Benveniste and the Periperformative Structure of the Pragmeme

Douglas Robinson*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    4 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    In his attempt to impose a counterintuitive binary on the “personal” pronouns—arguing that the first and second persons “personalize” and the third person “depersonalizes”—Émile Benveniste creates a cognitive dissonance that drives us to consider a startling observation: that there is a virtual third person that haunts the first and second persons as a “witness” to the performative interactions between the “I” and the “you.” This chapter draws on Eve Sedgwick’s (Touching feeling: affect, pedagogy, performativity. Duke University Press, Durham, 2003) notion of the “periperformative” to explore the “I-you-they” structure of the pragmeme.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationPragmemes and Theories of Language Use
    EditorsKeith Allan, Alessandro Capone, Istvan Kecskes
    PublisherSpringer Cham
    Pages85-104
    Number of pages20
    Edition1st
    ISBN (Electronic)9783319434919
    ISBN (Print)9783319434902, 9783319828381
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 11 Jan 2017

    Publication series

    NamePerspectives in Pragmatics, Philosophy and Psychology
    Volume9
    ISSN (Print)2214-3807
    ISSN (Electronic)2214-3815

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Benveniste
    • I
    • Periperformative
    • Pronouns
    • Sedgwick
    • They
    • You

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