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PERSON REFERENCING Chapter 3 in Tracy’s Everyday Talk.

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Presentation on theme: "PERSON REFERENCING Chapter 3 in Tracy’s Everyday Talk."— Presentation transcript:

1 PERSON REFERENCING Chapter 3 in Tracy’s Everyday Talk

2 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”

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

4 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

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

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

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

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

9 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;

10 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;

11 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;

12 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.”;

13 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;

14 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;

15 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.

16 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;

17 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;


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