the teacher
throughout their conversation. This could be due to the student wanting to perhaps
seem humorous to the rest of the students in the class. This is shown through
the student interrupting the teacher, for example she interrupts the teacher by
saying ‘I don’t really pay attention to that’ and also saying things to the
teacher such as ‘I’m bored of it’. This shows how the students wants the power,
but due to the fact that the teacher has a higher authority, she is
unsuccessful with her attempt as the teacher usually overlaps and interrupts
what she is saying. The teacher keeps the power throughout the conversation
between him and the student which is shown by using imperative sentences, for
example ‘you are gonna do some practice questions’, and also declarative sentences,
for example ‘you’re here to do work’ and ‘you’re here to do maths’.
Good context for Educating Essex. Try and evaluate what is going on rather than plumping for one interpretation e.g. when Phillip says "no it was a tough task" could he be using a variety of techniques? He is trying to appear a better candidate than Lorraine but it is interesting that he appears to challenge SAS to do so with the bald, on-record strategy he uses ("no"), which threaten's SAS's face need to be respected - could it be meant as a kind of compliment to SAS? Could he mean it as a back-channel comment that shows respect for the difficulty of the set task and SAS's high levels of expectation for them, rather than as a challenging interruption? It might be interesting to look at Tannen's Difference theory too here to see how this is a 'typically' male conversation. Check imperatives.
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