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Part of
Language Change in the 20th Century: Exploring micro-diachronic evolutions in Romance languages
Edited by Salvador Pons Bordería and Shima Salameh Jiménez
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 340] 2024
► pp. 158–187

Chapter 5
Social indexicality and pragmatic change in the late 20th century

Cioè and tipo in Italian radio phone-ins

| University of Bergamo

This paper considers the role of social indexicality in the pragmatic development of Italian cioè ‘that is’ and tipo ‘type’ in the second half of the 20th century. It analyses listeners’ phone-ins to a radio station gathered in 1976 and in 2010, together with questionnaires on speakers’ attitudes regarding the use of cioè and tipo. Firstly, it describes the pragmatic trajectory of the two forms. Secondly, it discusses how their frequencies and polyfunctionality are subject to rapid changes, and how these changes are propelled by the social indexicality acquired by the forms. The development of these indexicalities benefits from the technological innovations of the 20th century, which have a relevant role in the spread of speakers’ interactive practices.

Keywords: cioè, tipo, social indexicality, pragmatic change, language attitudes, Italian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Discourse style and social meaning
  • 3.Corpus and methodology
  • 4.Pragmatic functions of cioè and tipo
    • 4.1Pragmatic functions of cioè
    • 4.2Pragmatic functions of tipo
  • 5.Distribution of cioè and tipo and speakers’ attitudes
    • 5.1Distribution of cioè and tipo
    • 5.2Speakers’ attitudes
  • 6.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 January 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.340.05ghe
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