Generic reference and social ontology in Vietnamese conversation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2870518
AutoresJack Sidnell (0000-0002-7546-872X, University of Toronto, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume50
Fascículo4
Páginas533-555
Data de publicação2021-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguage in Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-4045 • E-ISSN: 1469-8013
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047404521000361
OpenAlexW3194190870
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas26

Generic expressions play a key role in the interactional articulation, social circulation, and temporal reproduction of ideology. Here I examine fragments from a conversation between four middle-class participants which took place at a café in Hanoi. After briefly describing the particular grammatico-textual patterns by which specific and generic references are accomplished in Vietnamese, I turn to consider two extended stretches of talk in which these people weave generic reference into the warp and weft of their interaction. I argue that generic reference is intimately tied to social ontology which consists, in part, of ideas about distinct and essentialized 'kinds of persons'. Deployed in what appears, on the surface at least, as ordinary, mundane conversation, not only does such generic reference serve to position those referred to as 'ontological other' (Wynter 1987), it also constitutes an 'act of alterity' (Hastings & Manning 2004) by which the participants tacitly characterize themselves. (Reference, Vietnamese, social ontology, alterity, stereotype, essentialism

Alterity · Articulation (sociology) · Conversation · Conversation analysis · Epistemology · Linguistics · Ontology · Political science · Sociology · Vietnamese · Communication · Gender Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies