Who is We?: Constructing Communities in US-Mexico Border Discourse

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe how a speaker in a bilingual, binational communicative event uses deictic expressions to index and build social relationships. After a short review of related theoretical issues a description of the communicative event is provided as well as a description of the sociopolitical and geographical contexts for the discourse. An analysis is then presented of the meanings of the deictic term `we' in one key conference speech. The analysis traces how the speaker builds relationships of solidarity and opposition, how he mitigates oppositional relationships based on ideological criteria, and how he constructs power hierarchies. I argue that rhetorical goals, including affective goals, are addressed through a coherent development and ordering of shifting meanings of deictic terms in discourse.