Publications
Publication details [#59291]
Pavlidou, Theodossia, ed. 2014. Constructing Collectivity. 'We' across languages and contexts. (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 239). John Benjamins. x, 355 pp.
Publication type
Book – edited volume
Publication language
English
Keywords
Annotation
This is the first edited volume dedicated specifically to first person non-singular reference (‘we’). Its aim is to explore the interplay between the grammatical means that a language offers for accomplishing collective self-reference and the socio-pragmatic – broadly speaking – functions of ‘we’. Besides an introduction, which offers an overview of the problems and issues associated with first person non-singular reference, the volume comprises fifteen chapters that cover languages as diverse as, e.g., Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Cha’palaa and Norf’k, and various interactional and genre-specific contexts of spoken and written discourse. It, thus, effectively demonstrates the complexity of collective self-reference and the diversity of phenomena that become relevant when ‘we’ is not examined in isolation but within the context of situated language use.