Cover not available
Article published In:
From Culture to Language and Back: The Animacy Hierarchy in language and discourse
Edited by Laure Gardelle and Sandrine Sorlin
[International Journal of Language and Culture 5:2] 2018
► pp. 248–270

*Sings myself happy birthday*

Externalizing and reassuming self in virtual performatives

| Åbo Akademi University |

This paper explores linguistic egocentrism in English through the lens of virtual performatives, i.e. self-referential stand-alone predications in the third person singular present tense through which users perform virtual action or emotion. The focus is on microblogging for apparently recreational purposes, where visibility, rather than reciprocity, must be a primary concern. Findings show that the common or garden virtual performative consistently relying on an externalized self occasionally turns into a variant where the self is subsequently reassumed, and then again possibly re-externalized within the same construction. The syntactic and discursive systematicity manifest in these constructions forbids treating them as erroneous. The paper discusses the benefits of this way of externalizing and optionally reassuming self, through fluctuation between third-person and first-person references, and touches upon metapragmatic awareness and logophoricity. In creating digital culture, virtual performatives point to users’ pragmatic adaptation of their public, social self to environments manifesting a high degree of context collapse.

Keywords: virtual performative, externalized self, reassumed self, pronouns, microblogging
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials and methods
  • 3.Linguistic egocentrism and entry points
  • 4.Externalizing self
  • 5.Reassuming self
  • 6.Enacting a microplay
  • 7.On the dramatis persona ‘me’, stage directions, online commentary, and cartoons
  • 8.Metapragmatic awareness
  • 9.In search of logophoric notes
  • 10.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 June 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.00009.vir
References
Banks, J.
(2017) Multimodal, multiplex, multispatial: A network model of the self. New Media & Society, 19(3), 419–438. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cherny, L.
(1995) The modal complexity of speech events in a social mud. Electronic Journal of Communication, 51. [URL]
Coesemans, R., & De Cock, B.
(2017) Self-reference by politicians on Twitter: Strategies to adapt to 140 characters. Journal of Pragmatics, 1161, 37–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cooper, W. E., & Ross, J. R.
(1975) World order. In R. E. Grossman, L. J. San & T. J. Vance (Eds.), Papers from the parasession on functionalism (pp. 63–111). Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Danet, B.
(2001) Cyberpl@y: Communicating online. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Dayter, D.
(2014) Self-praise in microblogging. Journal of Pragmatics, 611, 91–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F.
(1980) Mille plateaux. Paris: Éditions de minuit.Google Scholar
van Dijck, J.
(2013) ‘You have one identity’: Performing the self on Facebook and LinkedIn. Media, Culture & Society, 35(2), 199–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ertel, S.
(1977) Where do the subjects of sentences come from? In S. Rosenberg (Ed.), Sentence production (pp. 141–167). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Georgakopoulou, A.
(2013) Narrative analysis and computer-mediated communication. In S. C. Herring, D. Stein & T. Virtanen (Eds.), Pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (pp. 695–715). Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gill, M.
(2011) Authenticity. In J-O. Östman & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Pragmatics in practice: Handbook of pragmatics highlights, Vol. 91 (pp. 46–65). Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E.
(1959) The presentation of self in everyday life. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Hagège, C.
(1974) Les pronoms logophoriques. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, 691, 287–310.Google Scholar
Hancock, J., & Gonzalez, A.
(2013) Deception in computer-mediated communication. In S. C. Herring, D. Stein & T. Virtanen (Eds.), Pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (pp. 363–383). Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herring, S. C.
(2001) Computer-mediated discourse. In D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen & H. Hamilton (Eds.), Handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 612–634). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
(2007) A faceted classification scheme for computer-mediated discourse. Language@Internet, 41, article 1, [URL]
(2012) Grammar and electronic communication. In C. A. Chapelle (Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013) Discourse in Web 2.0: Familiar, reconfigured, and emergent. In D. Tannen & A. M. Trester (Eds.), Discourse 2.0: Language and new media (pp. 1–25). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
Herring, S. C., & Kapidzic, S.
(2015) Teens, gender, and self-presentation in social media. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia of social and behavioral sciences, 2nd ed. (pp. 146–152). Oxford: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herring, S. C., Stein, D., & Virtanen, T.
(Eds.) (2013) Pragmatics of computer-mediated communication. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Honeycutt, C., & Herring, S. C.
(2009) Beyond microblogging: Conversation and collaboration via Twitter. Proceedings of the forty-second Hawai’i international conference on system sciences (HICSS-42). Los Alamitos: IEEE Press.Google Scholar
Jespersen, O.
(1949) A modern English grammar on historical principles. Part VII: Syntax. Copenhagen: Jørgensen.Google Scholar
Kolko, B.
(1995) Building a world with words: The narrative reality of virtual communities. Works and Days 25/26, 13 (1/2), 105–126.Google Scholar
Kuno, S., & Kaburaki, E.
(1977) Empathy and syntax. Linguistic Inquiry, 8(4), 627–272.Google Scholar
Labov, W.
(1972) Language in the inner city: Studies in Black English Vernacular. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Lee, C.
(2011) Texts and practices of micro-blogging: Status updates on Facebook. In C. Thurlow & K. Mroczek (Eds.), Digital discourse: Language in the new media (pp. 110–128). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013) ‘My English is so poor…so I take photos’: Metalinguistic discourses about English on FlickR. In D. Tannen & A. M. Trester (Eds.), Discourse 2.0: Language and new media (pp. 73–83). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
(2014) Language choice and self-presentation in social media: the case of university students in Hong Kong. In P. Seargeant & C. Tagg (Eds.), The language of social media: Identity and community on the Internet (pp. 91–111). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Levinson, S. C.
(2000) Presumptive meanings: The theory of Generalized Conversational Implicature. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lindholm, L.
(2010) ‘A little story for food for thought…’: Narratives in advice discourse. In S-K. Tanskanen, M. L. Helasvuo, M. Johansson & M. Raitaniemi (Eds.), Discourses in interaction (pp. 223–236). Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Litt, E.
(2012) “Knock, knock, who’s there?” The imagined audience. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56(3), 330–345. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Longacre, R. E.
(1983) The grammar of discourse. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Marwick, A. E., & boyd, d.
(2010) I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately: Twitter users, context collapse, and the imagined audience. New Media & Society, 31, 4–33.Google Scholar
Mühlhäusler, P., & Harré, R.
(1990) Pronouns and people: The linguistic construction of social and personal identity. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Osgood, C. E., & Bock, J. K.
(1977) Salience and sentencing: Some production principles. In S. Rosenberg (Ed.), Sentence production (pp. 89–140). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Page, R. E.
(2012a) Stories and social media: Identities and interaction. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Page, R.
(2012b) The linguistics of self-branding and micro-celebrity in Twitter: The role of hashtags. Discourse & Communication, 6(2), 181–201. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rettberg, J. W.
(2014) Seeing ourselves through technology: How we use selfies, blogs and wearable devices to see and shape ourselves. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robinson, L.
(2007) The cyberself: The self-ing project goes online, symbolic interaction in the digital era. New Media & Society, 9(1), 93–110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Searle, J. R.
(2001) How performatives work. In D. Vanderveken & S. Kubo (Eds.), Essays in speech act theory (pp. 85–107). Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Siewierska, A.
(1988) Word order rules. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Simpson, J.
(2013) Conversational floor in computer-mediated discourse. In S. C. Herring, D. Stein & T. Virtanen (Eds.), Pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (pp. 515–538). Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sorlin, S.
(2014) La stylistique anglaise: Théories et pratiques. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes.Google Scholar
Vásquez, C.
(2014) The discourse of online consumer reviews. London: Bloomberg.Google Scholar
Verschueren, J.
(1995) The conceptual basis of performativity. In M. Shibatani & S. A. Thompson (Eds), Essays in semantics and pragmatics (pp. 299–321). Amsterdam: Benjamins.Google Scholar
(1999) Understanding pragmatics. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Virtanen, T.
(2013a) Performativity in computer-mediated communication. In S. C. Herring, D. Stein & T. Virtanen (Eds.), Pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (pp. 269–290). Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013b) Mock performatives in online discussion boards: Toward a discourse-pragmatic model of computer-mediated communication. In D. Tannen & A. M. Trester (Eds.), Discourse 2.0: Language and new media (pp. 155–166). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar
(2015) Referring to oneself in the third person: A novel construction in text-based computer-mediated communication. In L. Gardelle & S. Sorlin (Eds.), The pragmatics of personal pronouns (pp. 215–238). Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2017) Adaptability in online consumer reviews: Exploring genre dynamics and interactional choices. Journal of Pragmatics, 1161, 77–90. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wårvik, B.
(2013) Peak-marking strategies in Old English narrative prose. Style, 47(2), 168–184.Google Scholar
Werry, C. C.
(1996) Linguistic and interactional features of Internet Relay Chat. In S. C. Herring (Ed.), Computer-mediated communication: Linguistic, social, and cross-cultural perspectives (pp. 47–63). Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wesch, M.
(2009) YouTube and you: Experiences of self-awareness in the context collapse of the recording webcam. Explorations in Media Ecology, 8(2), 99–114.Google Scholar
Zappavigna, M.
(2011) Ambient affiliation: A linguistic perspective on Twitter. New Media & Society, 13(5), 788–806. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Virtanen, Tuija
2021. Fragments online: virtual performatives in recreational discourse. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 53:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Virtanen, Tuija
2021. Enhancing Social Presence Through Textual Action: Virtual Performatives as a Relatability Strategy. In Analyzing Digital Discourses, ► pp. 27 ff. DOI logo
Virtanen, Tuija
2022. Virtual performatives as face-work practices on Twitter: Relying on self-reference and humour. Journal of Pragmatics 189 ► pp. 134 ff. DOI logo
Virtanen, Tuija
2024. Chapter 8. Pretending to pretend. In The Pragmatics of Hypocrisy [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 343], ► pp. 187 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 31 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.