Working with Language: A Multidisciplinary Consideration of Language Use in Work Contexts [Reprint 2010 ed.] 9783110849226, 9783110116434

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Working with Language

Contributions to the Sociology of Language

52

Editor

Joshua A. Fishman

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Working with Language A Multidisciplinary Consideration of Language Use in Work Contexts

edited by Hywel Coleman

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

1989

Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Working with language : a multidisciplinary consideration of language use in work contexts / edited by Hywel Coleman. p. cm. — (Contributions to the sociology of language ; 52) Bibliography: p. Includes index. ISBN 0-89925-466-7 (alk. paper) 1. Language and languages. I. Coleman, Hywel, II. Series. P106.W66 1989 401'.9-dcl9 88-37386

Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging-in-Publication Data Working with language : a multidisciplinary consideration of language use in work contexts / ed. by Hywel Coleman. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1989 (Contributions to the sociology of language ; 52) ISBN 3-11-011643-X NE: Coleman, Hywel [Hrsg.]; GT

© Printed on acid free paper. © Copyright 1989 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin 30. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form — by photoprint, microfilm or any other means nor transmitted nor translated into a machine language without written permission from the publishers. Typesetting: Asian Research Service, Hong Kong. — Printing: Gerike GmbH, Berlin. — Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin. — Printed in Germany.

For V.C. and W.N.C. from whom I learnt how to use language and how to work

Acknowledgements

As with my earlier collection, Language and Work (1984, 1985), it was Joshua Fishman who challenged me to edit this volume. Consequently it is Professor Fishman whom I must thank for presenting me with a task which has been both worrying and satisfying, frustrating and exhilarating. Professor Fishman asked originally for a book which would deal 'with the broadest possible spectrum of work areas; . . . it would have to be "more of everything": more selective, more integrated (introductions), more evaluative (conclusions), and theory building (including macro issues).' Only he will be able to tell precisely how far the end product manages to satisfy these demanding specifications. The deficiencies of a volume such as this are the responsibility of the editor alone. John Blackwell, Björn Jernudd, Gavin Neilson, Brian Smith and the EST Clearinghouse of Oregon State University provided contacts with potential authors and directed me to relevant sources. Nicki McLeod and Peter Sherwood made useful comments on parts of the collection. Invaluable secretarial support during the first year of the project was provided by my friend Ngadijono Miharjo, whilst Hamad Diab and David Dinsmore made contributions to typing at an intermediate stage. Nega Worku assisted with the preparation of the index. I am also grateful to the friends and relations who tolerated my increasing exasperation as, during the latter half of 1986, I typed the whole of the final manuscript of this book myself. Finally, I must thank the 23 authors of the papers in this collection for their participation and cooperation. Their enthusiasm has continued to fuel my own enthusiasm, and their patience since the project was first launched in 1983 has been extraordinary. Leeds, Autumn 1987

Hywel Coleman

Contents

Acknowledgements Hywel Coleman Working with language: an introduction

1 Language in operational crisis Editorial preface Donald E. Allen and Rebecca F. Guy Non-routine conversation in operational crisis 2 Language and history Editorial preface

vii

1

25 27

55

Franklin Ankersmit The use of language in the writing of history

57

3 Language training for immigrant professionals Editorial preface

83

Jill Burton Keeping language in its place 4 Relationships between language and work Editorial preface

85

107

Hywel Coleman The present and the future of work

109

5 The language of courtroom resistance Editorial preface

129

Sandra Harris Defendant resistance to power and control in court

131

Contents 6 Language and scientific work Editorial preface J.A. Large Science and the foreign-language barrier 7 The language of bureaucracy Editorial preface Victor U. Longe Civil service English in Nigeria 8 The language of drama translation Editorial preface Alan McConnell-Duff A foreign country: on the translation of stage plays 9 The language of doctors and their patients Editorial preface Joan Maclean Approaches to describing doctor-patient interviews 10 The language of medical research Editorial preface John C. Mäher Language use and preference in Japanese medical communication 11 The language of computer conversations Editorial preface Denise E. Murray When the medium determines turns: turn-taking in computer conversation 12 Testing the language of health personnel Editorial preface Donald E. Powers and Charles W. Stansfield An approach to the measurement of communicative ability in three health professions

165 169

193 195

229 231

261 263

297

299

317

319

339

341

Contents

13 Language and occupation in Bombay Editorial preface K. S. Rajyashree Languages for survival and work in the Bombay slum of Dharavi 14 Language for specific purposes Editorial preface Pauline C. Robinson An overview of English for specific purposes 15 Language in police work Editorial preface W. W. Sharrock and D.R. Watson Talk and police work: notes on the traffic in information 16 Language in the jury selection process Editorial preface RandalJ.K. Uehara and ChristopherN. Candlin The structural and discoursal characteristics of voir dire 17 The language of business negotiation Editorial preface J.M. Ulijn and Tj. R. Gor t er Language, culture and technical-commercial negotiating 18 Language and education in Peru Editorial preface Leo A. W. van Lier Puno: teacher, school and language 19 The language of nurse counsellors Editorial preface M.T. Wowk Talk in an organization: organization in talk

xi

367

369 393 395

429 431 451 453 475 479 507 509 539 541

xii

Contents

Notes on contributors

565

Bibliography

573

Author index

611

HYWEL COLEMAN

Working with language: an introduction1

This Introduction begins by presenting a justification for the nonthematic arrangement of the papers in the collection — an argument which is worked out in greater detail in later sections. In Section 2, the current state of research into language and work is reviewed. The Introduction then sets out to identify the major themes which recur throughout the collection. This begins in Section 3 with a classification first of the geographic and then of the linguistic sources of data used by the contributors. Section 4 does the same for the occupational sources of data. Finally, three major themes in the collection are identified in Section 5: boundaries, control, and technical language.

1. A note on organization

Who first invented Work — and tied the free And holy-day rejoycing spirit down To this dry drudgery of the desk's dead wood? Lamb (1905:572)

Working with Language is a collection of nineteen articles (not including this Introduction), each of which examines an aspect of language use in work contexts. The constituent elements of this collection are contributed by linguists, applied linguists and language teachers, by sociologists and sociolinguists, by an industrial engineer, a professional translator, a philosopher of history, an

2

Hywel Coleman

information scientist, a psycholinguist, and by representatives of other disciplines and occupations. The articles in the collection reflect the various concerns and methodologies of these disciplines when they study language use in work contexts. The collection is, therefore, a multidisciplinary survey, rather than an interdisciplinary synthesis. Like its predecessor, Language and Work (Coleman 1984, 1985), it has been created in the conviction that awareness of what workers in adjacent fields are doing may ultimately lead to crossfertilization. The purpose of this Introduction is to identify the principal themes which recur throughout the collection. It will be argued that, though synthesis is not feasible, it is nevertheless possible to identify a considerable number of shared topics, concerns and approaches — rather like geological strata which appear, disappear and then reappear in a cliff face. The discussion in this Introduction is supplemented by editorial comment in a preface before each article. These short editorial introductions identify additional points of coincidence or shared interests between individual papers which do not, however, constitute major themes. Because the recurrence of themes is such an important aspect of Working with Language, no attempt has been made to impose any one of these thematic concerns upon the overall organization of the volume. That is to say, the articles which constitute the collection are arranged simply in alphabetical order of their authors' names. The two-dimensional format which is the unavoidable consequence of presenting research in book form means that just one of several possible interpretations of the interrelationships between the contributions would have to be given priority if a commitment were made to a particular thematic arrangement. Consequently, detailed discussion of the interrelationships between the articles in the collection, and identification of the thematic patterns which recur in the articles together form the purpose of this Introduction. Section 2 provides a survey of the present condition of research into language and work. It is argued here that current work in this field is limited in two ways, firstly by a geographical concentration on work situations in Anglo-American society, and secondly by an occupational concentration on the professions. One of the purposes of this volume is to bring together research which is drawn from more extensive geographical and occupational sources than is customary.

Working with language: an introduction

3

In Section 3, the linguistic and geographical sources of the data employed in the various papers are discussed: this is the language element of Working with Language. Then Section 4 looks at the occupations with which the contributors to the collection deal: this is the work element. The Introduction concludes, in Section 5, with a survey of other recurrent themes, particularly a concern with borders and barriers, the issue of control, and the question of technical terminology.

2. The present condition of research into language and work

Tis a wonderful thing, sir, that men of professions do not study to talk the substance of what they have to say in the language of the rest of the world. Steele(1967:65)

In an extended discussion of the control which is exerted by the wealthier nations of Europe and North America over the world's flow of news, Jacques Decornoy (1983) observes that four-fifths of the news items passed around the world are generated by four agencies: Reuter, Associated Press, UPI and Agence France-Presse. In consequence, news items which originate from the industrialized nations of the West are far more numerous than any originating from other parts of the world. This accounts for a 'lopsidedness' in public opinion in the West. Furthermore (though Decornoy does not mention this) this domination ensures that the peoples of the developing world also have their attention firmly fixed on the dayto-day activities of the industrialized West. Decornoy does, however, suggest that there may be a parallel between the power to control the flow of news items around the world and dominance in other aspects of information exchange — particularly in the fields of biology, chemistry and medicine. On the other hand, Joshua Fishman has suggested that the field of sociolinguistics/sociology of language, at least, is becoming more cosmopolitan, less parochial, less of a 'primarily Anglo-American

4

Hywel Coleman

pursuit' (1985:115). The evidence for this lies in the number of non-English-language items pertaining to the field which are abstracted in Sociological Abstracts and Language and Language Behavior Abstracts. There is also evidence, Fishman argues, that many workers, although publishing in English, do not in fact live or work in an Anglo-American context. To what extent does current research in the field of language use in work contexts avoid the danger of parochialism? Practitioners of the discipline known as ESP (English for Specific Purposes) are often involved in research into the use of language in work, particularly when they undertake language needs analyses for pedagogical purposes. As these people are concerned with the teaching of English in work contexts, it would seem reasonable to assume that they are likely not to be working in Britain or North America. To test this hypothesis, I examined the contents of two recent volumes of the journal English for Specific Purposes. The 1985 and 1986 issues of the journal (volumes 4 and 5 respectively) contained a total of 23 articles, excluding book reviews and short research notes. (See Table 1.) Of these articles, eight were concerned with situations in the U.S.A. and the U.K., whilst a further five did not discuss specific geographical areas. The remaining papers dealt with data from the Middle East and North Africa (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, Tunisia), from the Far East (People's Republic of China, Thailand), and Latin America (Chile). At first glance, this may give the impression that research into language use in work contexts is indeed carried out in many different parts of the world. On closer inspection, however, we discover that this is not necessarily the case. Of the 23 articles examined, no fewer than fourteen dealt primarily with language use in academic contexts. These had essentially pedagogical objectives, such as facilitating students' access to English-language textbooks in situations where English is not the students' first language, or facilitating the movement of students into English-medium tertiary education systems. Overwhelmingly, then, it appears from this (admittedly very small-scale) survey that people working within the boundaries of the discipline known as ESP are in fact busying themselves most greatly with efforts aimed at encouraging the spread of Englishmedium tertiary-level education. In other words, the work of these people hardly provides evidence of a loosening of the control of the North Atlantic axis. On the contrary, it might even be argued that

Working with language: an introduction

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CONSUMERS—RATING OF PHARMACISTS

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Communicative ability in three health professions

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Table 6. Product-moment correlations of judges' ratings with TSE scores Ratings Group Pharmacists Physicians Veterinarians Consumers

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