Margutti2007

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Margutti2007
BibType ARTICLE
Key Margutti2007
Author(s) Piera Margutti
Title Two uses of third-person references in family gatherings displaying family ties: teasing and clarifications
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Family Interaction, Person Reference, Teasing, Clarification
Publisher
Year 2007
Language
City
Month
Journal Discourse Studies
Volume 9
Number 5
Pages 623–651
URL Link
DOI 10.1177/1461445607082578
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This article examines two uses of third-person references — pronouns such as 'he/she/they' or category terms such as 'mother, father', etc. — as produced during first-visit encounters between formerly unacquainted guests and a family group. Members of the family use this practice to refer to another family member in a locally subsequent position, adjacent to a self-oriented turn by that same referrent. Two main functions are investigated: teasing and clarifications. It is pointed out that, besides employing the same practice and being deployed in a locally subsequent position, both activities have a number of other features in common, whereby teasing gets constructed as if doing clarification. In this way, family members provide alternative versions of the same description of events as the prior adjacent turn, designing the teasing activity as an information-giving activity to the guests' benefit. Thus, family members display a privileged access to the events that have been described and propose themselves as knowledgeable about the group and its life; a type of knowledge grounded in their having family ties.

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