Address forms and politeness markers in Spanish students' emails to faculty

Bibliographic Data

ID22330862
AuthorsPatricia Salazar Campillo (0000-0003-2643-4790, Universitat Jaume I, corresponding author), Patricia Salazar-Campillo
Year2023
Volume21
Issue1
Pages58-73
Publication date2023-01-31
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueRevista Electrónica de Lingüística Aplicada (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1885-9089 • E-ISSN: 1885-9089
PublisherAsociación Española de Lingüística Aplicada (PUBLISHER • ES)
DOI10.58859/rael.v21i1.501
OpenAlexW4324140923
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited10

In the present era of global online communication, email exchanges are one the most common means of interaction between students and professors (Tseng, 2015). However, emails may convey an impolite tone if students do not take status or power imbalance into account to show politeness (Economidou-Kogetsidis, 2011). The present study explored the informal second person pronoun of address (tú) and the formal one (usted) in first and follow-up requestive emails sent by Spanish students. In addition, some structural elements to show politeness in the emails were also examined. Although students had time to edit and correct their emails, our results indicate that in half of first-contact emails tú is employed, a percentage that increases in the follow-up email, therefore ignoring the degree of politeness expected in student-professor email communication. On the other hand, verbal and structural markers of politeness were broadly employed to indicate deference, especially in the first email

Deference · Linguistics · Politeness · Pronoun · Digital Communication and Language · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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