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Article published In:
Polymedia in Interaction
Edited by Jannis Androutsopoulos
[Pragmatics and Society 12:5] 2021
► pp. 756–781

The metapragmatics of mode choice

| University of Copenhagen
| University of Copenhagen

In this article, we investigate the use of social media in contemporary family interaction from a linguistic ethnographic perspective. Inspired by Auer’s (1998) work on code-switching in conversation, we study how family members choose and sometimes alternate between digitally mediated and face-to-face modes of communication in various family settings. Based on ethnographic observations, the participants’ metapragmatic reflections, and their interactional orientations to mode choices, we show how such choices serve social and metapragmatic functions in the interaction between family members who are present in the same house or even in the same room. Accordingly, we argue in favor of situating peoples’ polymedia repertoires in a broader framework of communicative repertoires.

Keywords: mode choice, multimodality, digitally mediated interaction, social media, family interaction, communicative repertoires, polymedia, linguistic ethnography
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Multimodal interaction and polymedia repertoires
  • 3.Mode choice and communicative repertoires
  • 4.Data and methodology
  • 5.Mode choice in everyday interaction
    • 5.1Texting at home as a convenient choice
    • 5.2Negotiating norms for at-home texting
  • 6.The metapragmatics of mode choice
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 7 February 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.20050.can
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