Abstract

An important function of language is to create and develop interpersonal relationships in communication. In inquiry, we share and coordinate our beliefs about how the world is. But we also take a stance and socially orient ourselves toward possible acts, attitudes, and states of affairs. We evaluate possibilities as desirable, appropriate, horrible, trivial, permissible, wonderful. We make demands and grant permissions, emphasize commonality and breed antipathy. In communication, we shape our identities as thinkers and feelers in a social world; we coordinate on how to act, what to feel, and whom to be.