Journal of Pragmatics最新文献

Can ChatGPT reciprocate impoliteness? The AI moral dilemma ChatGPT能回应不礼貌吗？人工智能的道德困境

IF 2.2 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-07-01 Epub Date: 2026-04-21 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2026.03.008

Vittorio Tantucci, Jonathan Culpeper

{"title":"Can ChatGPT reciprocate impoliteness? The AI moral dilemma","authors":"Vittorio Tantucci, Jonathan Culpeper","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.03.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.03.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Can AI ‘learn’ to be (verbally) violent? Unfortunately, it can. This paper tests ChatGPT 4.0 against real-life impolite interactions to assess whether it responds to human patterns of verbal conflict. We drew on the Principle of (Im)politeness Reciprocity (Culpeper & Tantucci, 2021) which posits that humans normally match the (im)politeness of one another. We thus prompted ChatGPT 4.0 turn by turn with authentic disputes, tracking its responses through network analysis and Bayesian regression. Our results reveal what we call the ‘AI moral dilemma’ (AI-MD): Large language models are constrained to avoid impoliteness through moderation and reinforcement learning, but are also designed to emulate human conversation, where (Im)politeness Reciprocity is intrinsic. When exposed to sustained impoliteness from real human disputes, the system's context-sensitive ‘working memory’ can override its moral safeguards, progressively leading it to reciprocate to impolite behaviour: AI can learn to 'strike back'. This contradiction –between <em>being unconditionally moral</em> and <em>being human-like</em>– raises pressing questions for AI ethics and the risks of replicating human conflict. This led to a second finding about AI's moral dilemma effects: while ChatGPT eventually learns to approximate human spirals of impoliteness reciprocity, it initially circumvents outright insults by resorting to implicational impoliteness (cf. Culpeper, 2011). This has important implications for AI's ability to simulate social intentions and Theory of Mind.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"260 ","pages":"Pages 173-193"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148587466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Not all it seems are the same: A systemic functional and pragmatic approach to evidentiality and mitigation 并不是所有的看起来都是一样的：一个系统的功能和务实的方法来证明和减轻

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-04-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-04 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2026.01.007

Jesus David Guerra-Lyons , Valentina Concu , Johan Alberto De La Rosa Yacomelo

{"title":"Not all it seems are the same: A systemic functional and pragmatic approach to evidentiality and mitigation","authors":"Jesus David Guerra-Lyons , Valentina Concu , Johan Alberto De La Rosa Yacomelo","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.01.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.01.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the English extra-clausal appearance construction <em>it seems</em> as a discourse-sensitive resource for epistemic stance, integrating insights from Systemic Functional Linguistics and Interpersonal Pragmatics. Using corpus data from COCA, BAWE, and MICASE, the analysis explores how evidential, modal, and subjective meanings are shaped by discourse context—particularly mode and register—and by speakers’ relational strategies. Four semantic-pragmatic categories—perceptual, circumstantial, generic, and conjectural—are identified and situated along a continuum ranging from experiential to epistemically marked uses. Personalization through <em>to me</em> clusters overwhelmingly in conjectural contexts, highlighting its role as a stance-taking strategy that foregrounds subjectivity while mitigating face-threat. The study provides an empirically grounded account of <em>it seems</em> as a flexible interpersonal construction shaped by contextual, epistemic, and relational work. The findings contribute to our understanding of how grammatical constructions function within discourse to manage epistemic stance and interpersonal alignment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"255 ","pages":"Pages 1-13"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146116575","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

From contrast to communicational practice: The discourse marker “but” in Chinese and British media interviews 从对比看交际实践：中英媒体采访中的话语标记“但是”

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-20 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.017

Yanli Fu , Phoenix W.Y. Lam

{"title":"From contrast to communicational practice: The discourse marker “but” in Chinese and British media interviews","authors":"Yanli Fu , Phoenix W.Y. Lam","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.017","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the multifunctional role of the discourse marker “but” in English-language media interviews, moving from its traditional contrastive meaning to its broader use as a communicational practice shaped by institutional and cultural contexts. Drawing on a 120-interview corpus featuring Liu Xin (CGTN, China) and Stephen Sackur (BBC, the United Kingdom), the study combines quantitative and qualitative methods to examine both frequency and pragmatic distribution. The results show that Sackur uses “but” almost three times more frequently than Liu, with significant differences in functional range. While both interviewers employ “but” for contrast and topic management, Sackur frequently extends its use to concession, consequence, disagreement, and monitoring, whereas Liu emphasizes topic progression, hedging, and interpersonal alignment. Statistical tests confirm these differences across sequential, ideational, rhetorical, and interpersonal domains. These findings demonstrate that “but” is not limited to marking contrast but operates as a communicational resource that organizes interaction, negotiates stance, and encodes media ideologies. Sackur's frequent use of “but” reflects the adversarial traditions of British journalism, prioritizing argumentative progression and epistemic authority. By contrast, Liu's more selective and harmony-oriented uses reflect Chinese communicative norms that value continuity, relational balance, and mediated engagement. By focusing on interviewer talk, this study contributes to discourse pragmatics, media linguistics, and intercultural communication. It shows how multifunctional discourse markers can reveal broader cultural values and institutional strategies and calls for future research into other markers, multimodal cues, and diverse media contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"254 ","pages":"Pages 81-90"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Anticipating offense and managing risks: Understanding the disclaimer wúyì màofàn...dànshì... [‘no offense, but ...’] in Chinese social media 预期冒犯和管理风险：理解免责声明wúyì màofàn…dànshì…无意冒犯，但是……在中国的社交媒体上

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.014

Xinyu Wang, Lingling Chang

{"title":"Anticipating offense and managing risks: Understanding the disclaimer wúyì màofàn...dànshì... [‘no offense, but ...’] in Chinese social media","authors":"Xinyu Wang, Lingling Chang","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.014","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.014","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Disclaimers have become a common pragmatic strategy for managing potential offense in social media interaction, yet their use in digitally mediated communication (DMC) has remained largely underexplored. This study examines the Chinese disclaimer <em>wúyì màofàn [‘no offense’] + (X), dànshì [‘but’] + (Y)</em>, focusing on how it is used to balance implicitness, accountability, and face concerns in context-collapsed, massively polylogal interaction. Drawing on a corpus of 885 Weibo posts, the analysis identifies the disclaimer as a dual marker that indexes both offense-mitigating and offense-intensifying tendencies, depending largely on the alignment between its polite framing and the subsequent act. Typically, it modifies low-to mid-level face-threatening acts such as teasing, criticizing, or complaining, while in fewer cases it frames overtly insulting or ironic remarks displaying features of mock politeness. The disclaimer also occasionally precedes rapport-maintaining acts such as complimenting, revealing posters' heightened metapragmatic awareness of offense risk when addressing imagined audiences. Overall, the study advances understanding of how disclaimers operate as reflexive stance-design resources in public, polylogal online communication.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"254 ","pages":"Pages 34-44"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145981648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Ostensive marking as a distinctive feature of human communication 明示标记作为人类交际的一个显著特征

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.016

Nima Mussavifard

引用次数: 0

Appraising impoliteness on X: A case study of Isabel Díaz Ayuso 评价X上的不礼貌行为：以伊莎贝尔Díaz Ayuso为例

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-21 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2026.02.005

Sergei Sikorskii, María Luisa Carrió-Pastor

{"title":"Appraising impoliteness on X: A case study of Isabel Díaz Ayuso","authors":"Sergei Sikorskii, María Luisa Carrió-Pastor","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.02.005","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.02.005","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study examines evaluative patterns in hostile replies to the Spanish politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso on X (formerly Twitter), combining Appraisal Theory with insights from digital-pragmatic and far-right discourse research. Through manual annotation of 498 Spanish-language replies collected between April and May 2025 – a period marked by renewed scandals surrounding Ayuso's administration – the analysis identifies how Judgment and Graduation resources construct gendered delegitimization. Five Judgment categories (Capacity, Tenacity, Normality, Veracity, Propriety) and multimodal intensification mechanisms (Force, Focus) were coded using diagnostic semantic criteria. Social Sanction judgments such as Propriety- (63.5 %) and Veracity- (20.4 %) vastly outweighed Social Esteem types, showing that moral blame and dishonesty dominate over competence critique. Intensification occurred in 70.1 % of replies—via typography, repetition, irony, and emoji-and 29.5 % contained explicitly gendered language, closely linked to Propriety- and Normality-evaluations (χ<sup>2</sup> = 52.85, p < 0.000001).</div><div>From these patterns, eleven recurrent impoliteness strategies were inductively derived, including sexualized moral judgment, ridicule, and clustered delegitimization. The paper advances the concept of evaluative gatekeeping, showing how moralized and gender-indexed assessments operate as pragmatic exclusion in online political discourse. Findings highlight how far-right communicative norms and gendered morality intersect to shape digital hostility toward female leaders.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"254 ","pages":"Pages 149-166"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147398256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Some and or in second language acquisition: Exploring linguistic and cognitive factors 第二语言习得中的一些或一些：语言和认知因素的探讨

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-30 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2026.01.004

Shuyan Wang , Shaohua Fang

{"title":"Some and or in second language acquisition: Exploring linguistic and cognitive factors","authors":"Shuyan Wang , Shaohua Fang","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.01.004","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2026.01.004","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates how Mandarin-speaking learners of English (L2) generate scalar implicatures (SIs) involving the quantifier <em>some</em> and the disjunctive <em>or</em>, compared to native English speakers (L1). It further explores the influence of linguistic (L2 proficiency) and cognitive (working memory, inhibitory control) factors on interpreting SIs in L2. Using the covered-box paradigm—a modified picture selection task with reduced meta-linguistic demands—we tested Chinese-speaking L2 learners and native English speakers on their interpretations of sentences containing <em>some</em> and <em>or</em>. Results showed no significant differences between L1 and L2 participants in the overall rate of rejecting under-informative statements for either scalar expression, although both groups rejected significantly more under-informative statements containing <em>or</em> than those containing <em>some</em>. Importantly, the L2 learners displayed less tolerance to the violation of ignorance inference with the disjunctive <em>or</em>. Cognitive and linguistic factors showed limited effects on SI performance: neither working memory nor L2 proficiency predicted SI performance, and inhibitory control only showed marginal effect in certain conditions. These findings support the view that SIs can be achieved in a native-like manner by L2 learners. They further underscore the importance of considering both scale type and individual cognitive capacities in models of pragmatic acquisition in L2.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"254 ","pages":"Pages 105-121"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146079140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Trajectories of request for reconfirmation sequences in Yurakaré: Do repeats reduce information rate in conversation? yurakar<s:1>中请求再确认序列的轨迹：重复是否会降低会话中的信息率？

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.11.006

Sonja Gipper

{"title":"Trajectories of request for reconfirmation sequences in Yurakaré: Do repeats reduce information rate in conversation?","authors":"Sonja Gipper","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.11.006","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.11.006","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the role of repeat format in contextualizing degrees of informativity in Yurakaré (isolate, Bolivia) request for reconfirmation sequences. Requests for reconfirmation constitute a subtype of newsmarks, inviting at least a reconfirming response by the interlocutor. Across languages, there are two main competing formats for formulating requests for reconfirmation and other responsive actions in conversation: repeats and conventionalized formats such as response particles. Given that repeats restate (part of) a proposition while at the same time being informationally redundant, they have the capacity of explicitly spreading information across various turns. With these properties, repeats may potentially be employed in conversation to reduce peaks in information rate. This hypothesis is explored in this paper for Yurakaré request for reconfirmation sequences. The results, however, suggest that repeat format in the request for reconfirmation and the reconfirming response does not participate in the contextualization of degrees of informativity in Yurakaré request for reconfirmation sequences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"254 ","pages":"Pages 64-80"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024638","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Wanyi as a strategic risk marker in Chinese conditionals: An information game-theoretic analysis 万义作为汉语条件语中的战略风险标记：信息博弈论分析

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.015

Chenxiao Ma, Yong Jiang

{"title":"Wanyi as a strategic risk marker in Chinese conditionals: An information game-theoretic analysis","authors":"Chenxiao Ma, Yong Jiang","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.015","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.015","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study investigates the informational function and game-theoretic optimization of the Chinese hypothetical conjunction <em>wanyi</em> (“what if/in case”) in conditionals. As a conditional marker, <em>wanyi</em> raises low-probability but cognitively reasonable scenarios, expanding the conditional space, modulating probabilistic reasoning and informational entropy, and then increasing epistemic uncertainty. Drawing on Shannon's entropy (1948) and models of signaling games (Lewis, 1969; Van Rooy, 2004), the analysis demonstrates that <em>wanyi</em> acts as an optimal signaler, expanding uncertainty to reveal marginal risks, thus creating vigilance and enabling adaptive decision-making in asymmetric or high-stakes interactions. By softening illocutionary force and avoiding outspoken commitment, it prompts cooperation and reduces face-threatening potential. Pragmatically, <em>wanyi</em> diverges from markers like <em>ruguo</em> (“if”), functioning not only to signal hypotheses but also to express speakers' anxiety, probe hearers indirectly, lower threats, and minimize reputational risk. However, it shows inadequacy in high-probability, positive-oriented, time-critical, or precision-driven contexts, highlighting its context-sensitive pragmatics. By integrating information theory, game-theoretic pragmatics, and fine-grained discourse analysis, this paper provides a formal account of <em>wanyi</em> as a context-sensitive risk management strategy. It contributes to research on Chinese conditionality, strategic communication, and modal modulation, offering broader implications for cross-linguistic pragmatics and the study of epistemic stance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"254 ","pages":"Pages 45-63"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146024640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Appraising impoliteness on X: A case study of Isabel Díaz Ayuso 评价X上的不礼貌行为：以伊莎贝尔Díaz Ayuso为例

IF 1.7 1区文学

Journal of Pragmatics Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-01-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.010

Sergei Sikorskii, María Luisa Carrió-Pastor

{"title":"Appraising impoliteness on X: A case study of Isabel Díaz Ayuso","authors":"Sergei Sikorskii, María Luisa Carrió-Pastor","doi":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.pragma.2025.12.010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study applies Appraisal Theory to analyze evaluative patterns in digital political impoliteness, examining how systematic deployment of Judgment and Graduation resources functions as a form of pragmatic exclusion in hostile replies to Spanish politician Isabel Diaz Ayuso on X (formerly Twitter). Through manual annotation of 498 Spanish-language hostile replies collected between April and May 2025, we coded for five Judgment categories (Capacity, Tenacity, Normality, Veracity, Propriety) and intensification mechanisms (Force, Focus). Results reveal that Social Sanction judgments, such as Propriety- (63.5 %) and Veracity- (20.4 %), sharply outweigh Social Esteem evaluations, indicating a focus on moral delegitimization over competence critique.</div><div>Intensification was present in 70.1 % of replies, realized through typography, repetition, irony, and emoji. Notably, 29.5 % of replies contained gendered language, disproportionately associated with Propriety- and Normality-judgments (<em>χ</em><sup><em>2</em></sup> = 52.85, p < 0.000001), suggesting gendered language disproportionately co-occurs with moral and behavioral judgments. Eleven recurrent impoliteness strategies were identified, often combining multiple negative evaluations with multimodal amplification. This case study introduces the concept of <em>evaluative gatekeeping</em> to describe how hostile replies may use neutral-seeming assessment to challenge political legitimacy in gendered terms. These findings suggest that digital hostility toward female political figures may center on moral judgment rather than policy critique, raising implications for pragmatic exclusion and gendered participation in online political discourse.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16899,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Pragmatics","volume":"254 ","pages":"Pages 1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":1.7,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145948069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0