How is power expressed through language in Text I?

Text I is a transcript of a speech spoken by a head teacher who is addressing the parents of pupils who are due to start at her secondary school in the coming academic year. The type of speech is personal and the power being shown is influential. She is not attempting to be instructive or instrumental, but is influencing the parents and persuading them that they made the right decision in making their child attend that school.

In terms of agenda setting, the head teacher has the control and although the text just displays the beginning of her speech, we can assume that she opens and closes the speaking – this represents her authority. There are no interruptions which show that she has constant power throughout the speech and no one attempts to speak so she has the only turn. She uses many of Grice’s Maxims throughout speaking. For example, she uses the Maxim of quantity so she informs the audience, “there’s something called Fischer Family Trust and that is a measure which is set by the Government.” She also uses genuine facts and statistics so uses the Maxim of quality, as well as the Maxim of relevance. When considering Brown and Levinson’s Face Theory, she has a positive face because she wants to be liked by the parents and by doing so she is ensuring them their children will achieve their best at the school.

The speaker uses lots of pronouns which is suitable for representing her personal power and establishes a union with the audience by using words such as “we”. The head teacher appears confident and displays this through repetition, “we’re all ready for them and we’re ready for them to come back.” She often highlights the popularity of the school with facts such as “we had two hundred and eighty five people applied to us as their first choice.” However there are some errors in her speech, for instance the quotation just shown. She sometimes misses out certain words and uses fillers such as “er” and “erm”. Although fillers are a natural display of spontaneous speech, she may be slightly nervous about giving her speech and therefore her amount of power decreases. Another factor that undermines her power is the mention of the council and government which reminds the audience that she isn’t the highest person in power and she is under the control of additional parties.

Her main reason for giving the speech is to encourage the parents that their children will succeed at her school, and attempts to encourage them in a friendly manner by using an anecdote where she mentions she is a mother which gives more evidence for the parents. Her formal style of speaking is essential for establishing power, as well as her developed English which makes her seem intelligent.