EPISTEMIC RELATIONS AND LINGUISTIC IMPOLITENESS IN TWITTER/X COMMENTS ON A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Authors

Keywords:

Twitter/X, Linguistic impoliteness, Epistemic relations

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of Twitter/X users’ reactions to the Brazilian presidential debate broadcast by Globo T.V. on 28th October 2022. By combining the Principle of Epistemic Reciprocity (PER) with studies on the epistemic dimension in Conversation Analysis, the paper examines to what extent linguistic impoliteness is associated with the negotiation of epistemic agency in digital interaction. The data was extracted from a corpus of 2,522 unique tweets containing hashtags, featured as trending topics. The results revealed the role of challenging questions in reorienting the interactional topic and expressing stance. As for the manifestation of disagreement, users were cautious in protecting their epistemic territory, which they did by enacting impoliteness. The affordances of Twitter/X, such as hashtags, also played a key role in how the users sanctioned the transactional nature of the debate.

Author Biographies

  • Ana Larissa Adorno Marciotto Oliveira, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

    Professora da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Líder do Grupo de Estudos sobre Pragmática, Texto e Discurso. Bolsista de produtividade do CNPq (processo 307538/2023-0).

  • Gustavo Ximenes Cunha, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

    Professor da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Líder do Grupo de Estudos sobre Pragmática, Texto e Discurso. Bolsista de produtividade do CNPq (processo 304805/2022-0).

Downloads

Published

2024-07-16

Issue

Vol. 24 (2024)

Section

Research Articles