Negotiating Social Relations: Tenor Resources in English / Y. J. Doran, J. R. Martin, Michele Zappavigna.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Doran, Y.J., Author.

Martin, J.R., Author.

Zappavigna, Michele, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 p.)

Place of Publication:

Toronto University of Toronto Press, [2025]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Every day we negotiate our social relations. This may involve small, seemingly inconsequential chats with friends, families, and colleagues that perform our relationships. Or they may involve large, communal events that bring us together or tear us apart. In all cases, we negotiate these social relations through the language, paralanguage, and related systems of meaning that we use. This book introduces a new model for analysing how people negotiate social relations through the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). It focuses on SFLs conception of social context and in particular on the interpersonal component of context known as tenor. Drawing on decades of SFL research, tenor is reworked as a resource for meaning with the aim of describing in some detail how we go about building and maintaining sociality. The book begins by considering how language varies in relation to social context and the different perspectives we can take to explore this variation. It then introduces our model of tenor as a resource for negotiating social relations. The model comprises three main systems. Positioning considers how people put forward meanings, react to them, and position each other when we talk. Orienting looks at the nature of the meanings we negotiate, attending to the vast background of shared values that underpin our talk, help us build communities, and hold them together. Tuning deals with how we raise or lower the stakes of what is being said, how we broaden or narrow the scope of what it applies to, and how we vary the spirit in which the meanings are being put forward. Taken together, these systems provide us with resources for enacting social relations as we align and disalign with people and communities of various kinds. Examples focus in particular on a range of meanings associated with motherhood, including language and paralanguage (both gesture and emoji) in spoken, written, and social media texts.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

1 Negotiating Social Relations: A Systemic Functional Perspective

1. 1 Introduction

1. 2 Language and Social Context

1. 3 Modelling Field, Mode, and Tenor

1. 4 Tenor as a Resource

1. 5 Chapter Outline

1. 6 Resource Guide

2 Negotiating Tenor: Rendering Meaning in Dialogue and Monologue

2. 1 Introduction

2. 2 Engaging in Conversation

2. 3 Negotiating Meaning

2. 4 Rendering

2. 5 Building Dialogue

2. 6 Internal and External Rendering

2. 7 Rendering Other Voices

2. 8 Negotiating Monologue

2. 9 Conclusion

3 Positioning Others: Tendering in Text

3. 1 Introduction

3. 2 Tendering Propositions and Proposals

3. 3 Open and Complete Propositions and Proposals

3. 4 Repositioning

3. 5 Purview: Speaker and Listener Positioning

3. 6 Purview in Spoken and Written Language

3. 7 Conclusion

4 Building Values: Establishing Meanings to Share

4. 1 Introduction

4. 2 Underlying Values

4. 3 Orienting Positions

4. 4 Orienting and Genre

4. 5 Conclusion

5 Tuning: Adjusting the Meanings We Share

5. 1 Introduction

5. 2 Multilogue Communication

5. 3 Guilt and Motherhood on Social Media

5. 4 Tuning Positions: Scoping, Staking, and Spiriting #momguilt

5. 5 Tuning in Dialogue

5. 6 Conclusion

6 Resources for Negotiating Social Relations

6. 1 Tenor and Systemic Functional Linguistics

6. 2 Looking Below: Tenor, Language, and Paralanguage

6. 3 Looking Around: Tenor, Field, and Mode

6. 4 Looking Above: Tenor and Genre

6. 5 Looking Across: Tenor, Social Relations, and the Social Semiotic

Glossary

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed March 17 2026)

ISBN:

9781487594985