“An equal right to comment”
Metapragmatic negotiation of (im)politeness norms in a confrontational Greek YouTube polylogue discussing online public
female nudity
This paper analyses a snapshot of a conflictive Greek YouTube polylogue dealing with the issue of public online
female nudity and the norms pertaining to both the act itself and its verbal critique. The said polylogue contains a markedly high
proportion of lay (im)politeness/(in)appropriateness evaluations (Locher and Watts
2005). By quantifying and critically analyzing key lexical impoliteness (Culpeper
2011) and metapragmatic markers contained in the evaluations, I identify the ways in which the norms of online verbal
behaviour are discursively negotiated amongst the polylogue participants, focusing especially on the arguments and justifications
underlying the suggested norms. It is found that, firstly, the notions of (im)politeness/(in)appropriateness emerge as open to
fierce, yet heavily argument-supported discursive dispute; secondly, sexualized slang functions both as an object of critique and
as an extremely versatile rhetorical instrument serving metapragmatic argumentation; and, thirdly, online
(im)politeness/(in)appropriateness is construed not as a superficial matter of netiquette, but as a deeply ethical and
political-ideological controversy, especially regarding speech liberty and political correctness.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Theoretical background
- 2.1Relational work and the metapragmatics of (im)politeness/(in)appropriateness
- 2.2First-order (im)politeness evaluations in online communication
- 3.The video and the accompanying polylogue: An initial description
- 4.Verbal reactions to the video protagonists’ act of nudity
- 4.1Greek male participants addressing or referring to the female video protagonist
- 4.1.1Terms referring to the woman as a whole person
- 4.1.2Terms denoting the woman’s body or body parts
- 4.2General remarks
- 5.Metapragmatic commentary in the C&R polylogue
- 5.1Negotiating the general (medium-independent) norms of addressing a woman baring herself in public
- 5.2Negotiating the medium-specific norms of addressing a woman baring herself in public
- 6.Summary and conclusion
- 6.1Summary of metapragmatic argumentation in the C&R polylogue
- 6.2Concluding remarks: Lay definitions of politeness
- 7.Epilogue
- Notes
-
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