Page 445 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-28 1/10/09 8:58 AM Page 416

28

Negotiating Identity,

Conflict, and Cooperation

within a Strategic Model

of Address

Sandi Michele de Oliveira

INTRODUCTION selection or interpretation of address forms,
as opposed to furthering a particular social
Within the field of sociolinguistics, broadly theory, their use here approximates their
defined to include works on ‘language and non-technical definitions.
society’ or ‘language in context’ in the disci- ‘Address forms’ are taken to mean both
plines of sociology, linguistics, anthropol- pronouns of address (glossed as ‘you’) and
ogy, psychology, communication, (critical) nominal forms (names, titles) used in direct
discourse analysis, gender studies, pragmatics, address. Personal and social identities are
philosophy, etc., the issues of identity con- considered from strategic as well as repre-
struction, conflict and cooperation have long sentative angles, as each is present in the
research histories, as exemplified by Atkinson communicative process. Conflict is viewed as
and Heritage (1984), Coates (1986), Giles occurring when ‘participants take alternative
and Powesland (1975), Grimshaw (1990), positions on the same issue (whether reconcil-
Gumperz (1982b), Kondo (1990), LePage able or mutually exclusive)’ (Leung, 2002: 3),
and Tabouret-Keller (1985), Myers-Scotton i.e., when speakers do not share a common
(1983), Sacks (1992), Schiffrin (1985), view or goal and choose to make this differ-
Scollon and Scollon (1995), Tajfel and ence clear, whereas cooperation occurs when
Turner (1979), and van Dijk (1980). Their speakers use conversational strategies to
definitions have been variously shaped by minimize distance and/or seek a common
these disciplines, and technical definitions goal. Therefore, conflict and cooperation are
have evolved. However, as this chapter will considered opposing forces in conversation,
demonstrate how these issues can impact the although studies focusing on these phenomena