Constructing self–other distinction in dialogic contexts: Beyond identity

Einat Kuzai
Levinsky-Wingate Academic College

This paper investigates the construction of self–other distinction in dialogic contexts and illustrates how speakers and writers may employ such a distinction to strengthen their claims and maximize acceptance. A text-based analysis reveals that self–other distinction may be established via three discursive practices — full dissimilation, partial dissimilation, and third-party association. In each practice, speakers may engage in either redressive acts or face aggravating strategies dependent on contextual features relating to the discursive environment, the type of differentiated “others”, and their social distance from the speaker. The analysis further shows that speakers in dialogic contexts may construct self–other distinction relating to favorable argumentative values or attributes to create discursive frameshifts. This, in turn, frames the speakers’ selves in a positive light, legitimating their claims and establishing credibility through positive self-presentation, a reference to authorization and rationalization, or an appeal to conformity.

Publication history

Date received: 16 October 2023

Date accepted: 9 October 2024

Published online: 19 May 2025

Table of contents

One of the key factors influencing the success of social interactions is our ability to distinguish between others’ representations of reality and our own (Steinbeis 2016). To communicate properly, interlocutors need to construct the cognitive and emotional states of those with whom they converse and monitor differences in how others think and feel. Thus, self–other distinction is considered crucial for the formation of identity (Andreouli 2010). As mentioned by Marková (2007, 219), “[o]ne cannot meaningfully ask the question about identity without posing the question about self and other”. In discourse studies, it is routinely shown how people establish ethnic and social identities by referring to others’ alleged behaviors and experiences (Holdsworth and Morgan 2007; Stirling and Manderson 2011). In this sense, identity is considered a dynamic production of a sense of self, dependent on the type of interaction and with whom we interact (Bamberg 2014; Davies and Harré 1990).

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