Words and Actions Words and Actions

Wait a minute. Why does ‘corporate consultant’ sound more prestigious than ‘business consultant’? Or does it? Do they mean the same thing? How does organizational communication differ from corporate or business communication? And what topics, genres and text types should textbooks on communication in these settings tackle when the genres themselves are blended? Welcome to the challenges of three authors revising a textbook on the power of language in business(?), now turned into a podcast episode and made even more interesting with Wittgenstein and Jonathan Clifton joining the writing table. Tune in if you want answers and more questions on the language game as we are playing it.

For more information, references and a full transcript please visit our website: wordsandactions.blog  
In this episode on business (or is it corporate?) communication textbooks, we cannot help mention the one we wrote ourselves and are currently revising. The first edition of Language in Business, Language at Work is available here.
ChatGPT answered Bernard’s question “Is there a difference between business communication and corporate communication?”: 
“Yes, there is a distinction between business communication and corporate communication, although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. The differences lie in their scope, focus, and the context in which they are applied:

Business Communication:
    • Scope: Business communication is a broader term that encompasses all types of communication within a business environment. This includes communication between employees, between different departments, with customers, and with external stakeholders.
    • Focus: Business communication focuses on the day-to-day exchange of information, ideas, and messages to facilitate the smooth functioning of a business. It includes various forms of communication, such as emails, memos, reports, meetings, and presentations.
    • Audience: The audience for business communication can be internal (within the organization) or external (outside the organization), and the content can range from operational details to marketing messages.
Corporate Communication:
    • Scope: Corporate communication is a subset of business communication that specifically deals with the communication strategies and activities of an organization as a whole. It involves managing and conveying a consistent corporate identity and message.
    • Focus: Corporate communication is strategic and often focuses on shaping the public image of the organization, maintaining a positive reputation, and managing relationships with external stakeholders, such as investors, customers, the media, and the public.
    • Audience: The primary audience for corporate communication is often external stakeholders, but it also includes internal stakeholders. It aims to create a favorable perception of the company and ensure that its values and messages align with its overall business goals.

We also searched for the phrases ‘business communication’, ‘corporate communication’ and ‘organizational communication’ in large corpora of American and British English in general. Here is part of concordance (see glossary) from the British National Corpus 2014.

Still in the introduction, we then look at a critique of economic textbooks, drawing on the work of our interview guest from episode 26 (the language of corporate social responsibility Part 2): Stibbe, A. (2020). Ecolinguistics and economics: The power of language to build worlds. WEA Commentaries, 10(3), 2-7. In the  interview, Jonathan Clifton challenges the idea that “in a court of law, or in a civil court, whosoever is right is going to win, and whosoever is wrong is going to lose”. Instead he says, success depends on “how successful lawyers or defendants or witnesses, expert witnesses can marshal resources to make a convincing argument”. This echoes a scene in the film Anatomy o

Raves, poker nights and Marvel movies – no costs or effort were spared in this final episode on CSR to raise awareness about one of the most pervasive manifestations of discrimination: accentism. In the presence of experts, we uncover what is hidden beneath the surface, and just when we thought we would never judge someone based on the sound waves they produce, we dare(d) ourselves and you to eat the pudding…
 
Long Notes:
More information, a full transcript and academic references on wordsandactions.blog.
We start episode 28 by critically reflecting on anti-discrimination efforts in the workplace, which, unless they change the organisational culture, all too often do not have the desired or even an adverse effect. We then move on to the notion of intersectionality, which linguist and writer Kat Gupta has likened to a deck of cards.
The fascinating finding that feelings of non-belonging are neurologically similar to physical pain is reported here:
Eisenberger, N. I. (2012). The pain of social disconnection: examining the shared neural underpinnings of physical and social pain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(6), 421-434.
Moving on to the language aspect of workplace discrimination, Bernard entions Erin Carrie’s  and Rob Drummond’s Accentism Project, which, among other things, is a real treasure trove of testimonials.  
For a light touch, we look at how film characters are stereotyped through their accents - who could forget Babs and Rocky from Chicken Run?
In another corner of the cinematic universe, the villain with a British Received Pronunciation accent is so common that he has sparked parodies in advertising. In real life, however, this particular accent is nearly extinct:
Lindsey, G. (2019). English after RP: Standard British pronunciation today. Springer.
Linguistic stereotyping and accentism can have harsh consequences, for how competent someone is perceived to be to how much investor money they can attract or the severity of court sentence
Our second guest, Annelise Ly, mentions the metaphor of culture as an onion with layers. This idea goes back to Geert Hofstede’s work on national cultures in the workplace:
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s Consequences: International differences in work-related values. London: Sage.
While still influential, Hofstede’s work has been the subject of much criticism, and other metaphors have been proposed:
Fang, T. (2005). From “onion” to “ocean”: Paradox and change in national cultures. International Studies of Management & Organization, 35(4), 71-90.
In the final part of the episode, we use Mats Deutschmann’s RAVE resource to test our own stereotypes around accents. Mats and his colleague Anders Steinvall have written about how to use the resource to counter prejudice: 
Deutschmann, M., & Steinvall, A. (2020). Combatting linguistic stereotyping and prejudice by evoking stereotypes. Open Linguistics, 6(1), 651-671.
We encourage you to give it a go yourself, it’s quite an eye-opener.

ChatGPT & company are here to stay. And so are linguists. Find out why in our exploration of the capabilities and shortcomings of generative AI and how it will affect the competences of lecturers, students and practitioners in business communication and beyond. Via tricks and tips on how to integrate these powerful text production tools in and outside the classroom, W&A once again underscores the crucial importance of language awareness and the human touch in the digital era. The discussion will take us past proper prompt engineering,  output analysis, digital sweatshops and critical citizenship.
You can find more information, references and a full transcript on wordsandactions.blog. In this episode we mention a number of  language-related AI applications, including DALL-E, which generates images from language prompts; Scite, which identifies references supporting or questioning research findings; ELSA, which stands for English Language Speech assistant and is meant to help language learners; Wordtune, which can rewrite texts i different “tones”; and the codings apps Copilot and CodeWhisperer, which convert language inputs into code. 
Some examples of how the AI-powered version of the Bing search engine produces answers that are troubling or face-threatening are mentioned in this article. 
Our interview guest, Andreas van Cranenburgh, refers to how OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, uses low-paid content moderators in developing countries, often exposing them to traumatic content. This practice was described in Time Magazine.  
Following the interview, we talk about how the notion of communicative competence needs to be extended for interactions with chatbots.  Hymes’ original formulation of communicative competence dates from six years after the first ever chatbot, Eliza, was developed. (It is not known if he was aware of it.) The creator of that application, Joseph Weizenbaum, named it after Eliza Doolittle, the character in Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion (later made into the musical and film My Fair Lady). In that modern take on the Greek myths of the sculptor Pygmalion, who falls in love with one of his statues, a linguistics professor teaches a working-class woman how to sound upper-class. Are chatbots the malleable female creations of male developers? And why does Erika, a female user, think of ChatGPT as a man? As they say, there is a paper in that. 
And finally, here is the ChatGPT-generated text we analyse in the last part of the episode:
Dear [Customer Name],
Thank you for reaching out to us. We understand that high energy prices can be frustrating and we want to help. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Our company's energy prices are affected by a number of factors, including changes in the global energy market and increasing demand for energy. However, we are committed to finding ways to help our customers manage their energy costs.
We recommend some simple steps to conserve energy, such as turning off lights when they're not in use, adjusting your thermostat, and using energy-efficient appliances. Additionally, we offer a number of energy-saving programs that could help you save money on your energy bills.
We value your feedback and appreciate your loyalty. If you have any further concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Best regards,
[Your name] 

Our next episode will conclude the mini-series in CSR - see you then!

Prepare to meet some ignorant pigs and silly cows in our second episode on CSR... Together with an expert in ecolinguistics, we will explore the discursive construction of our ideology-laden relationship to nature (and animals in particular!) via the analysis of presuppositions and metaphors, going from tepid COP27 implementation plans on global heating to Chinese self-serving CSR reporting. It will become painfully clear how and why language matters and you'll find out more about your ecosomatic awareness. 
 
As always, you can find more information, references to research and a full transcript on https://wordsandactions.blog. In the introduction, we mention the Yale Programme for Climate. Its most recent survey of  on public attitudes to climate change dates from 2022 and includes the following two maps. The different colours indicates the percentage of the population thinking that climate change will have a direct impact on them.
The article on metaphors in climate change discourse is
Atanasova, D., & Koteyko, N. (2017). Metaphors in Guardian Online and Mail Online opinion-page content on climate change: War, religion, and politics. Environmental Communication, 11(4), 452-469.
This article gives a good overview of war metaphors more generally: 
Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T., & Thibodeau, P. H. (2018). War metaphors in public discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 33(1), 1-18.
We also talk about a chapter in the following book: 
Goatly, A. (2007). Washing the Brain: Metaphor and hidden ideology. Benjamins.
The cue for our discussion about presuppositions in proverbs about pigs is taken from this article by our interview guest: 
Stibbe, A. (2003). As charming as a pig: The discursive construction of the relationship between pigs and humans. Society & Animals, 11(4), 375-392.
The origin of the German phrase ‘Schwein gehabt’ meaning having been lucky is not entirely clear, but may go back to a mediaeval custom to give a pig as a consolation prize to someone who had lost in a competition. 
The idea that pigs are filthy is also expressed in the film Pulp Fiction (1994), where animals consumed by humans are compared to pets. The different ways in which humans relate to animals are put into stark contrast in this row of shops in a small English town.
Our discussion of presuppositions draws on 
Polyzou, A. (2015). Presupposition in discourse: Theoretical and methodological issues. Critical Discourse Studies, 12(2), 123-138.
Our interview guest, Arran Stibbe, is the founder of the International Ecolinguistics Association and runs a free online course called The Stories We Live By. During the interview, Veronika mentions Buy Nothing Day in Britain, which is on the last Friday in November (but feel free to buy nothing on any day of the year!). 
The seminal work in ecofeminism was
Daly, M. (1978). Gyn/Ecology: The metaethics of radical feminism. Beacon Press. 
while a recent article focuses on the language angle is 
Appleby, R., & Pennycook, A. (2017). Swimming with sharks, ecological feminism and posthuman language politics. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 14(2-3), 239-261.
In the analysis part of the episode, we report on the work on CSR reporting by a number of researchers from China. We mention some recent work that a previous interview guest, Matteo Fuoli, has done with Annika Beelitz, on the discourse of energy companies
In the analysis part of the episode, we report on the work on CSR reporting by a number of researchers from China. We mention some recent work that a previous interview guest, Matteo Fuoli, has done with Annika Beelitz, on the discourse of energy companies.  
Fuoli, M. and Beelitz, A. (2022). Framing the path to net zero: A corpus analysis of carbon disclosures by the world’s largest corporate emitters, 2011-2020. Paper presented at the 6th Corpora and Discourse international conference. 26-28 August, Bertinoro/Italy.
The text we analyse is the 2021 CSR repor

All good things come in threes. Or more. Add a Chief Sustainability Officer, a body positive Barbie doll,  a purple inclusive M&M and an actual expert in applied ethics and you get a lively discussion on true colours, washings and genuine CSR efforts in the first episode of our new mini-series (it comes in threes) on corporate social responsibility. Have a listen and find out more, including how energy companies account for their profits and your bills via legitimisation strategies.
 
More information about the podcast and  a full transcript can be found on wordsandactions.blog. In this episode early in the introduction, Erika cites two definitions. She first cites the definition of sustainability in a 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and Development (a sub-organisation of the United Nations) called “Our Common Future”. It can be found here. The second definition is on corporate social responsibility and taken from the website Investopedia. 

The examples we give of CSR in action, including attempts that backfired, are body-positive Barbie dolls, the “inclusive” and desexualised M&M candy figures and a now (in)famous Benetton advert. The latter is  reproduced in Erika’s and Veronika’s textbook Language in Business, Language at Work (Macmillan Higher Education, 2018; the second edition will have Bernard as the third author. Still in the introduction, we also mention this article on the social responsibility of business, the reference to which can be found on our website. 
Every summer, the Pride season in Western countries now comes with many examples of “pinkwashing”, where companies claim to be queer-friendly, but either don’t have relevant policies or even have practices that go against LGBT equality. Some examples from 2022 can be found here. 
Towards the end of the introduction, Veronika talks about legitimation as a discourse strategy, based on these works by van Leeuwen and Reyes.
We then proceed to the interview with Garrath Williams. On the links between ‘responsible’ and ‘response’, the Oxford English Dictionary has the following to say (shortened – the OED has lots of detail):
Etymology: responssable, ressponsable, Anglo-Norman and Middle French responsable answerable, entitled to an answer …, answerable, required to answer …, that responds, that constitutes a reply (15th cent.), apparently respōns- , past participial stem of respondēre respond v. … probably respōnsāre to reply 
While we mention but do not elaborate on the Drink Responsibly campaign in the UK, someone else has, in a 2014 report on alcohol and the night-time economy. 
During our analysis of the ExxonMobil press release, we wonder if the company has a Chief Sustainability Officer. The answer is no but it has had an external sustainability advisory panel since 2009. 
 
In episode 26, we’ll talk about language and the environment – see you then!

Are you one of those people who is always tricked into doing or buying things you don’t want? Do you want to find out how they do it or how to do it yourself? You’re in luck! If you listen to this episode, you will find out all about it! You will even get free access to all the other W&A episodes on language in business, politics and beyond and you’ll discover that your current annoyance and reluctance by reading this is caused by genre awareness. Do it now or regret it later! #hardselltacticsshamelesslybroughttoyoubuyW&A.  
The episode, as always, is accompanied by a blog post on wordsandactions.blog, where we publish additional resources, and importantly for this episode, the images we discuss. 
In this episode on ‘selling, hard and soft and everything in between’, we want to raise advertising literacy by showing and identifying how language and semiotics are used in marketing to influence people’s buying behaviour. In the introductory chat, it soon becomes obvious that advertising is everywhere in different shapes and forms and that all three hosts have succumbed to it: we even shamelessly do it on the podcast itself (can you spot all instances?) and we have to admit to having bought clothes, paintbrushes and ice-cream ourselves, fuelled by subtle and less subtle advertising. In the introduction, Erika refers to Arran Stibbe’s work, in which he analyses the discourse in textbooks on economics. We then move on to elusive types of advertising, where the genre is bended and blended with others so it is harder to spot. Veronika starts with an example of so-called native advertising. Later, Bernard mentions the study below about the phenomenon:
Apostol, N.-E. (2020). What is known about native advertising in editorial contexts? A descriptive literature review. Journal of Media Research 37, 59-81.
Veronika also refers to product placement and illustrates how the appearance of the Ray-Ban Aviator sunglasses in the Tom Cruise blockbusters Top Gun and Maverick boosted sales (and US Navy applications). 
Non-conventional and blended advertisements are often referred to with blended (or ‘portmanteau’) words as well: advertorials, infomercials, shopatainment. The last of these includes live sellers on video channels. A recent MA dissertation at Lancaster University addresses the phenomenon from a language point of view
Tan, K. (2021). A corpus-based analysis on the language in Chinese livestream sales. MA dissertation, Lancaster University. 
This case study of one live seller shows that, unsurprisingly, verbs and nouns closely related to purchase and discount are frequently used in livestream sales (‘buy’, ‘get’, ‘coupon’). In addition, live sellers use evaluative nouns (‘beauties’) and personal pronouns like ‘everybody’, ‘we’, etc. to address the customers. Repetitions or interactions with audiences can also be noticed. Hard and soft advertising strategies are applied in livestream sales together, to attract and persuade customers.
In the run-down of advertising types, we also refer to basic distinctions that are often made, such as hard selling and soft selling (see title of this episode) and reason vs. tickle, which are also covered in Bernstein’s and Cook’s works. Bernard refers to the typical features of hard selling as the very recognizable aggressive tactics that centralise the product and its features and benefits, while playing on the scarcity principle and fear of missing out. Veronika’s son, Feranmi Ayo Omoniyi, would like to be given full credit for all his research into hard-selling tactics in computer games – thank you! 
Erika mentions that soft selling plays more on emotions, stories, atmosphere and associations, with the possessor reflecting the possessed. Still in the introduction, we also mention Bhatia’s colony of promotional genres, which features both central and more peripheral members. We then move on to the interview with Joe McVeigh, who is