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155 9 Mock Performatives in Online Discussion Boards Toward a Discourse-Pragmatic Model of Computer-Mediated Communication TUIJA VIRTANEN Åbo Akademi University Introduction PERFORMATIVES (Austin 1962) have received little attention in online environments.Yet the formal performative marker “hereby” appears on personal websites, discussion boards, and, to some extent, blogs—in contexts of informal computer-mediated communication (CMC). This chapter accounts for the motivations and communicative success of explicit performatives including the formal marker, by investigating their forms and discourse -pragmatic functions in data from discussion boards on beauty and fashion. For example, a user expressing regret over the sums of money that she has recently spent on makeup gets the response “I hereby grant you permission to blow cash on how you look.” More specifically, this chapter contributes to the study of text-based CMC by proposing two terms, “mock performative” and “discourse transformer,” and devising a discourse-pragmatic model for the analysis of online performativity. Unlike performativity, the notion of performance—users performing social action through discourse—has been the subject of several studies, concerning, for instance , “cyberplay” (Danet 2001), the social processes of “doing genre” online (Giltrow in press), online narrativity (Georgakopoulou in press), and performance through the enactment of stereotyped offline scripts (Herring 2000). Rather than performance at large—the making of the action performed through discourse—this chapter deals with the phenomenon of performativity in text-based CMC—the doing of an action by typing it in, its self-referential enactment in a virtual reality (for a discussion of the making and doing of personal narrative, see Peterson and Langellier 2006). Overview The chapter explores explicit performatives incorporating the marker “hereby” in textbased CMC, using data from US-based discussion boards on beauty and fashion.These performatives have their roots in institutional discourse but are put to use in informal conversations between interlocutors of equal status who participate in the interaction of their own free will. I propose the term “mock performative” for such instances as that described above. Although mock performatives may appear both offline and online , their use in text-based CMC is of particular interest to linguists because (1) they allow users to “do things with words,” in the Austinian sense, solely by typing in the performative; (2) they are noncancelable; and (3) they bring change to a virtual reality under construction. Mock performatives evoke Austin’s notion of etiolation, a shifting or weakening of one or more aspects of the performative speech act (such as authority or address) without turning the speech act into a nonact. CMC-sensitive approaches to performatives grapple with the construction of multiple worlds, real and virtual, and thus adapt to an open-ended pluralism of what there may be. Another important impetus for the study of mock performatives in CMC is provided by their ability to initiate joint play sequences in the discussion thread. I propose the term “discourse transformer” to characterize the work that mock performatives do in signaling a shift to a play mode. Because of their status as discourse transformers, the dispreferred response to mock performatives is textual silence . In these forums users generally express alignment to license the play mode. They do so by juggling institutional scripts that are to be shared. Furthermore, the playfulness of mock performatives allows users to assume authority over other participants . Mock performatives usually appear as responses to previous contributions. A discourse-pragmatic model is devised to capture the effects of the mock performatives in the forums. The model draws parallels between the linguistic domains of (1) form, content, and style; (2) discourse functions; (3) the situated micropragmatics ; and (4) the sociocultural macropragmatics. The impact of mock performatives on each of them is examined through the lenses of five major discourse-pragmatic phenomena: (1) structuring; (2) highlighting; (3) constructing; (4) linking; and (5) authenticating. The model is proposed as a point of departure for the study of performativity in text-based CMC. After the literature review, I present the methods and materials of the study. When mock performatives are introduced, the concern is with their form, content, and stylistic fit in the online discussions. Joint juggling of scripts originating in courtroom discourse and awards ceremonies, focusing on the participant roles involved in their playful use; the function of mock performatives as discourse transformers; and mock performatives in terms of five discourse-pragmatic phenomena, resulting in a model of computer-mediated discourse, complete the chapter. Literature Review Searle defines performative utterances as follows: [S]ome illocutionary...

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