As we talk to one another, we express certain viewpoints, propose certain plans, query certain ideas. We not only “make moves,” we also “take positions.” In the next couple of chapters we will consider the content of discourse, the substance of the positions to which we commit ourselves as we speak. In this chapter we will examine some of the complexity of positioning and repositioning ourselves as discourse progresses.

There are two distinct but intertwined aspects of discourse positioning. On the one hand, we position ourselves vis-à-vis meaningful content that we and others first express. We push ideas and projects with more or less force, we modulate them in response to actual or anticipated reactions of others, we embrace them passionately, we explore them seriously, we mock them disdainfully, we play with them and with the linguistic forms we use for expressing them. On the other hand, we position ourselves vis-à-vis the others with whom we are developing and elaborating a meaningful discourse. We attend to the others' ideas and feelings and we assess their capacities, their institutional status, their stance towards us. Not only do we modulate and modify our own ideas and feelings, we also place one another in particular (and changing) discursive positions. These positions are many and varied. Some kinds of positions recur: facilitator, pupil, tutor, partner, leader, assistant, competitor, expert, novice, judge, plaintiff, defendant, supporting witness, clown, advisor, sympathetic friend, playmate, storyteller, hero, coward.