What's in a name? Vocatives and participant referentials in multiparty conversation

This paper presents an analysis of the use of vocatives and participant referentials (i.e. third-person reference to individuals participating in the enounter) in triadic interaction, based on an audio-recorded corpus of conjoint therapy involving a therapist and an interracial couple. Drawing on work by E. Goffman and S. Levinson, the analysis shows how use of these pragmatic resources makes it possible to design talk for specific addressees while at the same time temporarily sidelining others, thus contributing to an understanding of how recipient design lead to shifts in participation frameworks in multiparty talk.