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In:Constructing Collectivity: 'We' across languages and contexts
Edited by Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 239] 2014
► pp. 207–226

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Why ‘we’?

Between person marking, ideology and politeness 
in contemporary Polish

 | University of Warsaw, Poland
Published online: 27 February 2014
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https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.239.14dus
The paper addresses changes in relational functions of ‘we’ in contemporary Polish and in the underlying models of culturally dominant ‘we’-group concepts. After some orientation to the ethnogrammar and ethnopragmatics of ‘we’ (Polish my), it focuses on a pragmatic analysis of a ‘we’ example taken from a semi-institutional context. Ultimately, it locates the discussion in a wider context of social and discursive change observable in contemporary Polish society. It demonstrates that the historical bifurcation of style into a T-based model of solidarity and a V-based model of deference is being eroded, and that cultural and communicative values are redefined along new priorities and demands. Emergent ‘we’-group concepts press for new patterns of address and mode of participant interaction.
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