Address variation in sociocultural context : region, power and distance in Italian service encounters / Agnese Bresin, La Trobe University.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"This study looks at the sociocultural context of five Italian regions and at the situational context of restaurant encounters (a sub-type of service encounters) to examine address variation in spoken Italian-with a focus on singular address pronouns tu, voi and lei. It offers a thorough examination of distance and power dynamics between waiters and customers in a wide range of restaurant types. This book marks the introduction of Italian to the field of regional pragmatic variation and it will be of interest to linguists, Italianists and researchers more broadly working on service encounters. The author offers a new dimension to the understanding of social interaction and language use in contemporary Italy, uncovering cultural and linguistic differences between even adjacent geographical areas within a modern European nation state"-- Provided by publisher

Intro -- Address Variation in Sociocultural Context -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. Theory behind address practices -- 1.1 Key concepts -- 1.1.1 Image -- 1.1.2 Common ground and closeness -- 1.1.3 Social distance -- 1.1.4 Power -- 1.1.5 Respect -- 1.1.6 Enhancing the interlocutor's image -- 1.1.7 Accommodation principle -- 1.1.8 Cultural context and situational context -- 1.1.9 Community of practice -- 1.2 Common practice -- 1.2.1 Competing practices in interactional contexts

1.2.2 Evolving practices in cultural changes -- 1.3 Practices as expression of identity -- 1.3.1 Personal and community preferences -- 1.3.2 Style and identity -- 1.3.3 Images, roles, and identity -- 1.4 An account of identity from sociocultural linguistics -- 1.4.1 Basic demographic level -- 1.4.2 Cultural and linguistic level -- 1.4.3 Situational and interactional level -- 1.5 Conclusions -- 2. Cultural and linguistic context of Italy -- 2.1 Regional cultures and identities -- 2.1.1 Development of Italian regional identities -- 2.1.2 What are Italian regions?

2.1.3 Some cultural models in post-war Italy -- 2.1.4 Macro-regions: North and south (and centre) -- 2.1.5 Italian regions in this study -- 2.2 Languages and dialects in Italy -- 2.2.1 Relationship between language and dialect in contemporary Italy -- 2.2.2 The case of the Sardinian language -- 2.2.3 Official data on reported dialect use -- 2.2.4 Regional varieties of Italian -- 2.2.5 Social prestige attached to varieties of Italian -- 2.3 Geography in studies on Italian address -- 2.3.1 Italy presented as one geographical area -- 2.3.2 Italy presented in macro-regions

2.3.3 Italy presented in smaller regions -- 2.3.4 Information about one geographical location -- 2.3.4.1 Survey-based studies -- 2.3.4.2 Corpus-based and ethnographic studies -- 2.4 Conclusions -- 3. Situational and interactional context of restaurant encounters -- 3.1 Service encounters -- 3.1.1 Interlocutors' roles in service encounters -- 3.1.2 Power dynamics in commercial service encounters -- 3.1.2.1 Power of the customer -- 3.1.2.2 Power of the service provider -- 3.1.2.3 Collaboration between customer and service provider -- 3.1.3 Balance between closeness and respectful distance

3.1.3.1 Perception of imbalance between closeness and distance -- 3.2 Address in Italian service encounters -- 3.2.1 Survey-based studies -- 3.2.2 Corpus-based studies -- 3.3 Restaurant encounters -- 3.3.1 Restaurant levels and language variation -- 3.3.2 Restaurant levels and types in Italy -- 3.3.3 Definition of restaurant levels in this study -- 3.4 Conclusions -- 4. Research design -- 4.1 Preliminary considerations -- 4.2 Research questions -- 4.3 Research hypotheses -- 4.3.1 Research sites and a detailed hypothesis on regional variation -- 4.3.1.1 Emilia -- 4.3.1.2 Umbria -- 4.3.1.3 Lazio

Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on April 07, 2021).

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