Mehmet Ali Uzelgun

Approaches in dialogical analysis suggest that interlocutors of a discussion may address not only their opponents but also many others that are not present in the interactional setting. This raises an analytical question, namely how to identify and examine the instances where the arguers call on or become preoccupied with distant others. I raise this question in looking into the interviews carried out in the framework of MEMOTRADE project with residents of a Portuguese Natura 2000 protection site, and try to share and collect some insights on how the institutional others – nature conservation authorities – are made present, quoted, and confronted by the interviewees. The discussion is oriented to the theoretical tools argumentation theory may provide to the analysis of multiple addressivity and the concern with the third parties of a speech event.