In lecture, we learned that the use of powerless language lowers impression of competence, trustworthiness, dynamism, social class, and message effectiveness (lecture 1/20/15). It is possible that Claire chose to use powerless language because she sees Hayley’s age group as low competent or low in dynamism. One specificity of powerless language is its use of tag questions. Tag questions are a sign of hesitancy or uncertainty associated with feminine speech; tag questions can get your conversational partner to agree with you, establishing a connection based on similar opinions. It can be assumed that Claire used this language tactic because both her and Hayley are women, and she wanted to show her daughter that they have common interests. In the scene when Hayley opens her gift, a pair of shoes, Claire automatically takes them and says, “These are cute, right?” By doing so, Claire wants to continue the causality of the conversation, but sticking to the agenda, the agenda being to create a relationship with her adult daughter
In lecture, we learned that the use of powerless language lowers impression of competence, trustworthiness, dynamism, social class, and message effectiveness (lecture 1/20/15). It is possible that Claire chose to use powerless language because she sees Hayley’s age group as low competent or low in dynamism. One specificity of powerless language is its use of tag questions. Tag questions are a sign of hesitancy or uncertainty associated with feminine speech; tag questions can get your conversational partner to agree with you, establishing a connection based on similar opinions. It can be assumed that Claire used this language tactic because both her and Hayley are women, and she wanted to show her daughter that they have common interests. In the scene when Hayley opens her gift, a pair of shoes, Claire automatically takes them and says, “These are cute, right?” By doing so, Claire wants to continue the causality of the conversation, but sticking to the agenda, the agenda being to create a relationship with her adult daughter