Professional paper
Accommodation in Fiction: The Role of Convergence in Intergroup Encounters
Patricia Díaz-Muñoz
; Complutense University of Madrid, Spain
Abstract
Linguistic strategies are frequently used in fiction so as to create
a sense of reality. One of the most common of such resources in many anglophone TV series is the creation of groups of friends, who develop
some rituals and conventions that the viewers are able to recognise as
the show goes by, and one of the most common linguistic strategies
in the creation of rituals and conventions is accommodation, which is
usually used to create a sense of convergence or divergence towards
the interlocutor(s). Although considerable research has been devoted
to the concept of accommodation, less attention has been drawn to its
use in fiction and the effects it triggers. Thus, the aim of this paper is to
analyse the use of convergent accommodation as a linguistic strategy used to create a sense of reality in intergroup encounters within fiction.
Hence, Communication Accommodation Theory (Dragojevic et al.,
“Communication Accommodation Theory”, “Accommodative Strategies”)
was chosen as the framework to develop the study because it provides
a thorough analysis of accommodative moves, considering speakers’ orientation, goal and subsequent evaluation. The samples were gathered from the TV series How I Met Your Mother, for the characters in the series are a group of friends consisting of two women and three men, which also allows for the study of possible gender differences as regards trends in accommodation. The samples were analysed both in a quantitative and qualitative manner, considering speakers’ initial orientation and gender. The results from the analysis show that convergent accommodation has an important role in the creation of rituals and conventions to provide the show with the desired sense of reality. Besides, the results also show some interesting differences in the way women and men are depicted regarding accommodation trends.
Keywords
accommodation; convergence; fiction; intergroup encounters
Hrčak ID:
244510
URI
Publication date:
9.7.2020.
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