«MI SCUSO, MA MI DEVO LAMENTARE…»: SULL’IMPORTANZA DELLA SOCIOPRAGMATICA NELLA LINGUA FACILE – UNO STUDIO PILOTA PRAGMATICO-DESCRITTIVO SUL CASO DELL’ITALIANO
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54103/2037-3597/30520Abstract
Il presente contributo si occupa dei “limiti della lingua facile e semplice” (Bredel, Maaß 2016: 511-512) da una prospettiva sensibile al gruppo destinatario e orientata alla produzione linguistica, così come sostenuto, tra gli altri, nei recenti lavori di Jekat et al. (2023) e Mayr (in corso di pubblicazione), sullo sfondo dell’appello di Sciumbata (2022: 31): «Non scrivete su di noi senza di noi». Al centro dell’indagine si pone una questione che, ad oggi, ha ricevuto scarsa attenzione sia nella ricerca psico- e neurolinguistica, sia negli studi sulla comunicazione accessibile: ovvero, quella delle competenze sociopragmatiche dei destinatari della lingua facile e semplice. L’attenzione si concentra (a titolo esemplificativo) sul gruppo destinatario costituito da persone italofone con disabilità intellettive. L’obiettivo di questo studio pilota è esaminare se e in quale misura a tale gruppo possano essere attribuiti deficit sociopragmatici – deficit che potrebbero, almeno in parte, giustificare la talvolta osservabile trascuratezza dell’appropriatezza (socio)pragmatica nella produzione di testi accessibili. Ciò riguarda in particolare aspetti della cortesia linguistica e del face work, che Bredel e Maaß (2016) individuano come centrali nella lingua facile, ma la cui attuazione viene ritenuta solo parzialmente realizzabile nei testi accessibili, a causa di numerosi vincoli di natura linguistico-sistematica. Adottando un approccio pragmatico-descrittivo, il contributo analizza dati linguistici produttivi raccolti tramite due item di un Written Discourse Completion Test, con riferimento alla performanza del Face Threatening Act della critica. Il contributo si inserisce negli sforzi attuali volti a colmare l’ampiamente lamentata lacuna tra comunicazione orientata alla comprensibilità e accettabilità pragmatico-testuale, e si propone, sulla base di teorie e metodologie linguistiche, di offrire impulsi per una progettazione più inclusiva dei prodotti testuali accessibili.
«Mi scuso, ma mi devo lamentare…»: on the importance of sociopragmatics in easy and simple language - a pragmatic-descriptive pilot study on the case of Italian
This paper addresses the “limits of Easy and Plain Language” (Bredel, Maaß 2016: 511-512); our translation) from a target group-sensitive, production-oriented perspective, as advocated, among others, in recent work by Jekat et al. (2023) and Mayr (forthcoming), against the backdrop of Sciumbata’s (2022: 31) plea: “Do not write about us without us”. At the centre of the investigation lies a question that has received little attention to date in both psycho- and neurolinguistic research as well as in studies on accessible communication: namely, that of the sociopragmatic competences of recipients of Easy and Plain Language. The focus is placed (by way of example) on the addressee group of Italian-speaking individuals with intellectual disabilities. The aim of this pilot study is to examine whether and to what extent sociopragmatic deficits can be ascribed to this target group – deficits that could potentially justify the occasionally observable neglect of (socio)pragmatic appropriateness in accessible text production. This applies in particular to aspects of linguistic politeness and face work, which Bredel and Maaß (2016: 507) describe as being prominently featured in Easy Language, yet whose implementation is deemed only partially feasible in accessible texts due to formal and linguistic-systematic limitations. Drawing on a descriptive-pragmatic approach, the paper analyses productive language data collected via two Written Discourse Completion Test items, with regard to performative realisations of the face-threatening speech act of criticism. The study contributes to current efforts to bridge the widely lamented gap in the literature between comprehensibility-oriented communication and text-pragmatic acceptability, and, building on this, seeks to provide impulses – grounded in linguistic theory and methodology – for the more inclusive design of accessible text products.
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