Istituto di Studi Italiani

The dialogues in the Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione (1528) very quickly became a formal model codifying the art of conversation, in Italy and throughout Europe. This study attempts a first pragmatic exploration of courtly dialogue using the categories of ‘bushes’, ‘hedges’ and ‘shields’ developed by Claudia Caffi in her works on mitigation (Caffi 2001; 2007). Whilst ‘bushes’ (which reduce precision) are not particularly common, examples of ‘hedges’ (which weaken the strength of the illocutionary force) and ‘shields’ (for objectivization) abound, pointing to a type of interaction in which speakers are cautiously reducing the categoricalness of their opinions. In so doing, the speakers enact the precepts of a conversation model which aims at smoothing divergence and conflict. Mitigation, in its different forms, has a crucial role in reaching this ultimate goal.

The present paper contributes to metapragmatics, by examining the question of how historicity influences the validity of certain modern metaterms that are accepted as ‘neutral’ and ‘scientific’ in pragmatics. We argue that it is fundamental to explore the history and development of such metaterms, and also to study their historically situated meanings, in order to increase the self-reflexivity and rigour of analyses. We analyse the notion of ‘discernment’ as a case study, and we will show that the way in which the Italian equivalent of this term (discernere) – which supposedly influenced historical English understandings of ‘discernment’ as well – is used in historical Italian metadiscourses contradicts the modern application of this metaterm.

Between 1800 and 1920, 186 conduct books are printed in Italy, totalling at least 450 editions. (Im)politeness rules and formulae are found in 22 sources; we compare them with present-day (im)politeness strategies (Brown and Levinson, Leech, Culpeper, Bousfield). Whilst there are numerous similarities with 21st century Italian, formulae in the context of deference, attentiveness and requests refer to an older politeness model, based on social class hierarchy.

Although politeness theories – applied to all kinds of cultures, languages and communication events all over the world – are more than ever in the focus of pragmatics, Europe, as a historically grown cultural community in a loose geographic area, however, is still getting comparatively marginal attention, whilst English is overrepresented. Though the volume Politeness in Europe (2005) set an important research agenda, it mainly neglected the historical point of view. The panel invites further investigations of the European tradition from Antiquity to dynamically trace common cultural roots and their development over time, through language use and metalanguage, whilst keeping in mind that politeness is a strictly relative concept, and at the same time dependent on situated external and internal factors, which are constantly varying and changing. In the light of the theoretical key-concepts (claimed in Kadár/Haugh 2013:159ff.) of comparability and representation, transformation and continuity, the panel challenges new insights into 'European politeness' at the macro-, the meso-and the micro-pragmatic level, going beyond lingua-cultural — and national — boundaries. We ask special attention for the shared socio-cultural development in relevant periods of time, the mutual cultural contact and exchange by areal proximities as well as dominant ideological and sociopolitical influences, the foundation, reification, change and irradiation of a European human ethos, as reflected in both the ongoing social interaction and the evaluative comments drawing on the expected or neglected social behaviour. More specifically, for Europe (understood as a geographic area including also Russia and Turkey), the panel wants to promote interest into periodization issues, and into factors for change ranging from ideological, political, social, economic, to mediatic and their influence on conventions, rituals and values. Topic of interest include but are not limited to: egocentric vs sociocentric values, philosophy, Christianity, deference, feudalism, absolutism, emancipation, class mobility, rise of middle classes, decline/resilience of aristocracy, urbanization, industrial revolution, population increase, the nuclear family, and so on.) In terms of sources and methods, in front of the difficult data situation we see metapragmatic (metalinguistic, metacommunicative, metadiscursive and metacognitive) approaches as a key area offering a methodologically sound access. We welcome qualitative approaches aiming at identifying 'European' human qualities that go beyond the relativity of historical politeness and quantitative methods to provide evidence for recurrent schematic practices and their conventionalization from a diachronic perspective. Whether within a social semantic, discourse analytical or a genre-or frame-based perspective, we ask attention for lexical items and labels, routine formula and other questions of lexico-grammar as well as speech-acts, conversation patterns, discourse traditions and any other kind of communicative events. We hope to assemble researchers with a wide range of approaches, in order to foster insight in the convergent or divergent social practices of a shared European human ethos.

Le regole del bon ton cambiano ma sono ancora oggetto di discussione e mode. Con l’avvento della borghesia in Europa nel XIX secolo, la nuova classe dirigente vuole promuovere un codice comportamentale che la rispecchi. Si pubblicano quindi numerosi galatei, rivolti a un pubblico di fanciulli e adolescenti e d’altra parte vedono la luce i cosiddetti libri di etichetta, dedicati alla figura della signora, dal tono più coinvolgente e spesso ironico. Proprio da questi galatei sono tratti la maggior parte dei brani raccolti in questa divertente antologia: basti l’esempio della celebre Gente per bene della Marchesa Colombi, ancora contemporaneo e godibilissimo nella lettura.

This volume explores a pivotal period in European history, the ‘long’ nineteenth century. Politeness scholars have suggested that the nineteenth century heralds a significant transition in the meanings and realisations of politeness, between the Ancien Régime and the contemporary period, with the rise of the middle classes as economic, political, social and cultural actors.
The central innovation of this volume consists in its use of a wide range of politeness metasources — grammar books, schoolbooks, conduct books, etiquette books, and letter-writing manuals — to access social norms. This interdisciplinary approach, which draws on historical linguistics, argumentation theory, appraisal theory and literary stylistics, is applied to a wide range of languages: English, including Scottish and business English, Italian, Spanish, West and South Slavic languages.
As a highly coherent collection of innovative research papers, the volume will be welcomed by researchers of (im)politeness, pragmatics and sociolinguistics, both from a historical and contemporary perspective.

Using a corpus of 40 influential conduct books published in Italy in the long nineteenth century, we apply current insights in the role of values for the emergence and maintenance of conventions developed within the pragmatics of politeness to the prescriptive discourse on fashion, because in these sources norms for verbal and non-verbal behaviour are justified in a similar way. We argue that fashion choices are always said to communicate moral values. Most conduct books reinforce fashion norms by anchoring them in moral values because the authors expect their readers to be morally evaluated in terms of the clothes they wear. We will give an overview of rules regulating bodily hygiene, adornment, dress choice and fashion, and analyse which values are explicitly cited to justify the rules. The positive values such as diligence and parsimony show that fashion morality is seen as a means of self-improvement for the petty bourgeoisie whilst excesses (avarice and laziness on one end and vanity and frivolity on the other) lead to poverty. Our sources predominantly regulate fashion with personal, ego-centered values. This is markedly different from the current debate on sustainable fashion, led by social values such as compassion and altruism. With this historical paper we hope to contribute to the discussion of new approaches for the analysis of moralising discourse in fashion communication.