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Enacting ‘Being with You’: Vocative uses of du (“you”) in German everyday interaction
Ist Teil von
Pragmatics : quarterly publication of the International Pragmatics Association, 2021-02, Vol.31 (1), p.87-113
Ort / Verlag
Wilrijk: International Pragmatics Association
Erscheinungsjahr
2021
Quelle
EZB Electronic Journals Library
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Abstract
The German second person personal pronoun
du
is commonly described as a deictic “shifter” or a T-address term, which is incorporated as an argument of a predicate. Exploring the ways in which participants use pronouns in everyday interaction, however, shows that these are not the only uses of
du
. In this paper, we examine vocative uses of
du
in German everyday interaction. Drawing on methods of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics, we will show that speakers use vocative
du
for the management of being ‘with’ the other in terms of alignment as well as affiliation. What
du
locally accomplishes, however, is sensitive to its positioning within the temporal unfolding of turns and sequences as well as to the sequential environments in which it is used. Our findings demonstrate the context-sensitivity of
du
and underscore the importance of linguistic resources for the interactional establishment and maintenance of social togetherness and sociability.