Abstract for On the Preference for Minimization in Referring to Persons: Evidence from Hebrew Conversation
Hacohen, G. and Schegloff, E. A. (2006). On the
Preference for Minimization in Referring to
Persons: Evidence from Hebrew Conversation.
Journal of Pragmatics, 38, 1305-1312.
Hebrew is among the languages in which person,
number and gender are inflected on the verb in
past and future tenses. Although free-standing
pronouns are therefore ‘‘redundant’’ in common-
sense terms when articulated in such contexts,
they do occur, and constitute departures from what
conversation analysts propose to be a preference
for minimization in person reference. Several
exemplars are examined to show one interactional
environment in which this usage occurs, and which
it can be seen to mark, namely, environments of
disalignment. Three upshots of this analysis are
explicated.
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