PERSON REFERENCING Chapter 3 in Tracy’s Everyday Talk

Person Referencing Practices In what ways do reference terms for self and others have implications for speakers and their targets? “Pet Owners vs. Pet Guardians”

Marital Names (Sally Frand marries Mark Ellis) Sally Ellis Mrs. Sally Ellis Mrs. Mark Ellis Sally Frand-Ellis

Personal Address Personal address is the label given to terms used to refer to a person in his or her presence  Proper Names First name Last name Informal or diminutive versions of first name

Kinship terms  Mother, Mama, Mom  Father, Dad, Pop.... Titles  Mister...  Sir  Miss, Mrs., Ms., Ma’am PERSONAL ADDRESS

Personal address Religious Leaders  Rabbi, Father, Pastor  Mayor, Professor, Doctor Nicknames and Endearments  Sweetie, Honey, Junior  Snugglebug

Personal Address Second-Person Pronouns  In English: “You” is the only option  German: “du,” “Sie”  French: “tu,” “vous”

Identity Implications of Personal Address: Closeness & Equality (1) Degree of closeness or distance; Informal/close Formal/distant nicknames titles FN title +LN

Identity Implications of Personal Address (2) Whether the parties are equal or not; Equality is marked in relationships through the use of reciprocal forms of address; For instance, if one uses the other’s FN and the other uses the speaking partner’s title and LN, then a difference in rank is communicated;

Ethnicity- and Race-Linked References (p. 53) We often have to refer to someone and in a way that distinguishes that person from others; E.g., “Hispanic” has come to refer to the shared language heritage of previously separate groups: Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Mexican Americans;

Ethnicity- and Race-Linked References (p. 53, bottom) Ethnic- and Race-Linked labels, like all labels, draw attention to some features and hide others; A New York Puerto Rican and a new immigrant from Chile fall under the label “Hispanic,” and yet they are different in significant ways; Categories are a way to divide the social world. They are lumping and excluding devices;

Gender-Linked References It is just about impossible to avoid referring to someone by gender (sex); Names, pronouns in English; The generic “he”; “Miss” and “Mrs.”;

The Membership Categorization Device (MCD) MCD refers to “collections of categories for referring to persons, with some rules of application.” Collections of categories, e.g., mother and baby; male and female; Mother and baby are part of the family category; Categories are associated by a larger context; The same word may be part of different categories, “baby” as a young child vs. “baby” as the youngest offspring;

The Membership Categorization Device (MCD) Membership categorizations are inference-rich; They are inference-rich because they are part of a larger context with rules of application; The use of membership terms is not necessarily a conscious behavior;

Inference-Rich Reference A husband asks his wife, who is warming up something in the microwave: “What do you have there?”She replies: “My dinner. This is Sunday.” Explanation: On Sunday family members fend for themselves. They warm up left- overs. “My dinner” implies much.

The Membership Categorization Device (MCD) Rules  One feature of MCD’s is that we expect them to be used together if they can be; “The baby cried. The woman picked it up.” Will be interpreted as likely not the baby’s mother. “The mother picked it up,” would be interpreted as the baby’s mother; Consider “The male cried.” What inferences are implied? In both cases an inference is made;

The Membership Categorization Device (MCD) Finally, by the membership categorizations devices we use, we build our identities; We altercast others; We frame another and their actions as reasonable, stupid, cruel, and so on; Some choices can be seen as natural and others as choices, depending on the speech community;