Harvey Sacks and Emanuel A. Schegloff: "Two 
Preferences in the Organization of Reference to 
Persons in Conversation and Their Interaction,"
in G. Psathas (ed.), Everyday Language: Studies in
Ethnomethodology (New York: Irvington Publishers,
Inc., 1979) 15-21.

In conversation, persons have occasion to refer to
other persons. Sacks and Schegloff examine here 
two preferences in such references. The first, 
minimization, involves use of a single reference 
form and the second, recipient design, involves 
the preference for "recognitionals," e.g. name. 
Names may be used not only because the person is 
known but also in preparation for subsequent use
in the conversation even when the person is not 
already known by the recipient/hearer. When 
recognition is in doubt, a recognitional with an 
accompanying (questioning) upward intonational 
contour, followed by a briefpause (or "try- 
marker") may be used. The argument advanced by the
authors is that members' uses of these, and 
succeeding try-markers in sequences, provide 
evidence for the preferential structure of efforts
to achieve recognition in reference to other 
persons in the course of a conversation. Thus, the
close examination of members' conversational 
interaction can reveal not only the organized, 
methodical practices they use, but also the
structure of preferred solutions to particular 
problems that arise in conversation.