Turn-initial ki because-clauses as a rhetorical responsive practice in Hebrew Facebook comments

Abstract – This study examines the pragmatic-rhetorical functions of turn-initial Hebrew ki ‘because’-clauses in readers’ comments on politicians’ Facebook posts. An analysis of 100 ki-clauses, responding to either politicians’ posts or comments by other commenters, reveals that they provide explanations and justifications for claims and positions regarding a particular action, general conduct or way of thinking of the previous speaker, or a third party. It is argued that such explanations serve to either support or challenge others’ positions, both sincerely and ironically, in accordance with the corpus’s dual nature as both a platform for uniting political camps and a battleground for opposing camps. When affiliative, ki-clauses justify the previous speakers, at times by ironically justifying third parties, making them a shared target. Conversely, when disaffiliative, ki-clauses expose the absurdity underlying the position of the previous speaker, often ridiculing them through ironic echoing.