Page 448 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-28 1/10/09 8:58 AM Page 419

STRATEGIC MODEL OF ADDRESS 419

of approximately 2,000 informants. Both the have not been resolved; therefore, it com-
questionnaires and interviews were ethno- prises a series of two-dimensional diagrams,
graphic in nature, designed to gain an under- some of which are presented in this chapter.
standing of aspects of address not usually Interaction takes place on one of two
considered in address form studies, such as conversational planes – one governed by
the cognitive processes speakers used to conventionalized notions of appropriateness
select appropriate forms and to interpret the (or protocol), the other by the individual rela-
forms used with them, reasons for changing tionship established by each dyad of inter-
from unmarked (expected) forms to those locutors, who sometimes negotiate address
considered unusual by conventional norms, usage others find unusual. Informants men-
variation in use at the level of the individual. tion reverting, temporarily, to conventional-
The presentation of the data includes both ized forms in the presence of certain others
qualitative description and frequency of (a difficulty for researchers of actual usage,
response statistics, as appropriate, both for rarely acknowledged), to appear to be ‘correct’.
the original study (de Oliveira Medeiros, Hymes (1974: 111) refers to a speaker’s adher-
1985) and follow-up studies (de Oliveira, ence, or not, to linguistic norms as ‘marked-
1995b; de Oliveira, 2005). ness’, expected linguistic choices being
After continued considerations of power ‘unmarked’and unexpected choices ‘marked’.
and solidarity, as well as other forces under- Recognizing that speakers choose whether to
lying address choices (Braun, 1988; Brown adhere to address norms on either plane, four
and Levinson, 1978; de Oliveira, 1997; distinctions were coined to account for
Spencer-Oatey, 1996; Taavitsainen and marked or unmarked usage on each: marked
Jucker, 2003), the importance of the con- conventionalized, unmarked conventional-
struction and negotiation of identities within ized, marked negotiated and unmarked nego-
address form relationships is confirmed. It tiated (de Oliveira, 1985: 136). This distinction
portrays the types of decision-making or cog- is critical for interpreting usage, as it sets the
nitive processes guiding speakers to their parameters for judging markedness in usage.
eventual choices. Other mapping attempts, In other types of behavior we see examples
such as Ervin-Tripp (1972), chart the choices of this in statements such as ‘Oh, don’t worry
of an ‘idealized’ speaker; such representa- about her – she’s just being herself’, which
tions seem to imply a specific decision- informs the hearer that we know that by con-
making hierarchy, despite a disclaimer ventional norms her behavior would or might
stating that the chart is but a single represen- be considered unusual, but it is within her
tation of the communicative possibilities. normal limits.
Here, no particular factor or consideration is The cognitive strategies used to evaluate
viewed as the ‘first’ to be made, and dis- the relevant social and situational factors are
claimers are unnecessary. Further, individual combined with negotiation strategies to pro-
variation is not viewed as an anomaly but a duce a wide range of address form patterns.
natural feature of human communication. By viewing this model in the context of the
The multidimensional model is too com- complex Portuguese address form system,
plex for complete presentation here, as it the inadequacy of previous models becomes
incorporates the forms people use, the strate- clear. Table 28.1 presents a simplified schema,
gies that guide them, and speakers’ motiva- the forms organized according to their con-
tions and conversational goals in the three ventionalized interpretation. A distinction is
stages of their relationship: the initial con- made between the explicit ‘V-pronoun’ voce ˆ
tact, the negotiation of an address form rela- and use of the third person singular form of
tionship and the eventual renegotiation(s) of the verb, without an expressed pronoun, rep-
the relationship. To date, the problems asso- resented as [voceˆ], a linguistic convention to
ciated with its representation on a single page indicate that the verb form used is the one