Tenor

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents work-in-progress on the contextual variable tenor, here reconceptualised as ‘interactant relations’ in order to explore a radically different view of the relations of the interactants to the text in context. The functions of speaker/addressee are the starting point of an exploration of interactant relations because they represent the only features with the capacity to manage a text’s processes. This view implies that speaker/addressee have the capacity to internalise communal conventions, which places them at the centre of the language process. Implications of the results of the exploration for the classification of register are proposed. The paper’s methodology extends previous work on contextual networks (see especially Hasan 2001a, 2009b, 2014, 2016).i