8.

4 Situational meanings
We have seen that words and phrases have core meanings (semantics) based on the mental lexicon
that is part of the grammar of our language. But these core meanings —which basically set the
meaning potential of words—must be situated within, adapted to, and nuanced for specific contexts
of use. Indeed, being able to do this is what demonstrates a person ’ s interactional competence
within specific social settings and Discourses. If we do know what context something was said
within, we can know basic meanings but still be at a loss for what things actually mean.Take, for
example, the con versation below:
Bead: Allele: Bead: Allele: Bead: Allele: Bead: Allele: Bead:
Are you really dead
Yes, did you get the heart?
I got the heart—another guy was helping Good
I am standing over your body mourning I died for you
So touching
It’s a long way back
I know—I’ve done it
Here it is clear that words like “dead”, “body”, “died”, and “long way back” have contextually
specific meanings that go beyond their core mean ings (e.g., the core meaning of “dead” is “a
formerly animate being that is no longer living”). If you do not know the context here, these lines
sound like something from a postmodern play.What we have here are two broth ers (in real life)
talking to each other as characters in a massive multiplayer video game (World of Warcraft). In
such games, avatars (the “surrogate body” a player has in the game) can die but still come back to
life, though their

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“spirit” must walk back to where its body died.The two players were trying to complete a quest in
the game to find a heart buried in the ground.They were attacked by monsters and Allele died
fighting them off, as did another player who just happened to be there and decided to help.With
their help, Bead was able to defeat the monsters, stay alive, and get the heart.
Consider this example from a video game manual:
Gamers—familiar with the context of gaming—will realize that “your” in the first sentence refers
to something different than does “you” in the sec ond sentence.“Your” in the first sentence
means the player ’ s avatar (in game character).The player as a real person has no nano
processors.The “you” in the second sentence means the player, the real person.The game character
cannot push on the computer ’ s buttons, only the player can. By the way, it is part of gamer
Discourse that gamers regularly and often use “I” for their character (as in “I died”), thereby
melding their real world self with their in game avatar self.
In Michael Eric Dyson’s passage we looked at above, what is the situa tional meaning of “black
folk ” ? “ Black ” here does not mean color per se. It means primarily African Americans. It
includes African Americans who are not close to being black in color, but various shades of brown.
Further more, there are lots of brown or black people in the USA, and in the world, that are not
African Americans. Does “black” include Africans who happen in live in the USA, but are not
African American? I assume Dyson means by “black” all people in America connected to Africa
that have been victims of racism. But my point is that the reader must assume something to give the
word a specific and useful meaning in the text.
But what does “folk” add to this? The word “folk” here is an informal vernacular way to talk
about a group of people in a friendly way (“folks like us”, “hey, folks, it’s time for dinner”). But
“ folk ” can also mean “ connected to traditional or common culture ” ( “ folk music ” , “ folk
dancing”, “folk tale”).This use of the word took on unfortunate connotations in Germany, where
the German word for “folk” (“volk”) was used by the Nazis to mean the German nation or race, as
in Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer (“One nation or race, one empire, one leader”). Dyson surely
does not intend “folk” to
Your internal nano processors keep a very detailed record of your con dition, equipment and
recent history.You can access this data at any time during play by hitting F1 to get to the Inventory
screen or F2 to get to the Goals/Notes screen.

carry this latter meaning in his text, though his use of “folk” in the singular (meant here just to be
vernacular) might trigger it for some readers more than the term “black folks” would have.
Think about how much one needs to know culturally about race in the USA to make contextual
sense of “black folks” and “whites” in Dyson’s text.We rarely stop to think much about this
wealth of culturally specific knowledge that allows us to make sense of what words mean in
different contexts of use.
In any consideration of language in use both the people communicating and discourse analysts
must be aware of what the context is and how this affects the situational meaning of words and
phrases.They often also must be aware of what Discourses are at play and how they are shaping
how lan guage is being used both in that context and to construe and construct that context at the
same time.
Contextualization cues (which we discussed in Section 6.8)—when they are present—are a way
speakers signal how they want listeners to situate their meanings in context, a context that their
contextualization cues are helping the listener to construe in a certain way.

8.5 Actions and activities

Any time we talk or write we are trying to do something.We are trying to inform, persuade,
encourage, request, deny, praise, bond, or many other things. Talking and writing are always forms
of acting. Earlier I said that there is a difference between actions and activities (or what some
scholars call “practices”).When a pitcher in a baseball game throws the ball towards home plate
from the pitcher’s mound, that is an action. But pitching is also an activity that is done in similar
(but not identical) ways repeatedly and is regulated (in terms of how, where, when, and why it is
done) by groups and institutions, namely, baseball leagues and the sport of baseball (Hacking
1999).
Activities (practices) are conventional ways that people with certain iden tities have developed to
get their “work” done, to function to do what they are interested in, such as birding, doing physics,
gaming, gardening, lawyer ing, engaging in gang activities, teaching in school, and so forth.
So, for any language in use data, we want to ask what actions are being carried out, but also what
activities or practices —associated with what identities or Discourses —are being carried out as
well.We want to know
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that the pitcher threw a curve ball (an action) and that he is pitching in big league baseball (an
activity).
Returning to Dyson’s passage, reprinted below, what is he doing in terms of actions and activities:
At the level of actions enacted by language, Dyson here is making a claim (informing) and he is
also making an accusation of hypocrisy,“bad faith”, or inconsistency, whatever we want to call it.
Both the information and the accusation are not “ pleasant ” for the intended reader ( “ you ” ),
namely white people in their identity as people privileged by “whiteness”. Language actions like
accusation are tricky, indeed.They can lead to anger, rejection, and, thus, here a failure to read the
book.
What are some of the activities (practices) Dyson is engaging in? Well, one activity is that he is
writing as an academic public intellectual. Such books usually assert facts and arguments in a fairly
dispassionate way.They are like public lectures. Dyson is aware that in this case, however, such
facts and arguments might well cause readers, as an emotional response, to quit reading early on in
his book. Dyson ’ s own strong feelings, and sometimes quite negative personal experiences as a
black man in a white world—and white readers’ own strong (but varied) emotions in regard to race
—would seem to make this a very hard book to write as a typical academic public intellectual sort
of book.
Therefore, Dyson chooses to write his book with lots of the sorts of content (facts and arguments)
that appear in an academic book or one written by a public intellectual, but in the form or style of a
sermon rather than a lecture.A sermon is a very different activity (practice) than a lecture. Sermons
allow for emotion, accusations of sinning, examination of con science, penance, and hopes for
forgiveness and even a better world. The author of a sermon is channeling a moral voice, not
speaking as a profes sional “expert”.
However, Dyson is not “really” giving a sermon. He is not in church. He is using “his God” to
get readers not to show allegiance to his God (as a minister in church would do), but to show
allegiance to whatever deeper moral forces move them.
Most black folk can’t help but notice what many whites rarely wish, or are compelled, to see: you
embrace history as your faithful flame when she kisses you, and yet you spurn her as a cheating
mate when she nods or winks at others.

Thus, Dyson has combined two Discourses (academic public intellec tual and minister). In the act,
he has created something new for most of his readers, namely a sermon that is public and not
encased in a specific church. Such things were not, in fact, rare in the past. Puritan divines in New
England, for example, often published sermons as public messages for a wide reading public.
Dyson is harkening back to this tradition by imagin ing a future in which we all, black and white,
would share a common faith in ourselves as all together better Americans and humans.
Activities are often mundane and somewhat ritualized, as when we chat about the weather, report
for jury duty, write an editorial or a letter to the editor of a newspaper, send a text message to
friends, give a report at work, or ask for forgiveness in confession. But activities can be blended,
dynamic, and innovative—as is Dyson’s sermon—as long as there is still enough con ventional
common ground left for readers or listeners to key into what is going on.

8.6 Perspective design

I have repeatedly said in this book that grammar gives us choices and that the choices we make
express perspectives on the world, not transparent, unvarnished truth.The language design tools we
discussed in the last chapter help us analysts get at perspectives by showing us how they were
expressed in a specific situation.The perspective design tools we will discuss here help us to
analyze this expression—this “ way with words ” —to understand the perspective the speaker is
trying to express.
Grammar gives speakers a tool kit of choices.These choices create pat terns, oppositions,
foregrounded and backgrounded information, connec tions and disconnections, ways of naming
things, expressions of emotion, and links to the world that guide listeners and discourse analysts as
to what to pay attention to and how to pay attention to it. Just in the same way good painters use
design (with paint) to direct and guide the viewer ’ s eye and reaction to their painting, so, too,
speakers use design (with grammar) as a way to direct and guide the listener ’ s attention and
interpretations.
We can get at the perspectives (viewpoints) people are taking by asking all the questions (using all
the tools) we have listed in this chapter.They are all relevant since the goal of making grammatical
choices is to express a perspective. However, the following tools/questions (and connections) are
particularly salient for uncovering a speaker’s or writer’s perspective.