Within the context of mailing list interaction, specifically, a list which has been constituted for the express purpose of studying its own process and group-forming mechanisms, can a participant's role perception and attitude toward other members of the group be retrieved from a consideration of features of the interpersonal metafunction? Because email interaction is almost entirely dependent on textual clues, participants come to rely on these clues both to determine and entextualise their own role and status within the group, and to make judgements about others with whom each is communicating. It is proposed that an analysis of lexicogrammatical cues realising the interpersonal metafunction of the first order context of interaction will help mark these attitudes and reader positions, and that other members' perceptions will be affected in a systematic way, which should be revealed in responses: a cycle of initiation and response will be evident within 'threads'. This dissertation will examine some of those markers of role perception centring on one post from a thread, and note whether predictions of such role perception, or stance, are evident in prior and subsequent posts in that thread, as revealed in the use of such markers of appraisal, affinity and modality. A framework for discussing possible patterns of interaction, or structural units signalled by such lexicogrammatical markers is introduced, and the concept of 'frames of coherence' is suggested. Issues of politeness, identity, and intertextuality will be raised, as well as the relationship between the mode, field, and tenor of the context of interaction as having an effect on the characterisation of the speech community in which speech events are embedded, and through which they may be understood.
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE CONTEXT OF INTERACTION: AN OVERVIEW
3. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE RELATION OF TEXT TO CONTEXT
4. EXAMPLE TEXT, ITS SELECTION, AND OUTLINE OF SOME FEATURES OF ITS CONTEXT
5. SOME PRELIMINARY FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURES EVIDENT IN THE MAIN TEXT EXAMPLE
6. THE RELEVANCE OF “FRAMING” TO MESSAGE STRUCTURE
7. A MORE DETAILED ANALYSIS OF MAIN TEXT EXAMPLE
8. CONCLUSIONS
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