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In:Constructing Collectivity: 'We' across languages and contexts
Edited by Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 239] 2014
► pp. 23–44

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Referentiality, predicate patterns, and functions of we-utterances in American English interactions

 | Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA
Published online: 27 February 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.239.05sch
This usage-based study of we examines formal and functional properties of English conversational utterances from the Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English, focusing on effects of the referentiality of the pronoun. Analyses suggest that different indexical uses of we have distinct formal distributions which reflect their discourse functions. Inclusiveness expressed with we utterances is shaped by the social understanding that when speakers include other speech act participants in their assertions, these utterances mediate inclusion through the use of modal elements or through presentation of inclusive opinions as commonly shared. In contrast, exclusive expressions frequently occur with past tense predicates, and in these utterances we indexes relationships and affiliations that are culturally conventional and central to participants’ routine experiences.
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