In the latter case the orientation towards named persons fulfils many
functions simultaneously.
A) it actually serves the object-orientation of a discussion by making
clear WHAT recently-mentioned aspect of a topic (e.g. what sense of 'play')
that a message is further commenting on.
B) it serves a function of what Francoise Herrmann calls community-building
discourse. That is, it contributes to the constitution of a "virtual
community" of socially responsible people -- counteracting to the best of
our abilities the distancing and anonymizing effects of this asynchronous
and telematic medium.
C) it serves to model, on a meta-level, a dialogic epistemology: a way of
knowing that is constituted in polyphony and diversity -- what Eugene
Matusov has called intersubjectivity without agreement.
Eva