Humor and (Italian) Political Discourse on X:  A Proposal for an Annotation Scheme 

Antonio Bianco
Università degli Studi di Bergamo & Università di Pavia 

Keywords
Graffiti, popular blasons, irony, marginality, mental disturbance

ABSTRACT

This study examines a potential multi-level annotation method for Italian political tweets on X (formerly Twitter). Drawing on the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) as its theoretical framework, a replicable three-level annotation model was developed to identify humorous instances, their communicative functions (e.g., aggressive, affiliative, self-enhancing, defensive, self-deprecating), and the linguistic markers (e.g., punctuation, hyperbole, emojis) that signal humor. Within the field of Italian pragmatics, and more specifically in relation to Political Communication 2.0, no established reference annotation model was previously available. The model described here was applied to political tweets using the INCEpTION annotation platform, which enables multi-level annotation across multiple annotators and allows for the (automatic) calculation of inter-annotator agreement. Finally, future directions are discussed, including the application of the annotation scheme to other textual genres, cross-linguistic comparisons, and a more comprehensive integration of multimodal elements, highlighting the potential of humor as a strategic tool in digital political communication.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Antonio Bianco
Ha svolto il dottorato (in attesa di discussione) in Scienze Linguistiche presso le Università di Bergamo e Università di Pavia. Precedentemente ha conseguito la Laurea Magistrale in Linguistica Teorica, Applicata e delle Lingue Moderne presso l’Università di Pavia ed è stato alunno ordinario dell’Almo Collegio Borromeo. La sua ricerca si concentra sull’analisi del discorso politico italiano, in particolare sulle piattaforme digitali, e sull’uso dell’umorismo e degli impliciti linguistici (implicature, casi di vaghezza e presupposizioni) con finalità manipolatorie. Ha collaborato, inoltre, al progetto PRIN IMPAQTS (Implicit Manipulation in Politics – Quantitatively Assessing the Tendentiousness of Speeches) ed è assistant production editors per la rivista scientifica Linguistic Typology at the Crossroads.

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