| This study analyzes and explains the linguistic strategies by which speakers achieve power in situations of conflict in Death of a Salesman, Look Back in Anger and The Caretaker. Three research questions were addressed: (1) how do dramatists convey a character's power through his/her use of language in conversations? (2) to what extent do powerful characters use politeness strategies to mitigate face threatening acts and enhance their image? (3) how do dramatists portray characters as failing to achieve power in interaction?; To analyze the play texts, Brown and Levinson's Politeness model (1978, 1987) was used supplemented by Scotton's Markedness model (1988). In addition, the selected scenes were analyzed for the occurrence of linguistic strategies typical of powerful interlocutors: advice, bald imperatives, challenges, disapprovals, interruption, inattention to prior speaker, marked stylistic choices, new topics, questions and silence. Power strategies, politeness strategies and marked choices in the speech of all participants were quantified and compared.; The findings of this study suggest that the assertion of power is a complicated process which can not merely be explained by the high frequency of use of power strategies. The success of the strategies used is dependent upon the role of the participants in the interaction, their relative power and the ensuing rights and obligations holding between them, and the response the interlocutor receives from the addressee(s).; In general powerful characters used the highest number of power strategies. Politeness strategies were used by powerful speakers but with lower frequency than power strategies, particularly in situations where a participant wanted to convince or persuade others. Powerful speakers did not necessarily use fewer politeness strategies than speakers of low power. Characters failed to achieve power when they over-used either power or politeness strategies in a manner inconsistent with the expected code choice associated with their role.; The analysis of drama can be enriched by a quantitative analysis using current models of socio-pragmatics and/or discourse analysis. This empirical, interactive approach equips the critic with explanatory power, thus helping to account for the way certain characters are perceived both by other characters in the plays and by readers/viewers. |
