Legitimating Tenor Relationships
Affiliation and Alignment in Written Interaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v5i3.303Keywords:
affiliation, alignment, attitude, interpersonal positioning, legitimation, negotiation, tenorAbstract
This paper discusses the way that verbal behaviour may be responded to in ways that serve to position interactants along a number of interpersonal dimensions. These dimensions are collectively referred to as Tenor by Systemic Functional Linguistics: Contact (affiliation), Status (reciprocity), and Axiology (alignment). Through publicly signalling dis/alignment, responses can also act to ratify or legitimate the verbal behaviour and hence contribute to the negotiation over time of group practices or 'norms', as well as individual 'identities' within the group. Several excerpts from an electronically-mediated written conversation are discussed using a set of Tenor dimensions which reference positions either 'latent' and/or 'emerging' in the discourse community. Interpersonal positioning effected in the texts may be thereby tracked as unfolding logogenetically within each text, and as developing normed behaviour phylogenetically within the discourse community in the study – as well as in other contexts of interaction. The interpersonal (tenor) dimensions referred to here are partially activated through the use of the resources of Appraisal - Attitude and their targets in particular - and therefore the discussion highlights several evaluative elements in the texts.
References
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Martin, J. R. and White, P. R. R. (2005) The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave.
Poynton, C. (1985) Language and Gender: Making the Difference. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
White, P.R.R. (1997) Telling media tales: The news story as rhetoric. Unpublished Phd thesis: Department of Linguistics, Sydney University.
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Bateson, G. B. (1972/2000) Culture contact and schismogenesis. In G. Bateson (ed.) Steps to an Ecology of Mind, 64–71. Reprinted Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Bednarek, M. and J. R. Martin (eds) (2010) New Discourse on Language. London and New York: Continuum.
Bernstein, B. (1996/2000) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. London and Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis. Reprinted Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
Brown, P. and Stephen Levinson (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005) Identity and interaction: A sociocultural approach. Discourse Studies 7 (4–5): 585–614. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407
Don, A. C. (2001) Participating in mailing lists: Boundaries and identity. Unpublished position paper. Available http://www.grammatics.com/lexi_con/lexis-text/boundaries.html
Don, A. C. (2007) A Framework for the investigation of interactive norms and the construction of textual identity in written discourse communities: The case of an email list. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K. Available http://www.grammatics.com/lexi_con/lexistext/thesis/donacPhD.html
Don, A. C. (2008) An approach to the analysis of textual identity through profiles of evaluative disposition. ASFLA 2007 Proceedings. Available http://www.asfla.org.au/category/ asfla2007/
Eckert, P. and McConnell-Ginet, S. (1998) Communities of practice: Where language, gender, and power all live. In J. Coates (ed.) Language and Gender: A Reader, 484–494. Oxford: Blackwell.
Eggins, S. and Diana Slade (1997) Analysing Casual Conversation. London and Washington, DC: Cassell.
Englebretson, R. (ed.) (2007) Stancetaking in Discourse. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Fairclough, N. (1992) Discourse and Social Change. London: Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. (2003) Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London and New York: Routledge.
Goffman, E. (1981) Forms of Talk. Oxford: Blackwell
Halliday, M.A. K. (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd edn). London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. and R. Hasan (1985/89) Language, Context and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-semiotic Perspective. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press. Reprinted London: Oxford University Press.
Halliday, M. A. K. and C. Matthiessen (1999) Construing Experience Through Meaning. London and New York: Cassell.
Iedema, Rick A. M. (1998) Institutional responsibility and hidden meanings. Discourse & Society 9 (4): 481–500. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009004004
Iedema, Rick A. M. and Ruth Wodak (1999). Introduction: Organisational discourses and practices. Discourse & Society 10 (1): 5–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926599010001001
Johnstone, B. (2007) Linking identity and dialect through stancetaking. In R. Englebretson (ed.) Stancetaking in Discourse, 49–68. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Knight, N. (2010) Wrinkling complexity: Concepts of identity and affiliation in humour, in M. Bednarek and J. R. Martin (eds) New Discourse on Language, 35–58. London and New York: Continuum.
Locher, M. A. (2004) Power and Politeness in Action: Disagreements in Oral Communication. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783110926552
MacDonald, M. N. (2002) Pedagogy, pathology and ideology: The production, transmission and reproduction of medical discourse. Discourse & Society 13 (4): 447–467. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926502013004453
Martin, J. R. (2000) Beyond exchange: APPRAISAL systems in English. In S. Hunston and G. Thompson (eds) Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and the Construction of Discourse, 142–175. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Martin, J. R. (1992) English Text: System and Structure. Philadelphia, PA and Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Martin, J. R. (2010) Semantic variation: Modelling realisation, instantiation and individuation in social semiosis. In M. Bednarek and J. R. Martin (eds) New Discourse on Language, 1–34. London and New York: Continuum.
Martin, J. R. and Rose, D. (2003) Working with Discourse: Meaning Beyond the Clause. London and New York: Continuum.
Martin, J. R. and White, P. R. R. (2005) The Language of Evaluation: Appraisal in English. London: Palgrave.
Poynton, C. (1985) Language and Gender: Making the Difference. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
White, P.R.R. (1997) Telling media tales: The news story as rhetoric. Unpublished Phd thesis: Department of Linguistics, Sydney University.
White, P. R. R. (website) An Outline of Appraisal. [available: http://www.grammatics.com/ appraisal ]
Williams, Ross (2002) unpublished paper: The dynamics of shaming in an email list. [retrieved 1/9/2009 from http://www.lingo.info/eldon/Shaming.pdf]
Published
2012-02-07
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Don, A. (2012). Legitimating Tenor Relationships: Affiliation and Alignment in Written Interaction. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 5(3), 303-327. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.v5i3.303
