9
The ethnography of communication perspective assumes that through their
communication practices, speech community members "construct and enact the social
order and meanings of their culture" (Baxter and Goldsmith 1990: 378). I have attempted
to contribute to this perspective by building a typology based on terms used by Canadians
who watch Talking to Americans. I have chosen to analyze this data in an attempt to
understand how my interviewees make sense of Mercer’s questions and the American
responses. The Canadians I spoke with agreed that these categories represent essential
elements of what Americans should know (i.e.; "social policy") and should not know (i.e.;
"backwardness") about Canada. Although there is a strong normative dimension in this
discourse surrounding Mercer’s questions, my focus for this analysis is on specific words
(terms for talk) interviewees used to identify and characterize the kind of talk going on in
Talking to Americans. The two terms I will be looking at are "trick" talk and "stretch"
speak. I will begin by describing each term and will then make interpretive claims.
First, all of my interviewees agreed that there are certain ways in which Mercer
asks questions that are designed to "trick" the American. Questions about "Jean Chretien
Pinochet" and "Regina" are both examples that three of the four indicated as a "word [or
language] play that TRY to get Americans to mess up." (See questions one and five on
page eight for the full text of Mercer’s questions.) One interviewee indicated that she
"wouldn't expect people from outside of Canada to know where Regina is", and another
said that he felt as if the American answering this question was just trying to be
"agreeable" about this since he obviously had no idea that Mercer was trying to "trick him
into agreeing to it." Another interviewee added that by saying "Jean Chretien Pinochet"
"so fast", Mercer was "purposely" trying to "throw off" the American. And since many
Convention