ABSTRACT
In recognition of the fact that we who are gathered together at these meetings are constituted as communities of particular sorts by the worlds of words we construct and inhabit, I should like to begin today by focusing briefly on the specific word that has occasioned this session (Brodkey, 1987).1 That word is, of course, ‘audience’. I want to pause long enough to consider its origins and its conceptual legacy because the term itself presently denotes a crucially important and much contested arena in communication studies and therefore deserves re-examination. But I also want to call attention to the word for a moment because I think an acknowledgement of its etymology may help us to think reflexively about our own status as speakers and writers and about the ways in which our situation structures and perhaps inadvertently limits our research efforts.
