The artifice of dialogic exchange in film: “The sunset limited” as a test case for the application of systemic functional description

The play by Cormac McCarthy, "The Sunset Limited" (later turned to a film) is investigated as an unusual opportunity to test the efficacy of linguistic and pragmatic theories about interpersonal dimensions of deep dialogic exchanges. There is the authenticity of the exchange that needs to be examined; but the enquiry is centered on the question of linguistic tools for representing adequately the ebb and flow of meanings between real 'persons'. The role of personality studies in the human sciences has been debated by linguists (e.g. Firth), anthropologists (e.g. Douglas), and leading psychologists (e.g. Kagan). The thesis evaluates the power of descriptions in a functional linguistics, and looks to the future elaboration of the tools of an interpersonally oriented linguistics.