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Fig. 9.1 Distribution of the emotive devices in the disaffiliative replies of Calcolatore83's
interlocutors. The devices of negative evaluation and of negative social, temporal, and empathetic
proximity are referred to as Calcolatore83's stance. The devices of positive volitionality, quantity,
specificity, evidentiality, and proximity are used as a manner of reinforcement of the interlocutor's
contrasting stance
of a captatio benevolentiae from his interlocutors. The user is often unassertive and
uncertain and floats between positive evaluations and demonstrations of affective
proximity toward his love story (examples are phrases such as ci troviamo a
meraviglia , in English “we are doing awesome”; va tutto benissimo , in English
“everything is going great”) and evaluations and displays of proximity now positive
and then negative toward the protagonist of his flirt (e.g., poverina , in English
“poor little thing”; le ho risposto subito , i.e., “I replied immediately”; contrasting
with phrases such as relazione clandestina , in English “a clandestine relationship”;
quest'altra storia , i.e., “this other story”).
Calcolatore83's interlocutors, often annoyed and bored by his indecisions, show
their lack of affiliation with two different behaviors: on the one hand, they devalue
and detach from the content of Calcolatore83's emotive stance using devices of
negative evaluation and distance (e.g., smania sessuale , i.e., “sexual frenzy”, or
empathetic deixis such as dell'altra , i.e., “of the other one,” meaning the other
girl). On the other hand, they constitute and strengthen their own emotive stance,
in such a way that it appears internally coherent in its manners and sometimes
internally cohesive in its contents. The interlocutor's stance is mainly reinforced
by emotive devices of social proximity (e.g., noi , in English “us”), expressions of
epistemic certainty (e.g., evidente , semplicemente , i.e.. “obvious,” “simply”), signs
of assertiveness (e.g., te lo devo dire , i.e., “I have to tell you”), and displays of
intensity such as the use of exclamations, dysphemisms, hyperbolic images, and
emoticons with emphatic expressions.
The interlocutor's lack of affiliation with the contents of Calcolatore83's affec-
tively strong messages involves strategic and coherent choices. These choices are
shown presumably after the recognition of Calcolatore83's emotive stance, a type
of behavior partly predicted by Caffi and Janney ( 1994 ).
On the one hand, it is possible to identify in Calcolatore83's hearer-
centered posts a prevalence of emotive devices of request of agreement and
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