Cyberpragmatics: Complaints and the Collective Perspective

Elite Olshtain*, Idan Treger

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

The aim of this article is to lay some groundwork for expanding the study of speech act pragmatics within the cyber-world. For this purpose, we have investigated complaints in Hebrew online, in an attempt to highlight features that distinguish online communication from face-to-face communication. We have analysed complaints in three major spheres: a) complaints towards public institutions, b) complaints against commercial firms and c) sharing complaints for the common benefit of a social community. In all instances, complainers online co-construct the context and the shared knowledge of the offence (complainable). Like many other studies of online communication, we too found a tendency towards uncivil or aggressive expressions (Vladimirou et al., 2021) especially when there was no hope for “repair” of the situation (ex: these damned people lie to us (in Hebrew 'arurim')). Furthermore, there were individual complainers who used the online platform to gain social and political power presenting themselves as defenders of justice and of the well-being of the community.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-25
Number of pages25
JournalContrastive Pragmatics
Volume48
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© ELITE OLSHTAIN AND IDAN TREGER, 2023.

Keywords

  • complaints
  • cyberpragmatics
  • face-threatening acts
  • super-participants
  • virtual communities

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