Andrew Moore

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/occupation.htm


We can understand forms

• in an explicit sense as those kinds of activity that we can name (job interview, team briefing, disciplinary tribunal, conference, marriage ceremony) or
• in a looser descriptive sense (discussing a problem, telling a manager about an incident, asking an expert for guidance).

Here are some general functions of language in occupational contexts:

• communicating information
• requesting help
• confirming arrangements
• instructing employees or colleagues to do something
• making things happen or enacting them

Activity - understanding forms and functions of talk

You should be aware of phatic tokens. These (described below) are ways of showing status by orienting comments to oneself, to the other, or to the general or prevailing situation (in England this is usually the weather).

Lexicon - a vocabulary that is specific to the occupation generally


 There will be

• forms used only in the occupation, or
• forms in the common lexicon but used with meanings which are special to the occupation: justify means very different things to a printer or typesetter and to a priest.