#Lovely country, #wonderful people: Diplomatic compliments and praise on Twitter

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Considering the popularity of Twitter in digital diplomacy, this paper explores how international politicians enhance sociability by performing online compliments and praise. Drawing on 480 amicable actions collected from 14 accounts of foreign-affair actors, we analyze the prevalence, content, form, and functions of diplomatic expressions of positive evaluation. Our findings indicate that although having important functions on interpersonal, national, and international levels, compliments and praise are uncommon actions in digital diplomacy. We suggest that the lack of diplomatic “approbation protocol” and the perils of context collapse on Twitter encourage international actors to perform solidarity by other means. We also propose that the mediated and diplomatic contexts extend the traditional definition of compliments and blur differences in cultural speaking styles.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComplimenting Behavior and (Self-)Praise across Social Media. New contexts and new insights
EditorsMaria Elena Placencia, Zohreh R. Eslami
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages165-185
Number of pages21
ISBN (Electronic)9789027260727
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

Publication series

NamePragmatics and Beyond New Series
Volume313

Keywords

  • Compliments
  • Context collapse
  • Digital diplomacy
  • Political discourse
  • Praise
  • Public speech acts
  • Twitter

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '#Lovely country, #wonderful people: Diplomatic compliments and praise on Twitter'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this