Abstract
Digital discourse has emerged as a substantial focus of interest within the pragmatic field. Specifically, (im)politeness practices on social media have increasingly received scholarly attention in the last decade (Tagg, Caroline, Philip Seargeant & Amy Aisha Brown. 2017. Taking offence on social media. Conviviality and conviviality and communication on Facebook. Switzerland: Springer Nature, Palgrave McMillan; Tsoumou, Jean Mathieu. 2020. Analyzing speech acts in politically related Facebook communication. Journal of Pragmatics 167. 80–97). However, research combining COVID-19, Facebook and (im)politeness in a politically polarizing context is still scarce. This paper is an analysis of (im)politeness in Facebook comments posted as reactions to Giuliani’s COVID diagnosis. Thus, by combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, the aim of the present paper is twofold: On the one hand, it intends to further our understanding of the manifestation of (im)politeness practices on Facebook through an analysis of reactive comments to Giuliani’s Covid-19 diagnosis on BBC news Facebook page. On the other hand, the paper aims to examine how the struggle between impoliteness and politeness divides Facebook users between sympathizers and detractors of the patient. Through a metadiscursive analysis, the identified (im)politeness items are distributed in an uneven fashion, with impoliteness-oriented items prevailing as the dominant macro category against politeness-oriented ones. The findings suggest that users employ different strategies to express or intensify (im)politeness, favoring explicit expressions of impoliteness such as redress/agreement, insults, pointed criticisms/complaints, unpalatable questions and/or presuppositions over others like threats.
Acknowledgment
I would like thank all the participants who took part in the investigation. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers who helped better shape this paper.
-
Conflict of interest statement: There is no conflict of interest in this study.
References
Bolander, Brook & Miriam R. Locher. 2019. Beyond the online offline distinction: Entry points to digital discourse. Discourse, Context & Media 35. 1–8.10.1016/j.dcm.2020.100383Suche in Google Scholar
Bousfield, Derek. 2008. Impoliteness in interaction. Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.167Suche in Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope & Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511813085Suche in Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2010. Conventionalised impoliteness formulae. Journal of Pragmatics 42. 3232–3245, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.05.007.Suche in Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2011. Impoliteness: Using language to cause offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511975752Suche in Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan, Michael Haugh, & Daniel E. Johnson. 2017a. (Im)politeness: Metalinguistic labels and concepts in English. In Giora Rachel & Haugh Michael (eds.), Doing pragmatics interculturally. cognitive, philosophical and sociopragmatic perspectives, 135–147. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110546095-008Suche in Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan, Michael Haugh & Dániel Z. Kádár. 2017b. The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (im)politeness. London: Palgrave Macmillan.10.1057/978-1-137-37508-7Suche in Google Scholar
D’Arcy, Alexandra & Taylor Marie Young. 2012. Ethics and social media: Implications for sociolinguistics in the networked public. Journal of Sociolinguistics 16(4). 532–546, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2012.00543.x.Suche in Google Scholar
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar. 2010. A genre approach to the study of im-politeness. International Review of Pragmatics 2. 46–94, https://doi.org/10.1163/187731010x491747.Suche in Google Scholar
Graham, Sage & Claire Hardaker. 2016. (Im)politeness in digital communication. In Jonathan Culpeper, Michael Haugh & Dániel Kádár (eds.), The Palgrave handbook of linguistic (Im)politeness, 785–814. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Springer Nature.10.1057/978-1-137-37508-7_30Suche in Google Scholar
Groshek, Jacob & Chelsea Cutino. 2016. Meaner on mobile: Incivility and impoliteness in communicating contentious politics on sociotechnical networks. Social Media & Society 2(4). 1–10, https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116677137.Suche in Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael. 2013. Im/politeness, social practice and the participation order. Journal of Pragmatics 58. 52–72, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2013.07.003.Suche in Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael. 2017. Teasing. In Attardo Salvatore (ed.), Handbook of language and humour, 204–218. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315731162-15Suche in Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael & Wei-Lin Melody Chang. 2019. The apology seemed (in) sincere: Variability in perceptions of (im) politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 142. 207–222, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2018.11.022.Suche in Google Scholar
Haugh, Michael & Yasuhisa Watanabe. 2017. (Im)politeness theory. In Bernadette Vine (ed.), Handbook of language in the workplace, 65–76. London: Routledge.10.4324/9781315690001-7Suche in Google Scholar
Haverkate, Henk. 1993. Acerca de los actos de habla expresivos y comisivos en español. Diálogos hispánicos 12. 149–180.10.1163/9789004655560_007Suche in Google Scholar
Ibrahim, Atyaf Hasan. 2020. A socio-linguistic analysis of impoliteness in political tweets. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change 11(1). 63–79.Suche in Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.Suche in Google Scholar
Li, Yingjie, Seoyeon Park, Cornelia Caragea, Doina Caragea & Andrea Tapia. 2019. Sympathy detection in disaster Twitter data. In WiPe paper – social media in crises and conflicts proceedings of the 16th ISCRAM conference. València: ISCRAM.Suche in Google Scholar
Locher, Miriam A. & Brook Bolander. 2019. Ethics in pragmatics. Journal of Pragmatics 145. 83–90, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.01.011.Suche in Google Scholar
Locher, Miriam A. & Richard J. Watts. 2005. Politeness theory and relational work. Journal of Politeness Research 1. 9–33, https://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.9.Suche in Google Scholar
Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria, Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich & Patricia Bou-Franch. 2011. On-line polylogues and impoliteness: The case of postings sent in response to the Obama Reggaeton YouTube video. Journal of Pragmatics 43. 2578–2593, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2011.03.005.Suche in Google Scholar
Maíz-Arévalo, Carmen. 2017. Expressive speech acts in educational e-chats. Pragmática sociocultural/Sociocultural pragmatics 5(2). 151–178, https://doi.org/10.1515/soprag-2017-0016.Suche in Google Scholar
Maíz-Arevalo, Carmen. 2021. “Blowing our own trumpet:” Self-praise in Peninsular Spanish face-to-face communication. Journal of Pragmatics 183. 107–120, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.07.001.Suche in Google Scholar
Naiyf Qaiwer, Shatha. 2020. A study of irony in political discourse. Arab World English Journal: Special Issue on the English Language in Iraqi Context 2. 2–17. https://doi.org/10.24093/awej/elt2.1.Suche in Google Scholar
Norrick, Neal R. 1978. Expressive illocutionary acts. Journal of Pragmatics 2(3). 277–291, https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(78)90005-x.Suche in Google Scholar
Oz, Mustafa & Pie Zheng & Gina Masullo Chen. 2017. Twitter versus Facebook: Comparing incivility, impoliteness, and deliberative attributes. New Media & Society 20(9). 3400–3419, https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817749516.Suche in Google Scholar
Rossetto, Kelly R., Pamela J. Lannutti & Elena C. Strauman. 2015. Death on Facebook: Examining the roles of social media communication for the bereaved. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 32(7). 974–994. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407514555272.Suche in Google Scholar
Sinkeviciute, Valeria. 2017. Funniness and “the preferred reaction” to jocularity in Australian and British English: An analysis of interviewees’ metapragmatic comments. Language & Communication 55. 41–54, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2016.06.004.Suche in Google Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, Helen. 2002. Managing rapport in talk: Using rapport sensitive incidents to explore the motivational concerns underlying the management of relations. Journal of Pragmatics 34(5). 529–245, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-2166(01)00039-x.Suche in Google Scholar
Spencer-Oatey, Helen. 2008. Culturally speaking: Managing rapport through talk across cultures, 2nd edn. London and New York: Continuum.Suche in Google Scholar
Spilioti, Tereza & Caroline Tagg. 2016. The ethics of online research methods in applied linguistics: Challenges, opportunities, and directions in ethical decision-making. Applied Linguistics Review 8(2). 163–167, https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2016-1033.Suche in Google Scholar
Tagg, Caroline, Philip Seargeant & Amy Aisha Brown. 2017. Taking offence on social media. Conviviality and conviviality and communication on Facebook. Switzerland: Springer Nature, Palgrave McMillan.10.1007/978-3-319-56717-4Suche in Google Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina. 2001. Politeness in Cypriot Greek: A frame-based approach. Cambridge: University of Cambridge PhD thesis.Suche in Google Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina. 2002. Politeness and formulaicity: Evidence from Cypriot Greek. Journal of Greek Linguistics 3. 179–201, https://doi.org/10.1075/jgl.3.08ter.Suche in Google Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina. 2005. Beyond the micro-level in politeness research. Journal of Politeness Research 1. 237–262, https://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.2.237.Suche in Google Scholar
Theodoropoulou, Irene. 2015. Politeness on Facebook: The case of modern Greek birthday wishes. In Miriam A. Locher, Brook Bolander & Nicole Höhn (eds.), Pragmatics special issue: Relational work in Facebook and discussion boards/fora, vol. 25, 23–45. Online: International Pragmatics Association (IPrA).10.1075/prag.25.1.02theSuche in Google Scholar
Tsoumou, Jean Mathieu. 2018. Codeswitching in computer-mediated communication among Congolese people. Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid PhD thesis.Suche in Google Scholar
Tsoumou, Jean Mathieu. 2020. Analyzing speech acts in politically related Facebook communication. Journal of Pragmatics 167. 80–97, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.06.004.Suche in Google Scholar
Tsoumou, Jean Mathieu. 2021a. A brief review of expressive speech acts and their correlations with (im)politeness in COVID-19 era. Academia Letters. Article 1715.10.20935/AL1715Suche in Google Scholar
Tsoumou, Jean Mathieu. 2021b. Politics and social media: An examination of verbal aggression in politically motivated digital discourse. International Journal of Social Media and Online Communities 13(2), 22–43, https://doi.org/10.4018/ijsmoc.2021070102.Suche in Google Scholar
Velasquez, Alcides & Hernando Rojas. 2017. Political expression on social media: The role of communication competence and expected outcomes. Social Media & Society 3(1). 1–13, https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305117696521.Suche in Google Scholar
Wagner, Anna. 2018. Do not click “like” when somebody has died: the role of norms for mourning practices in social media. Social Media & Society 6. 1–11.10.1177/2056305117744392Suche in Google Scholar
Watts, Richard. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511615184Suche in Google Scholar
Weigand, Edda. 2010. Dialogue: The mixed game. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.10.1075/ds.10Suche in Google Scholar
Zhao, Shanyang, Sherri Grasmuck & Jason Martin. 2008. Identity construction on Facebook: Digital empowerment in anchored relationships. Computers in Human Behavior 24(5). 1816–1836, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2008.02.012.Suche in Google Scholar
Zhou, Naitian & David, Jurgens. 2020. Condolence and empathy in online communities. In Proceedings of the 2020 conference on empirical methods in natural language processing, 609–626. Online: Association for Computational Linguistics.10.18653/v1/2020.emnlp-main.45Suche in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Multimodal mitigation: how facial and body cues index politeness in Catalan requests
- “I look with deep gratitude and admiration…” – praising and complimenting in papal speeches
- Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints
- The impact of linguistic choices and (para-)linguistic markers on the perception of Twitter complaints by other customers: an experimental approach
- (Im)politeness as a tool to categorize interactive discourse markers of Arabic in radio shows
- The embodied enactment of politeness metapragmatics
- Politeness of nonverbal hospitality in Saudi and British female interactions
- Borrowing of address forms for dimensions of social relation in a contact-induced multilingual community
- (Im)politeness on Facebook during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Book Reviews
- Mugford, Gerrard. 2019. Addressing Difficult Situations in Foreign-Language Learning. Confusion, Impoliteness, and Hostility
- From speech acts to lay understandings of politeness: multilingual and multicultural perspectives
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Multimodal mitigation: how facial and body cues index politeness in Catalan requests
- “I look with deep gratitude and admiration…” – praising and complimenting in papal speeches
- Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints
- The impact of linguistic choices and (para-)linguistic markers on the perception of Twitter complaints by other customers: an experimental approach
- (Im)politeness as a tool to categorize interactive discourse markers of Arabic in radio shows
- The embodied enactment of politeness metapragmatics
- Politeness of nonverbal hospitality in Saudi and British female interactions
- Borrowing of address forms for dimensions of social relation in a contact-induced multilingual community
- (Im)politeness on Facebook during the Covid-19 pandemic
- Book Reviews
- Mugford, Gerrard. 2019. Addressing Difficult Situations in Foreign-Language Learning. Confusion, Impoliteness, and Hostility
- From speech acts to lay understandings of politeness: multilingual and multicultural perspectives