Date of Award

1-1-2000

Thesis Type

PhD

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Languages and Linguistics

Department

-

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

This is a study on genre as a social process in relation to the role of the executive secretary in the business environment. The study examines the way in which linguistics, drawn into the realm of the social sciences, serves as a 'tool' for the analysis of the role of the executive secretary in a business organization. The study provides evidence on how language, emerging from the context and linguistic symbols, shapes persons and behaviour in the work environment of the executive secretary. The focus is on talk interactions of the executive secretary in naturally occurring circumstances. The main talk interactions are with the head of the organization and the company staff. In addition, there are the 'outsiders' of the organization who are considered as external contacts. The qualitative analysis enables a holistic interpretation of language use in the work place. The data is drawn from four companies. The methods employed for data collection are face-to-face interviews, periods of observation at the research site, field notes and audio-recordings. The data provides for the ethnographic descriptions. Effort has been made to use methods of triangulation to address the issue of the validity of the data. The analysis of the genres that evolved in the talk interactions provides substantial evidence that the executive secretary, aligned with the head of the organization, plays a significant role in the social processes of the business organization.

Initial

snms

Additional Information

Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2000.

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