Emergent Pragmatic Conventions in Spoken ELF Corpus Data: Micro-Diachronic Analysis of Inclusive vs. Exclusive Multilingual Practices

This article examines multilingual practices as an example of emergent pragmatic conventions in three Transient International Groups (TIGs) using spoken English as a lingua franca (ELF) from the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE). The analysis combines principles of corpus linguistics and conversation analysis by adopting a new approach for the micro-diachronic analysis of spoken interaction. Quantitative and qualitative evidence and micro-diachronic visualizations of VOICE transcripts show how the three groups examined interactively develop group-specific multilingual practices. The analysis reveals that the three groups have different preferences in this respect. While two groups develop inclusive multilingual practices in the course of their interaction, one group shows a tendency to use multilingual practices exclusively, primarily in side sequences. In addition to multilingual use, the presence or absence of metalinguistic discussions about language (and languages) plays a role for creation of shared transcultural territory and the formation of group identity. These processes are indicative of how unacquainted multilingual speakers negotiate and develop pragmatic conventions more generally.