Constructing Expertise:Person Reference in Audience Members’Self-Identification in Public Talk Q&A Sessions
Research on talk in institutional settings has examined how institutional asymmetries are enacted and identities negotiated (Benwell & Stokoe, 2006; Drew & Heritage, 1992). In this chapter, I analyze how practices for referring to persons, particularly initial self-references, are fundamental to how participants in the institutional context of public talks establish and enact the presentation of self, as well as how they position themselves vis-à-vis other participants.
A central aspect of the organization of talk is the selection of words to refer to objects, places, events, and people. However, there is no one-to-one direct relation between objects, places, events, and people and the label used to refer to them. For instance, a person called Ignasi Clemente can be referred to as Ignasi, Ignasi Clemente, Dr. Clemente, Elena’s son, my brother, or the professor who teaches at Hunter. All these references are correct and applicable to refer to the author of this chapter. As Enfield (2013) succinctly puts it, “I cannot ‘just label’ the thing: There is no one way to label it” (p. 453). At the same time, because for a reference to be successful it needs to be shared by the speaker and their interlocutor, some of these references will be recognized by some people and not others. Thus, reference involves a choice among different options made for a specific audience in a specific context....
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