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Generic reference and social ontology in Vietnamese conversation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2021

Jack Sidnell Open the ORCID record for Jack Sidnell [Opens in a new window]
Jack Sidnell*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, Canada
*
Address for correspondence: Jack Sidnell, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, 19 Russell St., Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2S2, Canada jack.sidnell@utoronto.ca
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Abstract

Generic expressions play a key role in the interactional articulation, social circulation, and temporal reproduction of ideology. Here I examine fragments from a conversation between four middle-class participants which took place at a café in Hanoi. After briefly describing the particular grammatico-textual patterns by which specific and generic references are accomplished in Vietnamese, I turn to consider two extended stretches of talk in which these people weave generic reference into the warp and weft of their interaction. I argue that generic reference is intimately tied to social ontology which consists, in part, of ideas about distinct and essentialized ‘kinds of persons’. Deployed in what appears, on the surface at least, as ordinary, mundane conversation, not only does such generic reference serve to position those referred to as ‘ontological other’ (Wynter 1987), it also constitutes an ‘act of alterity’ (Hastings & Manning 2004) by which the participants tacitly characterize themselves. (Reference, Vietnamese, social ontology, alterity, stereotype, essentialism)*

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Articles
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Language in Society , Volume 50 , Special Issue 4: The Generic , September 2021 , pp. 533 - 555
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

Most of what I have to say here developed in conversation with Chip Zuckerman. I thank him for generously sharing his ideas and for several rounds of commentary on the present article. I also thank the other contributors to this special issue, Luke Fleming, Hy Van Luong, Minh Nguyen and the students in my graduate seminar in linguistic anthropology (Ali Azhar, James Booker, Lynda Chubak, Sara Hamed, Joe Wilson), as well as two anonymous reviewers for the journal for very helpful comments and suggestions. For help with transcription and analysis of the materials discussed here I thank An Thùy Trần, Hương Thị Thanh Vũ and Thanh Hà Nguyễn.

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