■ Ciao, io mi chiamo Carlos, e tu?
● Ciao, io sono Magdalena.
■ Di dove sei?
● Sono svizzera, vengo da Berna e tu?
■ Io sono spagnolo, di Barcellona.
The analysis of
linguistic politeness and cultural dimensions in the light of this
brief dialogue between two people is an excellent example for having
elements of understanding of Italian society.
The first turn begins with a "ciao" intended as the will to create a friendly relationship, to strengthen one's own and others' positive face (desire to be appreciated). In other words, the speakers are foreigners and they need to make friends, therefore they cannot have a too formal style such as "Good moorning, this is Carlos, and you?". On the contrary, they instead need to produce a friendly "ciao, io ( I) as a way to underline my person as invested by this task of reducing social distances" and you "becomes a form of interest towards the positive face of the other interlocutor.
The other person ratifies Carlos' informal and friendly style by replying with "hello" in turn and specifying his person (I am Margdalena). The dialogue continues with a subsequent question from Carlos, which allows to highlight significantly Carlos's adherence to a "collectivism" cultural dimension, that is there is a national "in-group" and a foreign "out-group" or in other way around you are looking for other foreigners to establish your "in-group" towards a local community that becomes an "out-group". In fact this constitutes the foundation for a form of social distance with the other reference group that is "Italian" or "foreigners". In short, when we know "where are you from?" we can implies the possibility of hierarchizing people according to their nationality and this is in line with a cultural dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" because I need clarity and to structure my relationships in the social space. In a way it is also a question in line with a short-term temporal orientation because there is a form of stability for the person as always equal to herself and you must be proud of your country. Ultimately, one is “restrained” in cultural term inside a one's national belonging, in many cases putting in crisis the need for free speech regarding the need of expression of other forms of identity adhesions by people who do not carry these typical identifications of the "in-group". This dialogue continues with the reply of Magdalena "I'm Swiss, I'm from Bern and you?"where the nation belonging is made explicit as a larger "in-group" and then membership of a given city as a local membership in order to avoid more uncertainty. Ultimately it is a form of rooting in a precise geographical context. Likewise Carlos replies by claiming to be Spanish as a national membership in term of "in-group" and to have a local membership with the city of Barcelona. The phrase "I am Spanish, from Barcelona" could highlight for further research in term of a better investigation on the nature of cultural relations between the Castilian world and the Catalan world.
The first turn begins with a "ciao" intended as the will to create a friendly relationship, to strengthen one's own and others' positive face (desire to be appreciated). In other words, the speakers are foreigners and they need to make friends, therefore they cannot have a too formal style such as "Good moorning, this is Carlos, and you?". On the contrary, they instead need to produce a friendly "ciao, io ( I) as a way to underline my person as invested by this task of reducing social distances" and you "becomes a form of interest towards the positive face of the other interlocutor.
The other person ratifies Carlos' informal and friendly style by replying with "hello" in turn and specifying his person (I am Margdalena). The dialogue continues with a subsequent question from Carlos, which allows to highlight significantly Carlos's adherence to a "collectivism" cultural dimension, that is there is a national "in-group" and a foreign "out-group" or in other way around you are looking for other foreigners to establish your "in-group" towards a local community that becomes an "out-group". In fact this constitutes the foundation for a form of social distance with the other reference group that is "Italian" or "foreigners". In short, when we know "where are you from?" we can implies the possibility of hierarchizing people according to their nationality and this is in line with a cultural dimension of "strong avoidance of uncertainty" because I need clarity and to structure my relationships in the social space. In a way it is also a question in line with a short-term temporal orientation because there is a form of stability for the person as always equal to herself and you must be proud of your country. Ultimately, one is “restrained” in cultural term inside a one's national belonging, in many cases putting in crisis the need for free speech regarding the need of expression of other forms of identity adhesions by people who do not carry these typical identifications of the "in-group". This dialogue continues with the reply of Magdalena "I'm Swiss, I'm from Bern and you?"where the nation belonging is made explicit as a larger "in-group" and then membership of a given city as a local membership in order to avoid more uncertainty. Ultimately it is a form of rooting in a precise geographical context. Likewise Carlos replies by claiming to be Spanish as a national membership in term of "in-group" and to have a local membership with the city of Barcelona. The phrase "I am Spanish, from Barcelona" could highlight for further research in term of a better investigation on the nature of cultural relations between the Castilian world and the Catalan world.
Dialogue about “How to show forms of interest”: analysis of cultural dimensions and linguistic politeness
Ciao a tutti!
● Ciao papà. Finalmente sei arrivato! Come mai così tardi?
■ C’era tanto traffico stasera. E Marion?
Sono qui, buonasera, Signor Marchesi!
■ Buonasera, Marion, allora, come è andato il primo giorno di corso d’italiano?
Bene, bene, grazie.
The dialogue begins
with a very informal and inclusive form of greeting such as "
ciao a tutti (hello everyone)" directed to the members of a
family by the father. At the same time, this greeting offers a
"positive face" to all members of the family by indicating
from the father an adherence to a cultural dimension of "weak
avoidance of uncertainty" with a tendency towards well-being.
Furthermore, this "hello to everybody" emphasizes belonging
as a "collectivism" and also "satisfied" cultural
dimension because the simple oral formulation in Italian create a
form of positive emotions.
The daughter's reply in the dialogue with "Hi Dad. You finally arrived! How come so late?" in which this statement allows us to see how the father's greeting is accompanied by a strong threat to the positive face of his daughter, who anxiously experiences the father's delay as we can see for example with the uses of the adverb "finally". Afterwards "How come so late?" expresses this full adhesion to a dimension of strong avoidance of uncertainty because it needs clarity and does not tolerate unexpected changes. The father's answer will be "there was a lot of traffic tonight"as if to say it is a normal fact the presence of traffic on some days and therefore shows to live in full cultural dimension of the "weak avoidance of uncertainty" living with little stress, low anxiety these events in adherence with the idea of taking life as it comes.
Then the father asks "what about Marion?" as a form of concern for the positive face of an external member of one's family through the addition of a conjunction like "and". Marion's reply: "I am here, good evening, Mr. Marchesi" signaling his presence with a formal greeting as happens when she indexes the "dad" with the allocutive "Signore Marchesi". In this way the identification of a non-family person is ratified and therefore as an "out-group" member within this family. The father's reply "Good evening Marion, so how did go the first day of Italian course?" In this way, the father enhances Marion's positive face by showing interest in the girl's daytime activities in order to emphasize her belonging to this new “ in-group” even if only temporarily.
The girl replies with "well, well, thank you" by positively ratifying the interest while remaining very friendly and without giving more details, which are often the best way to allow a form of adhesion to this new "in-group" as a way to adhere to the cultural dimension of "collectivism". In this dialogue they can contrast two cultural dimension such as the will to remain faithful to an "individualism" dimension with the drive of the new family to make you adhere to a "collectivism" dimension even against your will. Obviously this can create creating problems in term of interpretation about how to behave properly within a family context when you want to keep your “ individualism” cultural dimension inside a family which belong to a " collectivism" cultural approach. Certainly for that family this cultural dimension of "individualism" represent a form of treat in term of " positive face" because you don't know how to deal with a person who want to keep distance with the surrounding family context.
The daughter's reply in the dialogue with "Hi Dad. You finally arrived! How come so late?" in which this statement allows us to see how the father's greeting is accompanied by a strong threat to the positive face of his daughter, who anxiously experiences the father's delay as we can see for example with the uses of the adverb "finally". Afterwards "How come so late?" expresses this full adhesion to a dimension of strong avoidance of uncertainty because it needs clarity and does not tolerate unexpected changes. The father's answer will be "there was a lot of traffic tonight"as if to say it is a normal fact the presence of traffic on some days and therefore shows to live in full cultural dimension of the "weak avoidance of uncertainty" living with little stress, low anxiety these events in adherence with the idea of taking life as it comes.
Then the father asks "what about Marion?" as a form of concern for the positive face of an external member of one's family through the addition of a conjunction like "and". Marion's reply: "I am here, good evening, Mr. Marchesi" signaling his presence with a formal greeting as happens when she indexes the "dad" with the allocutive "Signore Marchesi". In this way the identification of a non-family person is ratified and therefore as an "out-group" member within this family. The father's reply "Good evening Marion, so how did go the first day of Italian course?" In this way, the father enhances Marion's positive face by showing interest in the girl's daytime activities in order to emphasize her belonging to this new “ in-group” even if only temporarily.
The girl replies with "well, well, thank you" by positively ratifying the interest while remaining very friendly and without giving more details, which are often the best way to allow a form of adhesion to this new "in-group" as a way to adhere to the cultural dimension of "collectivism". In this dialogue they can contrast two cultural dimension such as the will to remain faithful to an "individualism" dimension with the drive of the new family to make you adhere to a "collectivism" dimension even against your will. Obviously this can create creating problems in term of interpretation about how to behave properly within a family context when you want to keep your “ individualism” cultural dimension inside a family which belong to a " collectivism" cultural approach. Certainly for that family this cultural dimension of "individualism" represent a form of treat in term of " positive face" because you don't know how to deal with a person who want to keep distance with the surrounding family context.
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