Impoliteness in Twitter Discourse: a Case Study of Replies to Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22364/BJELLC.14.2024.06

Keywords:

moral order, pragmatic function, strategies, impoliteness, Twitter, offense

Abstract

Twitter (X) is a popular social media platform that allows users to express their opinions and interact on various topics, including politics. However, Twitter can provide a space for impolite and aggressive language use, especially when the issues are controversial or polarizing. This study analyzes the replies to two controversial and similar tweets, namely Donald Trump’s tweet to Greta Thunberg and Greta Thunberg’s tweet to Donald Trump. Ninety-seven tweets that impolitely took issue with the original tweets were collected and coded for their moral order themes and pragmatic functions. Culpeper’s (2011) impoliteness framework was consulted as a threshold to include or exclude reply tweets in the data analysis. The results show that the replies invoked moral order expectations in three overarching categories in the responses to both parties: age-appropriate behaviorrespect and manners, and concern for the common good. As far as the pragmatic functions were concerned, criticism of personal characteristicscriticism of supporterscriticism of relatives (to Trump only), praise of the opposing partydirectingmockery, and ideology denial (to Thunberg only) were performed. The study discusses how users took offense through language in a highly polarized political context.

Author Biographies

  • Esmaeel Ali Salimi, Allameh Tabataba’i University

    Esmaeel Ali Salimi (Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, Associate Professor) is a Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of English Language and Literature, faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. His areas of research interests include Pragmatics, Second Language Research, and Second Language Acquisition.

  • Seyed Mohammadreza Mortazavi, Allameh Tabataba’i University

    Seyed Mohammadreza Mortazavi has a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran. His areas of interest include Pragmatics of Politeness, Discourse Analysis, and Second Language Teacher Education.

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[Online 1] Donald Trump, the emperor of social media (2016) Billmoyers, April 29. Available from http://tinyurl.com/4y8633mk [Accessed on 13 September 2023].

[Online 2] Trump mocks teen climate activist Greta Thunberg after TIME honor (2019) Politico, December 12. Available from http://tinyurl.com/bdedpmw7 [Accessed on 13 September 2023].

[Online 3] Greta Thunberg pokes fun at Donald Trump’s election reaction with ‘chill’ tweet (2020) Independent, November 6. Available from http://tinyurl.com/msx293yh [Accessed on 5 November 2023].

TEXTS ANALYSED

Alana (2020) 6 November. Available from https://twitter.com/yinotrjera/status/1324538880796827648 [Accessed on 16 March 16 2024]

Belcamino, A. (2019) 12 December. Available from https://twitter.com/AngelaBelcamino/status/1205119939763429376 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Biswas, P. (2020) 7 November. Available from https://twitter.com/ParanoidPrasoon/status/1324897013478010881 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Cox, C. (2020) 12 November. Available from https://twitter.com/CostinCox/status/1326979222460649480 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Danann (2020) 6 November. Available from https://twitter.com/DanannOficial/status/1324479784949305344 [Accessed on 16 March 2024].

Deal, S. (2019) 12 December. Available from https://twitter.com/SallyDeal4/status/1205210309855571968 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Jili (2019) 13 December. Available from https://twitter.com/mommaJ444/status/1205227814041063424 [Accessed: 7 March 2024].

Mediha (2020) 8 November. Available from https://twitter.com/Mediha04gmxde1/status/1325447200516829185 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

O’Reilly, H. F. (2019) 12 December. Available from https://twitter.com/AynRandPaulRyan/status/1205113893166600192 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Pothecary, A. (2020) 13 November. Available from https://twitter.com/MsAnnaPothecary/status/1327062554183610371 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Shoug (2020) 4 January. Available from https://twitter.com/shougarifi/status/1213505239195824130 [Accessed on 16 March 2024].

Thunberg, G. (2020) 5 November. Available from https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1324439705522524162 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Trinity (2019) 13 December. Available from https://twitter.com/TrinityResists/status/1205239935285878790 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Trump, D. J. (2012) 10 November. Available from https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/267286471172562944 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Trump, D. J. (2019) 12 December. Available from https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1205100602025545730 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

Trump, M. (2019) 5 December. Available from https://twitter.com/FLOTUS45/status/1202344441924571136 [Accessed on 7 March 2024].

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Published

2024-05-28

How to Cite

Salimi, E. A., & Mortazavi, S. M. (2024). Impoliteness in Twitter Discourse: a Case Study of Replies to Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg. Baltic Journal of English Language, Literature and Culture, 14, 86-107. https://doi.org/10.22364/BJELLC.14.2024.06