Positioning Others: Tendering in Text
Negotiating Social Relations - Tenor Resources in English - Yaegan Doran
Yaegan Doran [+]
University of Sydney
J.R. Martin [+]
University of Sydney
Michele Zappavigna [+]
University of New South Wales
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Description
This chapter deals in particular with POSITIONING resources associated with tendering meanings. It shows that when we speak and write, we are not just putting forward our own feelings and positions, we are also positioning others to respond in particular ways. As we do for rendering, we explore a wide range of interpersonal resources – from the discourse semantic resources of exchange, through the lexicogrammatical resources of mood, tagging and polarity, and on through phonological resources of tone. The chapter illustrates how different types of expected responses underpin different genres we use everyday, and how they offer a range of ways for doing nuanced social positioning in both the to and fro of dialogue and the streaming of monologue. The chapter also introduces resources of the subsystems of PURVIEW, which deals with how we manage responsibility for meanings: is there shared responsibility whereby it’s expected that everyone is on the same page? Are meanings being positioned in a way that one person is asserting them regardless of the others’ views? Is responsibility being handed over to listeners to determine their own positions? Or are meanings being put out there with no expectation that anyone will necessarily be tied to them? We will see that by bring together the resources of PURVIEW with the resources of RENDERING and TENDERING we are able to see a multiplicity of interpersonal meanings that are made at all times when we speak and write, and that there is a nuanced negotiation of social relations that bubble away through all our interactions.