IMPOLITENESS STRATEGIES IN ONLINE DISCOURSE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND SPANISH COMMENTS ON KING CHARLES III’S CORONATION

Abstract

Impoliteness strategies are communicational strategies through which the speaker performs
a threat to the face of the hearer. This research explores impoliteness strategies employed
by Spanish and English CNN Instagram commenters to criticize the coronation of King Charles
III. Drawing on Culpeper’s (1996) Impoliteness Framework, the research examines how positive
and negative impoliteness strategies are applied to attack King Charles’ face, exploring potential
combinations and language-based differences. What has been observed is that impoliteness, or
more precisely face-threatening acts (FTA), may be a multi-layered phenomenon, in the sense
that commenters may simultaneously use multiple impolite strategies. This as a result produces
much stronger effect on the attack of the face than the use of a single strategy. Furthermore,
there may be cultural implications in the employment of strategies for FTA. Namely, Spanish
commenters appear to perform stronger FTA due to the use of three strategies at the same time
as opposed to English ones who are found to use two of them simultaneously. Moreover, sarcasm
as one of impoliteness strategies has also been found to be used only by Spanish commenters,
adding up to the possibility of cultural differences. Despite the need for further research, these
results yield a deeper insight into the complexity of the phenomenon of impoliteness within the
realm of online discourse concerning public figures.