ELF e strategie linguistiche nei siti di Q&A: una ricerca esplorativa sul linguaggio emozionale nel turismo del golf

Online communities as a distinctive feature of virtual forums and social networking groups have gradually become one of the major sources of information, surpassing corporate websites in terms of influence on purchasing decisions. Such platforms are characterized by cosmopolitan brand communities sharing the same field of expertise and are constructed around a series of social relationships based upon common interest in a particular topic, e.g. golf tourism. The choice of golf as a topic of this research is related to a specific motivation, since it is useful to analyze luxury and travel as a socio-cultural and socio-linguistic concept within the wide debate on the role of ethics in the tourism industry and in the global digital age. Golf is an interesting tourist segment, a widespread holiday and luxurious activity which implies the adoption of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) that is used in exclusive clubs and resorts and for the profound sharing of linguistic codes. The language of golf is characterized by semantic and behavioral codes (Dawkins and Kinloch, 2000; Bandy, 2010) and structures that influence communication dynamics on the web, on forums, on discussions, and on online comments. They are also relevant to the study of the social aspects related to the status of the subjects (Althoff et al., 2014), to the more strictly technical aspects of the proposed themes (Treude et al., 2011), and, in an equally relevant way, to the strategies and to the linguistic characteristics connected to the formulation of questions and answers for information (Mitra and Gilbert, 2014). By taking part in digital communities, working on online forums or social networks, golfers can ask questions and receive feedback on exclusive tourist destinations, emotions, and experiences, thus generating debates and exchanging ideas. Among them, the purpose of this exploratory study is to provide evidence for the existence of a debate on moral, ethical and cultural values in the golf sector within some of the most influential digital communities. To this end, two studies will be carried out on a specific Q&A dataset: 1) a qualitative/linguistic analysis and 2) a quantitative and marketing-related one. Results, albeit limited by the explorative nature of the research, provide useful insights into the extent to which specific semantic categories – i.e. the use of such linguistic items as “green”, “sustainable/unsustainable”, “moral/immoral”, “ethical/unethical”, “waste/wastefulness”, etc.-can affect emotional responses in respondents and can initiate response processes, with stimulating implications concerning a more humanistic paradigm concerning management in general and the management of digital platforms on tourism.