Blurb:

This final chapter rounds out the new model of tenor introduced in this book. It does so first by looking ‘below’ – by considering the range of linguistic and paralinguistic resources that realise tenor and by focusing in particular on the interconnection of interpersonal meanings in play whenever we are enacting our sociality. This is illustrated primarily through the role body language plays in face-to-face conversation as far as bringing together all of the meanings described in this book are concerned. It then looks ‘around’, by considering how resources of tenor work together with resources of field (concerned with construing phenomena) and resources of mode (concerned with organising information). It shows how these three regions of meaning work not in isolation, but interact with one another in order to build coherent text. It then looks ‘above’ to see how tenor helps different genres achieve their social purpose. After considering the range of genres often used in schooling, it focuses in particular on conversation and how the model of tenor proposed in this book helps account for the unfolding conversation. Finally, the chapter looks ‘across’ to complementary perspectives on tenor – those that consider different types of social relation and those that consider different parameters upon which our social relations vary.