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In:Constructing Collectivity: 'We' across languages and contexts
Edited by Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 239] 2014
► pp. 187–206

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Establishing social groups in Hebrew

‘We’ in political radio phone-in programs

ORCiD logo with link | University of Massachusetts, Amherst, U.S.A.
Published online: 27 February 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.239.13dor
This chapter explores the Hebrew anaxnu (‘we’) in Israeli political radio phone-in programs. Using the ‘we,’ participants create or refer to seven social groups: the conversation ‘we’; the program ‘we’; the delimited social ‘we’; the opposing general ‘we’, the open general ‘we’; the humanity ‘we’; and the vocal ‘we’. The functions of ‘we’ differ by participant: hosts use the conversation ‘we’ to manage interactions whereas callers use the general ‘we’ to create a public sphere. Using an extended excerpt, we illustrate a variant of the “fluidity of ‘we’” and its significance to the participants’ identity-displays. The first person plural therefore creates social groups in media interactions, both on the micro and macro societal levels.
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