Introduction

[el don]

i hate making self introductions, but since it is a requirement of this
list <add SVC of choice>.
it probably has something to do with feeling it
difficult to choose the salient features pertaining to myself which will
cover all bases.. what to leave out? also it seems perilously akin to
self-advertisement, which for me, coming from an australian working class
background as i may do, feels repugnant.
still, one needs to learn new approaches to the study of discursive
practices and perhaps i myself me am a good place to experiment and learn
from the inside so to speak.

thanks to laurie's posting of the announcement of this list on the list
'fiction of philosophy', yes, fop, where i also practise discursive styles,
i learnt how to come HERE.

the year before last, i graduated with an MA from the university of
birmingham in the uk, while still living here. here is japan, where i get
my money for working in a university as a teacher of english.
my masters dissertation was a discussion of the interaction of an email
discussion list, and yes, part of the analysis that went on there used
perspectives more usually associated with the analysis of conversation.
anyone interested can read the body -
none of the appendages are available online - at:
http://www.loris.net/lexie.html
i hope to continue my research on the context of email list dynamics - all
we need is text - by joining a doctoral program within the next year.
it may necessitate a move.
in any case, i feel i am somewhat of a beginner, even though my interest in
linguistics dates back to a post grad diploma in multicultural education i
did 82-83.

these interests in the field of linguistics have become far ranging.
i belong to the systemic functional linguistics cult,
m.a.k. halliday hallowed be thy name,
and am a member of the japanese association of systemic functional linguistics.
within systemics my favourite branches are those of (what i call)
narratology, and appraisal theory as outlined by Jim Martin of the
University of Sydney.
i am also drawn to perspectives in cda, especially as it relates to ways of
triangulating a local 'interpretation' of any text by considering its means
of production and consumption, as well as notions of intertextuality.
hodge and kress is my favourite bedtime reading here.
it is at this end of the spectrum that my interest flows into areas of
philosophy of language and especially literary crticism, and the nature of
writing itself.

and, as languages seem dependent for meaning on social and
cultural knowledge, as
well as looking to pragmatics for ways to approach the extra linguistic
knowledge which many times fuels conversational activity,
i am  also fascinated by the nature of
communication itself and the ways in which humans conceive of and invent
their world which gives me to think that i am really an anthropologist.
in this area my hero is undoubtedly gregory bateson.
i am also obviously intrigued by the production, reception and evaluation
of 'knowledge' systems, what constitutes 'authority' to speak and be heard,
and the notion of identity, especially as it is constituted within CMC. in
this area i have been drawn to work in social constructionism, and at the
moment i am reading "Positioning Theory" Harre and van Langenhove. 1999.

i find academic mailing lists to be rather dry and well ordered, so that
heretofor i have not found them to be especially interesting for me as
data. however, i feel the need to look at a wide range of 'types' of
mailing lists on which
to practice a craft of teasing out indicators and textual realizations
related to the interpersonal metafunction (mood, modality, personal
referents, and appraisal lexis particularly excite me in this regard) and
so i may begin raiding the archives later, in which case we (the other CMC
investigative bods onlist) can compare notes and argue up a pleasant storm.


looking forward to learning from each other,
regards,
lexie

-----
alexanne don
fukuoka university
fukuoka
japan
eldon at gol.com
le039186 at JSAT.FUKUOKA-U.AC.JP


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