Alternativen namentlicher Anrede als Ressourcen sozialen Handelns: ein Fall für die Interaktionale Onomastik

Abstract

The sociolinguistic literature suggests that the choice of terms of
address (e.g. nickname, term of endearment, kin term, first name, or prefix
+ last name) depends on the identities of the participants and the settings in
which they are used. However, the names which participants use to address
their co-participants may also vary within single episodes of social interaction,
whereby terms of address with specific names are not only bound to specific
participants but to the social activities in which the participants are engaged
as well. This paper investigates from an interactional-onomastic perspective
how participants rely on specific terms of address in sequences of turns-attalk
as a resource to get things done. Detailed analyses of sequences in which
family members address their co-participants with first names as opposed to
nicknames and kin terms demonstrate that specific names serve as means for
the locally situated recalibration of identities that participants methodically
use to contextualize social actions. The results are discussed along with their
implications for both the study of social action and the study of names. Data
are from family interactions in German