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Part of
(Non)referentiality in Conversation
Edited by Michael C. Ewing and Ritva Laury
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 344] 2024
► pp. 167–202

Chapter 9
An interactional approach to generic second person expressions in Mandarin conversation

| University of California Los Angeles

This chapter tackles the hitherto under-explored question of when and why conversationalists deploy second person generic expressions that feature a general and vague referential scope. I show that the conversational contexts in which they appear are usually characterized most prominently by their relatively complex and/or controversial subject matters, participants’ incongruent stances, and/or opposing positions to be contested. These contexts and their associated interactional demands are argued to give rise to the patterning of clustering (multiplicity of instances in adjacent units), limited generality (as good-enough-yet-not-too-broad general statements), and primary (or attempted primary) speakership. In general, second person generic statements can be seen as a special and powerful rhetorical device designed for marked interactional occasions.

Keywords: second person singular pronoun, generic expression, reference, indefinite, impersonal, truism, informing, persuasion, argumentation, Mandarin conversation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Materials and methodology
  • 3.General broad patterns in conversation
    • 3.1Clustering
    • 3.2Locally conditioned generalities
    • 3.3Primary speaker roles
  • 4.Social activities: When and why speakers deploy second person generic expressions?
    • 4.1Complex informing
    • 4.2Persuasion
    • 4.3Argumentation
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1The preference for clusters
    • 5.2Limited generality
    • 5.3The association with a primary speaker role (or lack thereof if primary speakership is more dynamically negotiated)
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
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