| This study explores what ROLE means linguistically by analyzing the talk of a husband and wife who take turns leading the discussion of a book in a small, long-standing church-related discussion group. The study approaches analysis from a frames perspective, and identifies and examines in depth the stances and footings the Leader adopts while leading the discussion.; In each strip of talk they utter, the Leaders carry out one of the tasks they perform in the role of Leader, such as raising topics from the book, leading discussion on the topics, and focusing the group's attention on them. These strips of talk are functional in nature; they are also metacommunicative, displaying to the other participants what the Leader thinks is going on at the moment. The talk, therefore, reveals the footing the Leader is adopting at that time. These footings (such as Spokesperson, Evaluator, and Clarifier) can be differentiated by the function, content, and form of the talk, and the grounding of the Leader's authority.; In performing footings, the Leaders take several stances, where STANCE is defined as orientation to one or more local resources: the book being discussed, the self (the Leader as a biographical person), and the group. Because the Leader can orient to one or multiple resources, six stances are identified.; This study shows linguistically (some of) what it means to be a leader. The primary focus is on the footings the Leaders adopt as they lead the discussion, the function and characteristics of each footing, and evidence for the stance the footing is in.; The study closes with a statement of why the theoretical model developed and used here for analyzing the Leaders' talk---determining the stances taken, and the footings adopted---is a useful tool. The model allows the analyst to see differences between footings that might seem the same, the similarities between others that seem disparate, and any possible polysemy. |
