Complimenti e genere in italiano

Abstract (inglese) The article reports the results of the third phase of a wider study on compliments in Italian, conducted from the perspective of variational pragmatics, to examine the impact of gender on compliments. After revisiting in a variational perspective the corpus of spontaneous speech analyzed in the first phase, the data deriving from a questionnaire submitted to a sample of young individuals in Catania are discussed. The questionnaire explores key aspects of compliments: frequency, object, modulation, and function. Overall, a gender pattern emerges: among women, compliments are much more common and serve an important interpersonal function, linked to the concept of phatic communion, as they are acts aimed at creating, maintaining, and strengthening mutual solidarity.