Pronouns and intersubjectivity in Lebanese Arabic gossip

Lebanese Arabic allows the use of optional 1st and 2nd person dative pronouns. These are pronouns embedded in sentences without being linked to any participant roles. Their task is to express a positive or negative attitude toward the events depicted in utterances. In this paper, I present examples of such pronouns as used in gossip constructions. I show that these pronouns allow the speaker to communicate changes of footing or participation roles as animator, author, and/or principal during a speech event. I also analyze them within Cognitive Grammar, suggesting that they allow the speaker to move the speech participants from the offstage region where they function as conceptualizers to the onstage region where they are conceptualized as attitude holders. By so doing, the speaker explicitly anchors the event of gossip construction to the attitudes of the speech participants. In this sense, the pronouns become cultural tools of social influence.

► I present Lebanese Arabic sentences with optional 1st and 2nd person dative pronouns. ► Speaker and hearer may use these sentences in gossip events about a third party. ► Dative pronouns allow gossipers to shift roles as animators, authors, or principals. ► By using dative pronouns, gossipers as conceptualizers become also conceptualized.