Interpersonal Positioning in English as a Lingua Franca Interactions

Table of Contents

Chapter One

INTRODUCTION: from text to discourse

Why English as a lingua franca?

Why ingame (disembodied) interaction?

Why ELF couple interaction?

Two domains - the same basic issues

Outline

Chapter Two

THE DISCOURSE OF ELF

Channel

Code

Context

Participants

Conclusion

Chapter Three

COMMUNICATION AS POSITIONING

Communication as "a meaningful whole"

Positioning as polyphony

Bakhtin's voice

Positioning as Bakhtin's dialogicality

Positioning Theory

Positioning in the social sciences

Positioning and the face

Positioning as politeness: personal wants and other motivations

Positioning as involvement and independence: pro-social and relational approaches

The co-operative and territorial imperatives

Conclusion

Chapter Four

POSITIONING AS POLYPHONIC METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH

Methodological issues: "a paradox of irreducible subjectivity"

Research design: triangulated inquiry

Gamer-participants

Couples-participants

Couple 1. Nargiz (Ukrainian) and Dan (French) (C1/ua-fr)

Couple 2. Sue (Israeli) and Henry (Austrian) (C2/il-au)

Couple 3. Sandy (Italian) and Peter (Austrian) (C3/it-au)

Couple 4. Monica (Austrian) and Patrick (Czech) (C4/au-cz)

Couple 5. Anna (Austrian) and Paul (Hungarian) (C5/au-hu)

Ingame data

Third-person data: self-compiled corpus of ingame and out-game interaction

Second-person data: questionnaire

First-person data: critical incident log

Couple data

Third-person data: corpus of couples' self-recordings

Second-person data: interviews and participants' comments

First-person data: the researcher's diary and field notes

Summary and conclusion

Chapter Five

DISEMBODIED COMMUNICATION: Positioning in computer-mediated gaming discourse

Introduction

MMORPGs and its communication

Communication channels and their functions

Aspects and challenges

Places and positions in gaming

The gamers' motivations

Finding place and assigning place

Ingame positioning

LFG (Looking for group) sequences: finding help and grouping ingame

Trolling

Griefing

Wiping: the death of all party members

Conclusion

Chapter Six

A LOVE AFFAIR WITH ELF: positioning as interpersonal dynamics in ELF couple discourse

Introduction

"What ???? /mami/?": achieving meaning in couple talk

"Schatzi what does your mother do there eigentlich": use of language to the pragmatic effect of togetherness

"This dog is a topic": 'others' as interactional resource in the process of establishing coupleness

"Lustig mein mann ist": intertextuality as an interactive resource in ELF couple talk

"Mucho bueno": achieving 'coupleness' through representational function of couples' ELF

Conclusion: ELF as "refuge in this little world of ours"

Chapter Seven

CONCLUSION: Positioning as a universal process of human communication