Janet Holmes and Tina Chiles
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195306897
- eISBN:
- 9780199867943
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306897.003.0009
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This chapter, written by Janet Holmes and Tina Chiles, examines the frequency, distribution, and function of questions in New Zealand workplace meetings. It reviews previous work on questions, ...
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This chapter, written by Janet Holmes and Tina Chiles, examines the frequency, distribution, and function of questions in New Zealand workplace meetings. It reviews previous work on questions, describes the methodology used to collect the workplace discourse discussed in this analysis, and addresses what counts as a question for the study. The authors use a taxonomy of question functions to compare the frequency and distribution of questions in New Zealand workplace meetings to their distribution in previous studies of American casual conversations between friends. With this as a background, the chapter then examines the ways in which managers use questions as control devices in workplace meetings. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the contribution of controlling questions at the microlevel, in the detailed dynamics of managing meeting discourse, and also at the macrolevel of instantiating power relations in specific communities of practice.Less
This chapter, written by Janet Holmes and Tina Chiles, examines the frequency, distribution, and function of questions in New Zealand workplace meetings. It reviews previous work on questions, describes the methodology used to collect the workplace discourse discussed in this analysis, and addresses what counts as a question for the study. The authors use a taxonomy of question functions to compare the frequency and distribution of questions in New Zealand workplace meetings to their distribution in previous studies of American casual conversations between friends. With this as a background, the chapter then examines the ways in which managers use questions as control devices in workplace meetings. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the contribution of controlling questions at the microlevel, in the detailed dynamics of managing meeting discourse, and also at the macrolevel of instantiating power relations in specific communities of practice.
