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In:Constructing Collectivity: 'We' across languages and contexts
Edited by Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 239] 2014
► pp. 83–104

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Grammar, interaction, and context

Unmarked and marked uses of the first person 
plural in Italian

 | The University of Turin, Italy
Published online: 27 February 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.239.08baz
The referential flexibility of the first person plural allows for a range of references, starting from the ‘canonical’ use (which usually includes speaker and addressee) to other, various uses, strictly depending on context and cotext. This multiple, potential reference produces indeterminacy, which on the one hand may cause interpretation problems, but on the other performs a range of functions, such as those related to the construction of a relevant collectivity or to the expression of emotions and/or ideology. In Italian, a partially pro-drop language (where the subject pronoun may be omitted, and word order is more or less free), pragmatic functions may also be triggered by explicit pronouns, dislocations, alternant uses of explicit and implicit pronouns, and repetitions.These functions will be exemplified in different contexts, mainly in If This is a Man by Primo Levi, and discussed from a pragmatic perspective, thus highlighting the different ways in which languages shape the close intertwining of grammar, interaction, and context.
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