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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Impoliteness reciprocity online
AU - Culpeper, Jonathan
AU - Tantucci, Vittorio
AU - Field, Eleanor
PY - 2025/5/2
Y1 - 2025/5/2
N2 - The Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity stipulates that (im)politeness is balanced across participants in an interaction. However, although it was claimed to be applicable to both politeness and impoliteness, there is little evidence to support the latter. This paper aims to rectify that situation. Specifically, it explores whether and how impoliteness reciprocity might work in online interactions. It is often claimed that online interactions are predisposedtowards impoliteness. This paper examines whether that is true, and more particularly how impoliteness is distributed online compared with face-to-face. Is impoliteness matched by impoliteness? What is the role of third parties? How long do tit-for-tat impoliteness chains run for? Are there distinct characteristics of impoliteness online? Its method involves very carefully matched datasets, extensive coding of that data, and network analyses. The results reveal little difference in the general occurrence of impoliteness in online versus face-to-face data, and the Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity is found to be just as applicable to impoliteness as politeness in both datasets. Furthermore, the results show significant differences in the way that impoliteness is distributed,including the role of third parties, the way impoliteness escalation occurs, and the role of sarcasm and resonance.
AB - The Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity stipulates that (im)politeness is balanced across participants in an interaction. However, although it was claimed to be applicable to both politeness and impoliteness, there is little evidence to support the latter. This paper aims to rectify that situation. Specifically, it explores whether and how impoliteness reciprocity might work in online interactions. It is often claimed that online interactions are predisposedtowards impoliteness. This paper examines whether that is true, and more particularly how impoliteness is distributed online compared with face-to-face. Is impoliteness matched by impoliteness? What is the role of third parties? How long do tit-for-tat impoliteness chains run for? Are there distinct characteristics of impoliteness online? Its method involves very carefully matched datasets, extensive coding of that data, and network analyses. The results reveal little difference in the general occurrence of impoliteness in online versus face-to-face data, and the Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity is found to be just as applicable to impoliteness as politeness in both datasets. Furthermore, the results show significant differences in the way that impoliteness is distributed,including the role of third parties, the way impoliteness escalation occurs, and the role of sarcasm and resonance.
U2 - 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.04.011
DO - 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.04.011
M3 - Journal article
VL - 242
SP - 216
EP - 236
JO - Journal of Pragmatics
JF - Journal of Pragmatics
SN - 0378-2166
ER -