Abstract

The linguistic feature of intensity, lying “at the heart of social and emotional expression” (Labov 1984: 43), is significantly intertwined with politeness. In relation with intensity (that is, both upgrading and downgrading), the role of context and prosody in modifying and expressing politeness is discussed here in a pragmatic perspective. The complex interplay between intensity, politeness and prosody is explored with reference to several examples related to Italian, showing both the crucial role of prosody in conveying politeness and intensity and the relevance of global and local context parameters. In the paper, prosody acts as a pivot, with regard to which we discuss the status of the other components. In particular, it is shown to play an important role in constructing politeness and its variations of intensity under the influence of contextual parameter. Prosody may perform a primary distinctive function, or may, jointly with other convergent or divergent cues, express the meaning and politeness intended by the speaker. However, the overall effect of a speech act in terms of politeness is shown to be due to the variegated intertwinement between context, intensity and prosody, which is at play with or without other linguistic forms of politeness and accounts for the lack of a one-to-one correspondence between politeness and single utterance features.

Autore Pugliese

• Gili Fivela Barbara

Tutti gli autori

• Gili Fivela B. , Bazzanella C.

Titolo volume/Rivista

JOURNAL OF POLITENESS RESEARCH

Anno di pubblicazione

2014

ISSN

1612-5681

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

2

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

26/04/2018

Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile