CLASS DISCUSSION: Interpersonal (meta)discourse in social genres Article: “Dialogic voices of writers and readers in traveller forums through Interpersonality”, by Suau-Jiménez, F., 2014. Sections: 2.2 (Tourism and the traveller forum), 5 (Analysis), 6 (Discussion and conclusion) 1. Where does the concept of voice come from and how is it originally defined by White (2003)? - The notion of voice comes from the field of literature inasmuch all writings have at least one voice and, at times, several ones, situating users contextually, culturally and historically. White claims that by means of voice, especially stance, “the interpersonal functionality of discourse explains how language construes social roles and relationships and the potential of language to operate rhetorically”. 2. How does Hyland (2008) apply the concept of voice to metadiscourse? Explain it in your own words, through his quotation (Hyland 2008:6) - He explained that voice is achieved through self-representation in a discursive community but we still have the choice on how we want to be perceived based on our register. 3. Explain in your own words why VOICE can also characterize genres and why does AUTHORITY derive from it. - Voice characterizes genres based on how stance and engagement behave in a dialogic interaction. The authority derived from the voice attempt to explain functions realized through stance like evaluation, evidentiality, tentativeness and possibility expressed by authorial self-mention and hedges and reporting verbs in an academic writing. 4. What happens in Traveler Forums in terms of VOICE? - There are various voices through different random markers and strategies used by the participants. The conversation does not only involve two people exchanging discourse. It is a polylogue. 5. How many voices can we distinguish in Conversation thread no.1 and, thus, how can we call such interactional conversation in Traveler Forums? - Three voices. It is called a polylogue. 6. What are WREADERS? Explain their relation to Stance and Engagement. - WREADERS are those who are readers and writers at the same time in an interaction. In relation to stance and management, as the writers previous responses they create new viewpoints based on the interaction and altogether form stance and engagement voices. 7-10. Can you provide a characterization of a Forum genre? (communicative purpose, conversational structure, voices, interactants, pragmatic strategies, interpersonal metadiscourse markers? Why is it so important socially? - Communicative purpose: share information through peer-solidarity Conversational structure: asymmetrical Interactants: lay people Pragmatic studies: advertising, evaluating, persuading, exchanging information Interpersonal markers: Stance It is important socially because most people rely more on these forums for information rather than on advertisements and promotions.
