Functions of Language - Volume 24, Issue 1, 2017

This paper elaborates on one element of the theory of Dialogic Syntax, Du Bois’ main tool for stance-taking, namely creative resonance. The examples are taken from a recording of a car ride which was part of data collected for the analysis of Hebrew. The focus in the analysis is on misalignment, when participants use stance acts to distance themselves from each other. The main claim of this paper is that whenever a stance act takes place, the relations between the participants are at stake. I show how creative, and to a lesser extent pre-existing, resonance can be used for creating and enhancing distance in misalignment. The discussion connects resonance and Dialogic Syntax with other frameworks for the study of language and interactions.

This paper explores the ways in which speakers exchange information about themselves, and the world around them, in order to create an optimal social space in which interaction and engagement may be successfully accomplished. Success, in turn, the paper argues, depends on speakers making communicative gestures that involve the expression of certain aspects of their inner world: their preferences, attitudes, interests, beliefs, characterizations, points of view, values, assessments, likes, dislikes, and related notions that are rooted in how they feel about the world. Drawing from multi-party conversational data, the paper argues that resonance is one of the most productive outlets for the construction of ordinary evaluative/emotive stances. In fact, it is through the social practice of resonance itself that the amorphous and subtle nature of affect and emotions takes shape. The utterances that are selected for resonance, the subsequent resonant patterns, and the frequency in which the pattern is reproduced in order to secure the intended meaning are also briefly addressed in the paper.

This paper investigates how actively the speaker engages in taking stance at various levels in oral narrative. By using Du Bois’ (2007) stance theory, it shows that the meta-stance marker well, a discourse marker that performs the management of stance relations in conversational interaction ( Sakita 2013a ), plays a significant role in oral narrative as well. Well marks two central modes of stance-taking in a narrative. First, well manages the changes of local-spectrum stance-taking that occur among the utterances of/about characters or of the speakers who speak in their immediate, locally shared consciousness. Second, well typically manages the narrator’s broad-spectrum stance-taking with respect to the narrative event as a coherent whole. The latter corresponds to the use of well that is claimed to be unique for the context of the narrative ( Norrick 2001 ). However, this paper shows that well in both local- and broad-spectrum scope functions as a meta-stance marker by managing stance relations. The paper demonstrates that stance is often embedded and effectively highlighted in resonance ( Du Bois 2014 ), both in dialogic and monologic contexts.

This paper traces the recurrence and manipulation of devices in monologic narrative texts produced by university students based on a semi-structured elicitation. It focuses on a detailed analysis of multiple texts produced by different speaker-writers of Hebrew, to illustrate the function of structural resonance of both clauses and combinations of clauses (Clause Packages). The analyses show that while lexical devices reflect a more distanced (less evaluative) discourse stance ( Berman 2005 ), the use of creative resonance ( Du Bois 2014 ) between syntactic structures can either enhance or undermine the narrator’s own explicit perspective on events. Stance is thus not only highlighted by resonance in monologic texts (Sakita this issue); in fact, stance is engaged with in a way that is very similar to what has been illustrated for dialogue (Dori-Hacohen this issue; Dutra this issue; Nir & Zima this issue). It is suggested that the power of this engagement can be fully assessed only if lexical and syntactic resonance are systematically analyzed.