Yo arrabbiata perché la cocina è sporca e niente caffè". Aggressività e cortesia percepita nelle proteste di apprendenti di italiano L2

The present study explores the relationship between the speech act of complaining and the perception of (im)politeness. 12 Spanish learners of Italian as L2 and 6 native speakers have been engaged in 4 role-plays eliciting complaints. Their performances were audio-recorded. A perception test containing participants’ complaints was submitted to 60 native speakers of Italian. These listened to a complaint, knowing the context and the purpose of the speaker, and judged the complainer’s tone in terms of politeness, aggressiveness and appropriateness to the context, on a scale from 0 to 10. Results show that in most situations learners’ tone is perceived as rather polite and a little bit aggressive, but that it is not sufficiently appropriate to the context in which it is used.