“Maleducados/Ill-mannered”during the #A28 political campaign on Twitter

Abstract

This paper approaches the study of conflict through an examination of Spanish metapragmatic labels and comments of impoliteness on Twitter. The aim is twofold. It first aims to confirm the attributed importance of the label maleducado/ill-mannered in the specific context of Twitter and of digital discourse more generally, on quantitative and comparative grounds; then, it investigates this label, and the metapragmatic comments where it occurred, in a contextualized corpus of tweets compiled during the political campaign of Spain’s General Elections of April 28, 2019. The study draws from five ad hoc corpora specifically compiled from Twitter, and a general corpus of Spanish digital discourse provided by Sketch Engine. The analysis adopts a corpus-based metapragmatic approach, which combines quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings revealed that maleducado was the most frequent metapragmatic label under scrutiny in the Twitter corpora and motivated the subsequent study of lay conceptualizations of this term.

“What is Wrong With You People That You are Happy Someone has Covid” Impoliteness in the Coronavirus Pandemic Era

“…The findings also further our understanding of the increasing polarization of social political discourse on Facebook (Bou-Franch, 2021; and its direct relations to the Covid-19 pandemic (Andersson, 2022). The reactions to Giuliani's diagnosis show how the opposition between ''us'' and ''them'' turns an issue of life or death into an opportunity to resurge traditional political divisions, making the diagnosis becomes a real opportunity for ''us'' to compete against ''them.''…”

“…This reiterates both the situatedness of the norms of interaction and the (co-)construction of the identities of the interactants through impoliteness behaviors in polarized contexts. In terms of the situatedness of the norms of the interaction, impoliteness behaviors analyzed here are social actions that are situated within a particular social or relational network ( Bou-Franch, 2021 ; Haugh & Kádár, 2013 ; Tsoumou, 2022 ). The meaning of impoliteness in these corpora is connected to breaches in appropriate behavior regarding the topic management and social expectations associated with the impact of Covid-19.…”

“…Studies on social media posts and subsequent reactions at individual nation level emphasize the situatedness and cultural nature of criticisms, verbal attacks within specific national borders, even when the topic of discussion has international ramifications. Andersson (2022 , p. 509), for example, points out “the pertinence of value positions and the participants’ efforts to enact, negotiate, and demonstrate their allegiance to specific values when reacting to the pandemic of Covid-19 on the official Facebook page of the Swedish national public television.” In the context of Spanish politics, Bou-Franch (2021 , p. 290) reports that “the meanings of disrespectfulness and childishness in political debates are reported to be connected to breaches in appropriate behavior regarding turn-taking and topic management and social expectations associated with the role of political leaders.”…”

“…Recent developments in impoliteness research have shown that impoliteness behaviors can be interpreted from the scientific standpoint (second order), from lay persons’ standpoint (first order) or from a hybrid approach, which is the combination of the above ( Bou-Franch, 2021 ; Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, 2022 ). This distinction sparks from the mere idea that impoliteness behaviors are contested social actions which can be differently understood and interpreted ( Haugh & Kádár, 2013 ; Kleinke & Bös, 2015 ).…”

An Examination of Metapragmatic Comments on Facebook

“…This chapter examines 1000 Facebook comments posted on Fox News' page in reaction to Giuliani's positive COVID diagnosis in December 2020. Drawing on the argument that metapragmatic awareness is essential in providing emic understanding, description, and explanation of language use [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8], the chapter (1) explores the basis on which metapragmatic comments are produced in COVID-related interactions on Facebook and (2) determines the perspectives (i.e., instigator or target) from which Facebook users express metapragmatic comments. The main research question here is what drives metapragmatic comments in this interaction.…”