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RP&EP's mobilisation of an in-the-know self (see above) based on past
personal experience of having tried and tested several PCs and PC outlets is
aligned to and supported by KP's mobilisation of an appropriately abased self.
Thus, KP's conversational claims attest to the fact that he 'messes about' on his
computer and uses it for'timewastin' as well as more generally being 'not
exactly sure what's going on with it. This display of non-competence and
morally questionable use of time is in direct contrast to, and importantly
supports by aligning to the In the Know selves proffered by RP&EP (see
Chapter 8 for a more focused discussion of alignment of selves). Further
conversational evidence which indexes the Affected Self can be found in
utterances such as'you're jokin', 'Well, I wouldn't have thought that', and 'Oh I
thought x!, as well as the English tendency to ask'silly questions' and play
dumb in the support of another.
As might be expected from the discussion in Chapter 6 and literature
reviewed in Chapter 2 (e. g. Straehle 1997), this form of abased or diminished
self occurs significantly less frequently in German conversation.
Above I have identified a range of salient sociable selves routinely
mobilised in English sociable conversation as part and parcel of negative
alignment. Now I want to turn to consider salient sociable selves routinely
mobilised in the German achievement of negative alignment.
7.3.2 The Germans
Perhaps the most salient word that disrupted my own taken-for-g ranted
sense of conversational ease during my experiences of German sociable
conversation was "Warum? ", [Why? ] or alternatively "Warum nicht? " [Why not? ].
This often came in quick response to a claim made quite unthinkingly by myself,
without much prior formulation other than was necessary for a 'throw-in' or
'throwaway'type comment. I soon came to realise that"Warum" in German is
more than just an interrogative statement but is in fact illustrative of the perhaps
the most salient self regularly mobilised in German - the examining self. 209