This paper examines the use of the personal pronouns we, you, and I at intercultural business meetings, linking their use to the negotiation of individual and group identity and the alignments participants take up with respect to themselves and others. Data come from business meetings held by an Italian company for its international distributors from 12-14 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Meeting participants come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and use mainly English during the twice-annual meetings. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are used to analyze pronominal choice. The quantitative analysis includes a category encompassing unresolved ambiguity, allowing more in-depth analysis of possible consequences and function of pronoun use. The paper also gives attention to participation frameworks (Goffman, 1979/1981). The paper argues that in the data under analysis, there is a range of ambiguous referents for we as used by company speakers, going beyond ambiguity as to whether or not the group of distributors is included. The analysis also shows how the main company speaker manages participation by initiating shifts in participant roles through his choice of pronouns together with nonverbal behavior and other linguistic choices. Company speakers are seen to contribute to building relations among meeting participants, in particular by shifting between individual and collective identity and shifting in and out of frames.

Ambiguity and shifting identities in dialogue: an examination of pronominal choice and evaluation at intercultural business meetings / G.M. Poncini. ((Intervento presentato al convegno International Pragmatics Association Conference tenutosi a Riva del Garda nel July 2005.

Ambiguity and shifting identities in dialogue: an examination of pronominal choice and evaluation at intercultural business meetings

G.M. Poncini
2005

Abstract

This paper examines the use of the personal pronouns we, you, and I at intercultural business meetings, linking their use to the negotiation of individual and group identity and the alignments participants take up with respect to themselves and others. Data come from business meetings held by an Italian company for its international distributors from 12-14 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. Meeting participants come from a variety of cultural backgrounds and use mainly English during the twice-annual meetings. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are used to analyze pronominal choice. The quantitative analysis includes a category encompassing unresolved ambiguity, allowing more in-depth analysis of possible consequences and function of pronoun use. The paper also gives attention to participation frameworks (Goffman, 1979/1981). The paper argues that in the data under analysis, there is a range of ambiguous referents for we as used by company speakers, going beyond ambiguity as to whether or not the group of distributors is included. The analysis also shows how the main company speaker manages participation by initiating shifts in participant roles through his choice of pronouns together with nonverbal behavior and other linguistic choices. Company speakers are seen to contribute to building relations among meeting participants, in particular by shifting between individual and collective identity and shifting in and out of frames.
lug-2005
business meetings, discourse analysis, pragmatics, intercultural communication, business communication
Settore L-LIN/12 - Lingua e Traduzione - Lingua Inglese
Ambiguity and shifting identities in dialogue: an examination of pronominal choice and evaluation at intercultural business meetings / G.M. Poncini. ((Intervento presentato al convegno International Pragmatics Association Conference tenutosi a Riva del Garda nel July 2005.
Conference Object
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/16278
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact