The appropriation of media texts as conversational and pragmatic strategies

• A cornerstone of pragmatic theories of the interpretation or negotiation of meaning is the concept of common ground (Stalnaker, 1978), common knowledge (Lewis, 1969), or joint knowledge (McCarthy, 1990), which Clark (1996:92) refers to as the “sine qua non for everything we do with others.” One thing we often do with others is watch television or movies, and subsequently we secure these activities as common ground through talk. In this paper, I analyze conversations among family members whose use of quoting from the dialogue of films and television programs represents conversational strategies whereby common ground is exploited for different purposes. In particular, quoting is shown to be used by children to showcase knowledge and hold the floor, and by parents to establish alignments with other members of the family or indirectly opinionate on an on-going conversation between other family members. The data come from recorded conversations among members of a four-person, Swedish-American family. Each family member speaks Swedish and English and uses both on a daily basis. Three members of the family also speak German and use it on a near-daily basis. The shared linguistic knowledge among the family members therefore represents an additional common ground, which enables the appropriation of media texts in different languages. The integration of quotes from film or television texts into conversation often results in code-switching and, due to the languages typically associated with the different possible familial dyads, crossing (Rampton, 1995) can be said to occur as well. The appropriation of a media text is therefore identified as an appropriation of and alignment with a linguistic identity, resulting in additional challenges to interlocutors with regards to the negotiation of meaning.

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