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