Discourse marker ‘oh’ as a means for realizing the identity potential of constructed dialogue in interaction1

Abstract

This research explores how discourse markerohworks with constructed dialogue (quoted speech), identifying a use ofohnot discussed in previous research in which it can serve to signal speakerstancetowards quoted material. While both discourse markers and constructed dialogue have been widely discussed as identity resources in the discourse analytic and interactional‐sociolinguistic tradition, there has been little work considering how these linguistic features may work together. In this paper, I address this gap by illustrating howBakhtin's (1984)notions of uni‐directional and vari‐directional double voicing articulate with information display and evaluation functions ofohidentified bySchiffrin (1987), suggesting thatoh(when occurring as a preface to constructed dialogue), works both todisplayandevaluatequoted material for the purposes of identity construction in interaction. Such uses of this discourse marker provide illustration of howfootingworks together with related concepts ofevaluation,positioning, andalignmentas part of a process of stancetaking in interaction (Du Bois 2007). Examples are taken from ethnographic interviews collected as part of a larger study of the linguistic style of a community of improv performers in Washington, D.C. focusing primarily on examples contributed by one speaker, Josh.