‘You’re not in charge here’. Negotiations of control and connection in a binational stepfamily

This article explores the interactional processes of a binational step-family in Denmark. Following Bourdieu (1977), it is argued that in stepfamilyinteraction, negotiations of legitimacy precede, overlap and become intertwinedwith negotiations of control and connection. In previous studies conducted ininteractional linguistics and linguistic anthropology, the control and connectiondimensions have been found to provide a useful framework for studying familyinteraction (Blum-Kulka 1997; Dedaic 2001; Tannen 2001, 2007; Marinova 2007;Gordon 2009). This paper builds upon these studies, which focus primarily onthe interaction in intact nuclear families, to consider stepfamilies. In addition,the family analysed includes a stepparent who is not fully proficient in thelanguage spoken in the family, which adds yet another dimension of complex-ity. What the interactional analysis of data collected from a binational stepfam-ily reveals is that legitimacy serves as an often overlooked precursor for controland connection manoeuvres in family interaction and that linguistic alignmentcan occur despite disagreement on issues of legitimacy