Influential power
This is the power used to persuade and influence others.
An example of this is in a group of friends all about the same age -
A:go on
B:please try that flavour, it's really nice
A:yes, do it
C:hmm maybe
Here participant A and B have the influential power as they are trying to convince C to try something that we assume they both have. In this quote we can analyse the use of imperatives such as "go" and "do it" to show their use of commands to try and persuade the other person to try the flavour.
We can also use the mitigated imperative "please try" to show the politeness strategy possibly to show the strength of their friendship so that person C might trust them enough to do what they are trying to achieve. Next we could also comment on " it's really nice" said by A this is used as a reassurance to back up what person B said so that C would feel more confident in what they are saying .
I think this is a very good example of showing influential power as teenagers are always being influenced by their friends!
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ReplyDeleteYes, what a wonderfully tame example of peer pressure! The level of influential power A and B hold needs evaluating as it is not clear that C fully intends to try the suggested flavour - it may be clear in the rest of the transcript that "hmm maybe" is a hedged acceptance but it suggests in this excerpt that C needs more persuading, so their original gambits seem to be low on influence. Is C the more powerful participant? The suggestion that they want to please C could be inferred from the mitigation, the indirect strategy of the declarative "it's really nice" and the multiple attempts to share the experience that they (A and B) have shared... or they could be trying to dominate C and C is resisting, which also suggests a level of power.
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