Power & Language - The Apprentice

In this video, Lord Alan Sugar explains his reasons behind why he is disappointed with the three candidates sat in front of him. Lord Sugar then begins to question Edward as to his credibility in the process so far. This leads to a discussion between the two although evidently as he has the most power, Lord Sugar speaks the most and subsequently puts Edward in his place.

(From 0:58) Lord Sugar begins by putting Edward in his place, clearly illustrating exactly what he has done wrong in this task. He begins by using the sentence "One thing you need to learn in life..." The use of the pronoun 'you' in this line indicates the direction of the criticism and how Edward is being directly addressed and almost 'nominated' in a teacher-esque style. This along with the use of the verb 'learn' (which suggests a link to education and teaching) appears to be used in order to assert power as this particular phrase 'you need to learn' appears to be primarily associated with teachers disciplining students. From this, you could grasp the fact that Lord Sugar is being patronising towards Edward and upwardly diverging in order to assert his authority.

When continuing to burrow away at exactly what lead to the failure of this specific task, Lord Sugar uses repetition to interrupt Edward from speaking and override him whilst continuing to speak. We would associate one with having the most power if they say the most, therefore Lord Sugar follows this rule. He says "And you can't. But you didn't, you didn't, you didn't". The use of the pronoun 'you' (as above) followed by the repetition of the contraction 'didn't' gives Edward something to think above as Lord Sugar negatively hammers in the fact that he just 'didn't' do what he should have. The informal tone of 'didn't' does suggest a slight in power from Lord Sugar momentarily and the repetition of this in the tone in which it is delivered is rather childish diminishing any preexisting authoritative approach. Despite the childish tone, Edward is put in his place from this.

As Lord Sugar, he attempts to alienate the candidate further by explaining how he himself is an 'expert' in electronics. The noun 'expert' suggests the air on knowledge he has on the particular subject area, giving his further power over Ed. This along with the paralinguistic's of Lord Sugar's abrupt pointing towards Edward is almost frightening and belittling further diverging himself in an upwards direction.