Words beyond conflicts

Lexicon of kindness

Abstract

The contribution aims to present the first results of a linguistic analysis that explores the deconstructive use of 'kind words' with respect to those of hate and conflict. Through the examination of some examples, the vocabulary built around the keyword 'gentile' will be analysed, whose diachronic evolution will be rebuilt in order to show how, in the course of time, values often distant from the original ones have been established, to the point of reaching, in some cases, uses in which the term acquires, on the basis of the context, non-positive meanings: one thinks of 'per cortesia' or 'cortesemente', widespread in bureaucratic language (but also transposed by the media), which can be used both to make polite requests and to express orders, usually based on a position of authority. Such multiple meanings of 'gentile' (and of 'gentilezza') are still to be found in the paremiological and phraseological heritage of the Italian language, again with values that are not always positive; one thinks of the expression 'gentil sesso' (or 'gentil sesso'), today certainly not politically correct. Part of the paper will examine texts produced by ChatGPT, which, as is known, undergoes 'ethical' algorithms that restrict offensive and discriminatory language.