Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity, evaluation, interaction(164 Pragmatics & Beyond New Series)

This volume contributes to the burgeoning field of research on stance by offering a variety of studies based in natural discourse. These collected papers explore the situated, pragmatic, and interactional character of stancetaking, and present new models and conceptions of stance to spark future research. Central to the volume is the claim that stancetaking encompasses five general principles: it involves physical, attitudinal and/or moral positioning; it is a public action; it is inherently dialogic, interactional, and sequential; it indexes broader sociocultural contexts; and it is consequential to the interactants. Each paper explores one or more of these dimensions of stance from perspectives including interactional linguistics and conversation analysis, corpus linguistics, language description, discourse analysis, and sociocultural linguistics. Research languages include conversational American English, colloquial Indonesian, and Finnish. The understanding of stance that emerges is heterogeneous and variegated, and always intertwined with the pragmatic and social aspects of human conduct.

Table of Contents:
1. Acknowledgements; 2. Stancetaking in discourse: An introduction (by Englebretson, Robert); 3. Using a corpus to investigate stance quantitatively and qualitatively (by Hunston, Susan); 4. Linking identity and dialect through stancetaking (by Johnstone, Barbara); 5. Grammatical resources for social purposes: Some aspects of stancetaking in colloquial Indonesian conversation (by Englebretson, Robert); 6. Subjective and intersubjective uses of generalizations in English conversations (by Scheibman, Joanne); 7. The stance triangle (by Du Bois, John W.); 8. The role of I guess in conversational stancetaking (by Karkkainen, Elise); 9. Stance markers in spoken Finnish: Minun mielesta and minusta in assessments (by Rauniomaa, Mirka); 10. Stancetaking as an interactional activity: Challenging the prior speaker (by Keisanen, Tiina); 11. Positioning and alignment as activities of stancetaking in news interviews (by Haddington, Pentti); 12. Name index; 13. Subject index

Review :
This volume offers an inspiring corpus-based exploration into the intriguing concept of stance in a variety of discourse in context. [...] marked by its theoretical and methodological diversification, the collection makes a noticeable contribution to understanding how stance is taken in interactions. [...] On the whole, it enhances our general ability to appreciate the notion of stance by highlighting its interactional nature. [...] this volume is a rich, even indispensable reference for those who are interested in the way that stancetaking plays out in, and is consequential for, interaction. Its many chapters drive home the crucial point that stance is one of the primary building blocks of joint social action: stance are taken, projected and retroactively assigned across speaker turns. Stance differentials - the subtle work of alignment and disalignment - are hugely productive focuses for international analysis of talk. [...] this volume [...] is an indispensable companion to every stance scholar. [...] The interpretations and understandings concerning stance and stancetaking discussed in the book are highly relevant beyond language boundaries, and the volume offers an insightful guidebook to what stance is, how it creates social meanings and how it could be studied. This volume is a must-have for any researcher engaged with stancetaking as a field of inquiry. It is also highly relevant to any researcher concerned with the function of language and the role that context plays in interpreting function. [...] if stance continues to be a fruitful field of inquiry, the papers in this volume will likely find their way into most reference lists.