“Dai fallo per me!” Insisting after a refusal: From empirical evidence to the teaching of Italian as a second language

Abstract

In order to address pragmatic issues with their students, teachers need access to empirical data and research results on how speech acts are performed by native speakers of the target language in various contexts. The present paper aims at exploring how the invitation-refusal sequence is realised in a sample of semi-spontaneous interactions between young speakers of Italian at an intermediate social distance. The study focuses specifically on the role of insistence in the context of an informal invitation to a party. 94 invitation-refusal dialogues performed by university students residing in Rome’s area are analysed. Results show that insistence after a refusal is a frequent and expected reaction, even though not always produced. This reveals some similarities between Italian language/culture and some South-American cultures where insistence seems to be a “necessary” routine that helps strengthen the links of affiliation among community members.