Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics
Vol. 20:3 (2010) ► pp.375–400

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF

Negotiating identities through pronouns of address in an immigrant community

Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.
Published online: 1 September 2010
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.20.3.04lie
This article investigates forms of address, in particular the T/V distinction in German, in conversational interviews with German-speaking immigrants to English-speaking Canada and their descendants. From among 77 interviews conducted in two urban areas in Canada, we discuss instances of both the interactional use of and metalinguistic comments on forms of address. Our analysis is largely guided by conversation analysis and interactional sociolinguistics (e.g. Goodwin & Heritage 1990). Using Clyne, Norrby and Warren’s (2009) model of address as a backdrop, we investigate the construction of group identity and group socialization through the lens of positioning theory (e.g. van Langenhove and Harré 1993; Dailey-O’Cain and Liebscher 2009). This combination of analytical tools can explain shifts in both usage of and attitudes toward the T/V distinction that cannot be explained through language attrition arguments alone.
References (37)
Barron, Anne (2006) Learning to say "you" in German: The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in a study abroad context. In M.A. DuFon, & E. Churchill (eds.), Language Learners in Study Abroad Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 59-88. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bayer, Klaus. (1979) Addressing pronouns "du" and "Sie": Thesen zu einem semantischen Konflikt im Hochschulbereich. Deutsche Sprache 31: 212-219.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belz, Julie A., and Celeste Kinginger (2002) The cross-linguistic development of address form use in telecollaborative language learning: Two case studies. In Canadian Modern Language Review 59/2: 189-214. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Besch, Werner (1998) Duzen, Siezen, Titulieren: Zur Anrede im Deutschen heute und gestern (second edition). Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, Jan. (2005) Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bowers, Christopher (1992) Comparison of forms of address between England and Germany. Beiträge Zur Fremdsprachenvermittlung Aus Dem Konstanzer SLA 231: 57-62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Roger, and Albert Gilman (1960) The pronouns of power and solidarity. In T. Sebeok (ed.), Style in Language. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Technology Press of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pp. 253-276.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1989) Politeness theory and Shakespeare's four major tragedies. Language in Society 181: 159-212.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carbaugh, Donal (1996) Situating Selves: The Communication of Social Identities in American Scenes. New York: State University of New York Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clyne, Michael, Heinz L. Kretzenbacher, Catrin Norrby, and Doris Schüpbach (2006) Perceptions of variation and change in German and Swedish address. Journal of Sociolinguistics 101.3: 287-319. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clyne, Michael, Catrin Norrby, and Jane Warren (2009) Language and Human Relations. Styles of Address in Contemporary Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coveney, Aidan (2003) 'Anything you can do, tu can do better': Tu and vous as substitutes for indefinite on in French. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7.2: 164-191.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dailey-O'Cain, Jennifer, and Grit Liebscher (2006) Language learners' use of discourse markers as evidence for a mixed code. International Journal of Bilingualism 10.1: March: 89-109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009) Dialect use and discursive identities of migrants from the west in eastern Germany. In Patrick Stevenson and Jenny Carl (eds),Language, Discourse, and Identity in Central Europe. The German Language in a Multilingual Space.London, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 185-202. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Delisle, Helga H. (1986) Intimacy, solidarity and distance: The pronouns of address in German. Die Unterrichtspraxis 19.1: 4-15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles, and John Heritage (1990) Conversation analysis. Annual Review of Anthropology 191: 283-307. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.  BoP Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harré, Rom, and Luk van Langenhove (1991) Varieties of positioning. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 211: 393-407. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickey, Raymond (2003) The German address system: Binary and scalar at once. In Irma Taavitsainen, and Andreas H. Jucker (eds.), Diachronic Perspectives on Address Term Systems. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 401-425. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Howell, Richard, and Jack Klassen (1971) Contrasting "Du/Sie" patterns in a Mennonite community. Anthropological Linguistics 13.2: 68-74.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kremer, Ludger (2000) Duzen und siezen: Zur Verwendung der Anredepronomina im Deutschen und Niederländischen. Germanistische Mitteilungen 521: 13-31.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kretzenbacher, Heinz, Michael Clyne, and Doris Schüpbach (2006) Pronominal address in German. Rules, anarchy and embarrassment potential. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 29/2: 17.1-17.18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liebscher, Grit, and Jennifer Dailey-O’Cain (2009) Language attitudes in interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics 131.2: 195-222. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Milroy, Lesley (1980) Language and Social Networks. Oxford: Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morford, Janet (1997) Social indexicality in French prenominal address. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 7.1: 3-37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mühlhäusler, Peter, and Ron Harré (1990) Pronouns and People: The Linguistic Construction of Social and Personal Identity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah (1987) Discourse markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schüpbach, Doris, John Hajek, Jane Warren, Michael Clyne, Heinz L. Kretzenbacher, and Catrin Norrby (2006) A cross-linguistic comparison of address pronoun use in four European languages: Intralingual and interlingual dimensions. Annual Meeting of the Australian Linguistic Society 2-12.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael (2003) Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language and Communication 231: 293-229.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Soukup, Barbara (2009) Dialect Use As Interaction Strategy: A Sociolinguistic Study of Contextualization, Speech Perception, and Language Attitudes in Austria. Wien: Braumüller.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stoffel, Gertraut (1983) Veränderungen und semantische Konflikte im Anredeverhalten deutschsprachiger in Neuseeland. Muttersprache 941: 185-193.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Svennevig, Jan (1999) Getting Acquainted In Conversation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Langenhove, Luk, and Rom Harré (1993) Positioning and autobiography: Telling your life. In Nikolas Coupland, John. F. Nussbaum, and Alan Grossman (eds.), Discourse and Lifespan Identity. London, UK: Sage, pp. 81-99.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watts, Richard J. (2003) Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Winchatz, Michaela R. (2001) Social meanings in German interactions: An ethnographic analysis of the second-person pronoun Sie. Research on Language and Social Interaction 34.3: 337-69.  BoPGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2006) Fieldworker or foreigner? Ethnographic interviewing in nonnative languages. Field Methods Vol. 18.1: 83-97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (10)

Cited by ten other publications

Liebscher, Grit, Cole Sutherland & Jennifer Dailey-O’Cain
2025. Functions of address in the German linguistic landscape. In Beyond Binaries in Address Research [Topics in Address Research, 6], ► pp. 119 ff. DOI logo
Sild, Orsolya
2023. Address forms in Tatar spoken in Finland and Estonia. Open Linguistics 9:1 DOI logo
Bączkowska, Anna
2022. Forms of Address in Polish Nonprofessional Subtitles. In Language Use, Education, and Professional Contexts [Second Language Learning and Teaching, ], ► pp. 71 ff. DOI logo
Kretzenbacher, Heinz L.
2022. Perceptions of national and regional standards of addressing in Germany and Austria. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) ► pp. 69 ff. DOI logo
Droste, Pepe & Susanne Günthner
2021. Enacting ‘Being with You’. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 31:1 ► pp. 87 ff. DOI logo
Gillmann, Melitta & Wolfgang Imo
2021. „Du rotziger Blasebalckemacherischer Dieb! Solst du mich dutzen?“ – Funktionen des Personalpronomensduin Gryphius’ „Peter Squentz“. Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik 49:1 ► pp. 121 ff. DOI logo
Covarrubias, Patricia O.
2015. Pronoun Functions. In The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Dieltjens, Sylvain M. & Priscilla C. Heynderickx
2014. We is More Than You Plus I. The Interpretation of the We-Forms in Internal Business Communications. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 44:3 ► pp. 229 ff. DOI logo
Jarmila Mildorf
2012. Second-Person Narration in Literary and Conversational Storytelling. Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies 4 ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo
Norrby, Catrin & Jane Warren
2012. Address Practices and Social Relationships in European Languages. Language and Linguistics Compass 6:4 ► pp. 225 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue