How gender affects compliments in Italian

IF 1.7 1区文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2025-08-06 DOI:10.1016/j.pragma.2025.07.009

Giovanna Alfonzetti, Giulio Scivoletto

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Abstract

This paper presents findings from a long-term study on compliments in Italian, employing different theoretical and methodological approaches. This study adopts variational pragmatics to investigate the impact of gender on compliments. We examine whether Italian compliments exhibit gender-specific patterns that transcend cultural variations, as suggested in prior research. After revisiting in a variational perspective the wide collection of spontaneous speech analyzed in an earlier phase of the research, new data are drawn from a questionnaire submitted to a sample of 576 young speakers in the University of Catania (Italy). This questionnaire explores various facets of complimenting, including frequency, object, modulation, and function. This analysis reveals a distinct gender pattern, highlighting a pragmatic role of compliments that is salient in women's interaction. Among them, compliments are much more common and intensified, they concern mostly appearance, and they are a positive politeness strategy as they serve an important interpersonal function: linked to the concept of phatic communion, compliments are acts aimed at creating, maintaining, and strengthening mutual solidarity.

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性别如何影响意大利语中的赞美

本文采用不同的理论和方法，对意大利语中的恭维语进行了长期研究。本研究采用变分语用学研究性别对恭维语的影响。我们检查意大利的赞美是否表现出超越文化差异的性别特定模式，正如先前的研究所表明的那样。在从变分的角度重新审视了在研究的早期阶段分析的大量自发演讲后，新的数据来自于对卡塔尼亚大学（意大利）576名年轻演讲者的问卷调查。这份问卷探讨了赞美的各个方面，包括频率、对象、调制和功能。这一分析揭示了一种独特的性别模式，强调了赞美在女性互动中显著的实用作用。其中，赞美更为常见和强化，它们主要关注外表，它们是一种积极的礼貌策略，因为它们具有重要的人际功能：赞美与情感交流的概念有关，是旨在创造、维持和加强相互团结的行为。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Pragmatics Multiple-

CiteScore

3.90

自引率

18.80%

发文量

219

期刊介绍： Since 1977, the Journal of Pragmatics has provided a forum for bringing together a wide range of research in pragmatics, including cognitive pragmatics, corpus pragmatics, experimental pragmatics, historical pragmatics, interpersonal pragmatics, multimodal pragmatics, sociopragmatics, theoretical pragmatics and related fields. Our aim is to publish innovative pragmatic scholarship from all perspectives, which contributes to theories of how speakers produce and interpret language in different contexts drawing on attested data from a wide range of languages/cultures in different parts of the world. The Journal of Pragmatics also encourages work that uses attested language data to explore the relationship between pragmatics and neighbouring research areas such as semantics, discourse analysis, conversation analysis and ethnomethodology, interactional linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, media studies, psychology, sociology, and the philosophy of language. Alongside full-length articles, discussion notes and book reviews, the journal welcomes proposals for high quality special issues in all areas of pragmatics which make a significant contribution to a topical or developing area at the cutting-edge of research.