Interactional practices and linguistic resources
of stance taking in spoken English

This research project, most active between 2002-2005 but spanning a longer time period, focuses on a prevalent interactional phenomenon, the articulation and differentiation of stance as a joint intersubjective activity between discourse participants.

We expand the organizational domains relevant for understanding 'stance', by adding to the range of linguistic and interactional resources that can be used by participants in talk-in-interaction for displaying and taking stances. Our focus has been on 'stance taking' rather than stance as a single speaker's concept. Stance taking is an activity that is essentially dialogic, interactive, and intersubjective in nature: co-participants frequently engage in jointly constructing and negotiating their stances, in connection with various social actions and over topically coherent or goal-coherent courses of action.

The project has been carried out in cooperation between the Department of English in Oulu and the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). The Oulu research group involves five researchers:

Project director

Elise Kärkkäinen, Ph.D. (personal homepage)

Project researchers

•  Pentti Haddington, Ph.D. (personal homepage)

•  Tiina Keisanen, Ph.D. (personal homepage)

•  Mirka Rauniomaa, Ph.D.

•  Maarit Niemelä, MA (personal homepage)

Pentti Haddington (left), Tiina Keisanen, Elise Kärkkäinen, Maarit Niemelä, Mirka Rauniomaa

Associate members 

•  Dr John Du Bois
Department of Linguistics, University of California at Santa Barbara

•  Dr Sandra Thompson
Department of Linguistics, University of California at Santa Barbara

•  Dr Robert Englebretson
Department of Linguistics, Rice University, Houston

Project collaborators 

•  Dr Paul McIlvenny, Department of Languages, Culture and Aesthetics, University of Aalborg

•  Dr Pirkko Raudaskoski, Department of Communication and Psychology, University of Aalborg

•  Dr Arja Piirainen-Marsh, Department of Languages (English), University of Jyväskylä

•  Dr Liisa Raevaara, Research Institute for the Languages of Finland, Helsinki

•  Dr Jane Stuart-Smith, Department of English Language, University of Glasgow

Project funding

Academy of Finland: funding for research project 2002-2005, Academy Research Fellow's post for Kärkkäinen 2003-2006, grants for studies and research abroad for Haddington 2001, Keisanen 2002, and Rauniomaa 2003

Emil Aaltonen Foundation: funding for research project 2002-2004

Langnet or the Finnish Graduate School in Linguistics: postgraduate researcher's post for Haddington 2001-2004, Rauniomaa 2005-2006, and Niemelä 2007-2008

University of Oulu: individual research grants for Keisanen 2000, 2001, Haddington 2000, Niemelä 2004, 2006, and Rauniomaa 2007