Facetten einer Interaktionalen Onomastik: ‚Die Maus liebt dich!‘ – Onymische Selbstreferenzen in der Interaktion

Abstract

This paper, which seeks to contribute to the field of Interactional
Onomastics (De Stefani 2016), addresses onymic forms of self-reference in
computer-mediated interactions. Applying theoretical and methodological
concepts developed in Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics, the
study looks at onymic forms as communicative practices. In SMS and Whats-
App exchanges, participants systematically deviate from the default use of the
deictic pronoun and shifter ich (I) and mobilize a range of different onymic
forms (e.g. personal names, kinship terms, pet names, ad hoc titles, categorizations
etc.) as communicative
practices when referring to themselves. I argue
that these onymic forms, which go against the „preference for using a minimal
form“ (Sacks/Schegloff 1979), do more than simply refer to the speaker/
writer: Participants use address inversions and third person reference forms
(instead of the deictic pronoun ich) as „social indices“ (Silverstein 1976: 37) to
contextualize various social meanings – which would be hidden in cases of „referring
simpliciter“ (Schegloff 1996) – by means of the deictic pronoun ich.