Publications

Publication details [#61104]

Kluge, Bettina. 2016. Generic uses of the second person singular – how speakers deal with referential ambiguity and misunderstandings. Pragmatics 26 (3) : 501–522.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Place, Publisher
John Benjamins
Journal DOI
10.1075/prag

Annotation

This study explores how interlocutors settle reference problems regarding the second singular person in ongoing conversation. They are inclined not to ask for clarification, probably for face wants, but depend on contextualization in later conversational development and on all disposable conversational resources. Reference ambiguity provoking misconceptions merely becomes a topic once important conversational complications emerge that overrule interlocutors’ face needs.