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An interesting phenomenon which is evidenced in DB's contribution
line 18 is one seen in much of this type of collective re-invocation in English
sociable conversation, namely, the temporary 'freezing out' of a participant
from moments of heightened positive alignment. Here, D13
signals here
inability to mobilise and align positively with her co-participants in talk. By
asking 'Was that before I met you Dave', D13
clearly signals here inability to
positively align. In effect, at least for the duration of this particular phase of the
episode, DB is somewhat forced to negatively align, by adopting more of an
audiential footing, evident in her contributions in line 101 ('BROKE the what'),
and arguably in line 77 where she attempts to mobilise a more humorous
based self, effectively negatively altercasting the others temporarily in an
audiential role.
Overall though, aside from DB's temporary alienation (see also JL's
temporary alienation in Excerpt 6.3'More Often'), as players, similar sociable
selves are mobilised and mutually aligned.
To consider the selves as images mobilised in the talk, as I noted
above, the general nature of selves invoked here is party-goers. One striking
feature of these selves mobilised by participants in this episode is their
abased nature. For instance, in lines 6-11, and again in lines 51-54, LM
invokes a figure 'falling downstairs' and having a can of 'gold label' (an
extremely potent English beer at around 9% alcohol content) in her hand. This
type of abased inebriated self is similar to that drawn upon by AL in his
account of getting drunk in Stockton (see Excerpt 7.6 'Up a Hill') and as I
noted earlier, one often drawn upon for both negative and positive alignment
in English German sociable conversation (see Chapter 7). In positive
alignment, DB similarly invokes an abased aspect of past selfhood, manifest
in his claims to remember nothing about 'that night' apart from Cookie's
bathroom being wrecked (lines 14-16). What is implied by this conversational
claim - and what DB himself is implying - is not that DB has a faulty memory,
or that the event was too insignificant to be remembered (indeed the converse
seems to be the case as all that DB can recall is the shower being ripped off
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