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Abstract

Address and have each, separately, been widely explored over the past decade. However, the features of address in comments remain underexplored in the scholarly field. By drawing on comments, this paper aims to investigate how address is manifested in polite and impolite comments. Results reveal that commenters make use of a large repertoire of pronouns to achieve impolite effects, while both kinship and non-kinship terms exhibit distinct patterns in frequency and form between impolite and polite comments. Across all three categories, address plays a dynamic role in delivering, amplifying, and reshaping meanings, a process driven by the intricate interplay between address choice, (im)politeness, and the specific technical features of .

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/content/journals/10.1075/ps.24066.ran
2026-05-04
2026-06-07
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: address ; danmu ; Chinese ; xiaohongshu ; (im)politeness ; social media
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