Interpersonal Positioning in English as a Lingua Franca Interactions

Svitlana Klötzl received her PhD from the University of Vienna. Her research interests include discourse analysis, English as a lingua franca, applied linguistics, and private couple interaction. Her publications include articles in Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, Discourse and interaction, and a chapter in Globalisation: Myth or Reality? Birgit Swoboda is a freelance researcher publishing and presenting on language use in computer-games. She studied English Linguistics and History at the University of Vienna and holds a PhD degree (thesis title: L2P n00b – The pragmatics of positioning in MMORPGs). Her research focus is CMC, politeness and positioning theory.

Table of Contents

Chapter One



INTRODUCTION: from text to discourse



Why English as a lingua franca?



Why ingame (disembodied) interaction?



Why ELF couple interaction?



Two domains – the same basic issues



Outline



Chapter Two



THE DISCOURSE OF ELF



Channel



Code



Context



Participants



Conclusion



Chapter Three



COMMUNICATION AS POSITIONING



Communication as "a meaningful whole"



Positioning as polyphony



Bakhtin’s voice



Positioning as Bakhtin’s dialogicality



Positioning Theory



Positioning in the social sciences



Positioning and the face



Positioning as politeness: personal wants and other motivations



Positioning as involvement and independence: pro-social and relational approaches



The co-operative and territorial imperatives



Conclusion



Chapter Four



POSITIONING AS POLYPHONIC METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH



Methodological issues: "a paradox of irreducible subjectivity"



Research design: triangulated inquiry



Gamer-participants



Couples-participants



Couple 1. Nargiz (Ukrainian) and Dan (French) (C1/ua-fr)



Couple 2. Sue (Israeli) and Henry (Austrian) (C2/il-au)



Couple 3. Sandy (Italian) and Peter (Austrian) (C3/it-au)



Couple 4. Monica (Austrian) and Patrick (Czech) (C4/au-cz)



Couple 5. Anna (Austrian) and Paul (Hungarian) (C5/au-hu)



Ingame data



Third-person data: self-compiled corpus of ingame and out-game interaction



Second-person data: questionnaire



First-person data: critical incident log



Couple data



Third-person data: corpus of couples’ self-recordings



Second-person data: interviews and participants’ comments



First-person data: the researcher’s diary and field notes



Summary and conclusion



Chapter Five



DISEMBODIED COMMUNICATION: Positioning in computer-mediated gaming discourse



Introduction



MMORPGs and its communication



Communication channels and their functions



Aspects and challenges



Places and positions in gaming



The gamers' motivations



Finding place and assigning place



Ingame positioning



LFG (Looking for group) sequences: finding help and grouping ingame



Trolling



Griefing



Wiping: the death of all party members



Conclusion



Chapter Six



A LOVE AFFAIR WITH ELF: positioning as interpersonal dynamics in ELF couple discourse



Introduction



"What מאמי /mami/?": achieving meaning in couple talk



"Schatzi what does your mother do there eigentlich": use of language to the pragmatic effect of togetherness



"This dog is a topic": ‘others’ as interactional resource in the process of establishing coupleness



"Lustig mein mann ist": intertextuality as an interactive resource in ELF couple talk



"Mucho bueno": achieving ‘coupleness’ through representational function of couples’ ELF



Conclusion: ELF as "refuge in this little world of ours"



Chapter Seven



CONCLUSION: Positioning as a universal process of human communication