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Article published In:
Dialogue in institutional settings
Edited by Franca Orletti and Letizia Caronia
[Language and Dialogue 9:1] 2019
► pp. 149–171

Names and the transidioma

Language and power in the 21st century

| University of San Francisco (USA)

The experience of linguistic globalization, and the communicative disorder it entails, requires a serious retooling of most basic units of semiotic analysis. The complexity and indeterminacy of late-modern communication affects most sociolinguistic assumptions behind social interactions. In particular, we can no longer assume a model of dialogue based on shared indexical knowledge. By introducing the concept of transidioma – i.e. the ensemble of communicative practices of people embedded in translingual environments and engaged in interactions that blend face-to-face and digitally-mediated communication – this paper documents the renewed reliance on denotational references, especially proper names, as a primary strategy to handle dialogue during asylum hearings.

Keywords: transidioma, translanguaging, crosstalk, multimodality, interactional power, asylum
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Translingualism, power, and institutional settings
  • 3.Credibility, referentiality, and proper names
    • 3.1Personal names
    • 3.2Place names
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 July 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00036.jac
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