{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,21]],"date-time":"2025-12-21T20:06:13Z","timestamp":1766347573212,"version":"3.41.2"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]],"date-time":"2023-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1673222400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100007821","name":"Tartu \u00dclikool","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100007821","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Artif. Intell."],"abstract":"<jats:p>This article presents the results of a quantitative analysis of 900 Estonian COVID-19 door signs, which were studied to investigate the linguistic means of establishing and maintaining contact between the sign's author (institution) and the addressee (client). Malinowski's notion of \u201cphatic communion\u201d and Laver's notions of \u201cself-oriented\u201d and \u201cother-oriented\u201d utterances as means for expressing status relations\u2014authority and solidarity\u2014between the participants of the communication act were used to establish four types of grammatical person usage on the COVID-19 signs: (1) \u201cneither 1st nor 2nd person\u201d; (2) \u201c1st person only\u201d; (3) \u201c2nd person only\u201d, and (4) \u201cboth 1st and 2nd person\u201d. Grammatical person of personal pronouns and verb forms were included. The presence and absence of two other means for expressing authority\u2014the imperative mood and lexical expressions of authority\u2014were analyzed within these four types of grammatical person usage. The most important difference emerged between the signs belonging to the types \u201c2nd person only\u201d (i.e., signs with only other-oriented 2nd person, without 1st person) and \u201cboth 1st and 2nd person\u201d (i.e., signs with both self-oriented 1st person and other-oriented 2nd person). On the signs belonging to the type \u201c2nd person only\u201d that, relying on Laver, express the higher status of the sender of the message in relation to the receiver of the message, the authors of the signs use significantly more imperative mood and less refer to an authority outside the communication act, thus putting themselves in the role of authority. However, on the signs belonging to the type \u201cboth 1st and 2nd person\u201d that, relying on Laver, express the solidarity of the sender of the message with the addressee, the authors of the signs seem less inclined to assume the role of authority (using less imperative mood) and rather call the reader of the sign to submit to some higher authority (using lexical expressions of authority, e.g., <jats:italic>Vabariigi Valitsus<\/jats:italic> \u201cGovernment of the Republic\u201d, <jats:italic>Terviseamet<\/jats:italic> \u201cHealth Board\u201d, etc.) to which the author of the sign and the addressee are both in a subordinate position and, therefore, of equal status.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/frai.2022.1000188","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]],"date-time":"2023-01-09T10:27:11Z","timestamp":1673260031000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["Authority and solidarity on the Estonian COVID-19 signs: In line with the government's guidelines, we ask you to wear a mask"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"5","author":[{"given":"Ilona","family":"Tragel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Aimi","family":"Pikksaar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"206","DOI":"10.1075\/ip.00029.aul","article-title":"A study of phatic emoji use in whatsapp communication","volume":"2","author":"Aull","year":"2019","journal-title":"Internet Pragmat"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1075\/pbns.222","volume-title":"Public Information Messages: A Contrastive Genre Analysis of State-Citizen Communication","author":"Barron","year":"2012"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"620","DOI":"10.1075\/prag.21033.bel","article-title":"Accounts as acts of identity. Justifying business closures on COVID-19 public signs in Athens and London","volume":"32","author":"Bella","year":"2022","journal-title":"Pragmatics"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.21832\/9781783090419","volume-title":"Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity","author":"Blommaert","year":"2013"},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1515\/fsp-2016-0023","article-title":"Formulierungsmuster auf d\u00e4nischen Schildern","volume":"20","author":"Bonner","year":"2016","journal-title":"Folia Scand"},{"key":"B6","first-page":"253","article-title":"The pronouns of authority and solidarity,","volume-title":"Style in Language","author":"Brown","year":"1960"},{"key":"B7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"207","DOI":"10.1017\/S0047404500015268","article-title":"'How are you?': negotiating phatic communion","volume":"21","author":"Coupland","year":"1992","journal-title":"Lang. Soc"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"624334","DOI":"10.3389\/fcomm.2021.624334","article-title":"Fictive deixis, direct discourse, and viewpoint networks","volume":"6","author":"Dancygier","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front. Commun"},{"article-title":"Standing together by standing apart: distance, safety, fictive deixis in the COVID-19 storefront communication,","year":"","author":"Dancygier","key":"B9"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.21315\/ijaps2019.15.1.2","article-title":"A linguistic landscape analysis of public signs after Typhoon Haiyan","volume":"15","author":"Doroja-Cadiente","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int. J. Asia Pacifc Stud"},{"volume-title":"Estonian Language","year":"2003","author":"Erelt","key":"B11"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"183","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pragma.2018.05.011","article-title":"Im\/politeness on the move: a study of regulatory discourse practices in Slovakia's centre of tourism","volume":"134","author":"Feren\u010d\u00edk","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Pragmat"},{"volume-title":"Spontaansuse ja formaalsuse kui dimensionaalse tekstimudeli dimensioonide automaatne hindamine veebitekstides \/ Evaluating the spontaneity and formality of online texts as dimensions of the dimensional text model","year":"2021","author":"Gailit","key":"B13"},{"key":"B14","first-page":"37","article-title":"Sense and sensibility: urban public signs during a pandemic,","volume-title":"Viral Discourse (Elements in Applied Linguistics)","author":"Hua","year":"2021"},{"key":"B15","unstructured":"Isos\u00e4viJ.\n          Finnish French public signs from commercial premises during the Covid-19 pandemic"},{"key":"B16","first-page":"350","article-title":"Linguistics and poetics,","volume-title":"Style in Language","author":"Jakobson","year":"1960"},{"key":"B17","first-page":"15","article-title":"Organizational communication and social mobilization - the spreading mode, discourse system and social governance function of public signs in fighting against the novel corona pandemic","volume":"6","author":"Jing","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Lover"},{"key":"B18","first-page":"193","article-title":"Vocatives and phatic communion in Spanish teenage talk,","volume-title":"Love YA Hate YA: The Sociolinguistic Study of Youth Language and Youth Identities","author":"J\u00f8rgensen","year":"2010"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"51","DOI":"10.15763\/issn.2470-9670.2020.v4.i2.a65","article-title":"Sign evaluation and compliance under mortality salience: lessons from a pandemic","volume":"4","author":"Kellaris","year":"2020","journal-title":"Interdiscipl. J. Sign. Wayfind"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.1515\/9783110907643.215","article-title":"Communicative functions of phatic communion,","volume-title":"Organisation of Behaviour in Face-to-face Interaction","author":"Laver","year":"1975"},{"key":"B21","first-page":"289","article-title":"Linguistic routines and politeness in greeting and parting,","volume-title":"Conversational Routine: Explorations in Standardized Communication Situations and Prepatterned Speech","author":"Laver","year":"1981"},{"key":"B22","first-page":"17","article-title":"Research of public slogans on epidemic prevention in the battle against COVID-19","volume":"37","author":"Li","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. Changzhi Univ"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9781139165570","volume-title":"Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics","author":"Lyons","year":"1968"},{"key":"B24","first-page":"296","article-title":"The problem of meaning in primitive languages,","author":"Malinowski","year":"1930"},{"key":"B25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/14790718.2020.1849225","article-title":"Navigating COVID-19 linguistic landscapes in Vancouver's North Shore: official signs, grassroots literacy artefacts, monolingualism, and discursive convergence","author":"Marshall","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int. J. Multilingual"},{"key":"B26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"189","DOI":"10.1558\/ijsll.v19i2.189","article-title":"Language, space and the law: a study of directive signs","volume":"19","author":"Mautner","year":"2012","journal-title":"Int. J. Speech Lang. Law"},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1207\/S15327973RLSI3601_3","article-title":"Talking back: 'small' interactional response tokens in everyday conversation","volume":"36","author":"McCarthy","year":"2003","journal-title":"Res. Lang. Soc. Int"},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"243","DOI":"10.3176\/lu.2004.4.02","article-title":"Imperative and related matters in everyday Estonian","volume":"4","author":"Metslang","year":"2004","journal-title":"Linguist. Ural"},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"528","DOI":"10.1075\/slcs.120.29met","article-title":"Mood in Estonian,","volume-title":"Mood in the Languages of Europe","author":"Metslang","year":"2010"},{"key":"B30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pragma.2021.07.020","article-title":"On the dual role of expressive speech acts: relational work on signs announcing closures during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"184","author":"Ogiermann","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Pragmat"},{"key":"B31","unstructured":"EstNLTK - NLP toolkit for Estonian,\n            OrasmaaS.\n            PetmansonT.\n            TkachenkoA.\n            LaurS.\n            KaalepH.-J.\n          33737920Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2016)2016"},{"key":"B32","first-page":"158","article-title":"About the use of different forms of the first and second person singular personal pronouns in Estonian cases,","volume-title":"Estonian: Typological Studies III (Publications of the Department of Estonian of the University of Tartu, 11)","author":"Pool","year":"1999"},{"key":"B33","unstructured":"R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing2021"},{"key":"B34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e4831","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.4831","article-title":"I understand you feel that way, but I feel this way: the benefits of I-language and communicating perspective during conflict","volume":"6","author":"Rogers","year":"2018","journal-title":"PeerJ"},{"key":"B35","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.33011\/lilt.v8i.1305","article-title":"Learning to classify documents according to formal and informal style","volume":"8","author":"Sheikha","year":"2012","journal-title":"Linguist. Issues Lang. Technol"},{"key":"B36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.4324\/9780203387962","volume-title":"Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches","author":"Shohamy","year":"2006"},{"key":"B37","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/CBO9780511812729","author":"Siewierska","year":"2004","journal-title":"Person"},{"key":"B38","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"165","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pragma.2021.01.016","article-title":"How to do things with signs. The formulation of directives on signs in public spaces","volume":"175","author":"Svennevig","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Pragmat"},{"volume-title":"Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings.","year":"1990","author":"Swales","key":"B39"},{"key":"B40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1057\/9781137426284_7","article-title":"Linguistic landscape and exclusion: an examination of language representation in disaster signage in Japan,","volume-title":"Conflict, Exclusion and Dissent in the Linguistic Landscape","author":"Tan","year":"2015"},{"key":"B41","first-page":"1","article-title":"Tanel ja J\u00fcri kiusavad: piirangute p\u00f5hjuste v\u00e4ljendusvahendid koroonapiirangute siltidel. \/ This is a whim of our government! Expressing the causes of the restrictions on COVID-19 signs","volume":"2","author":"Tragel","year":"2022","journal-title":"\u00d5iguskeel"},{"key":"B42","first-page":"123","article-title":"\u00d6ffentliche verbotsschilder in deutschland. Versuch einer typologie,","volume-title":"Kurze Texte und Intertextualit\u00e4t","author":"Wagner","year":"2015"},{"key":"B43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"325","DOI":"10.1080\/10371397.2010.518601","article-title":"Public signs as narrative in Japan","volume":"30","author":"Wetzel","year":"2010","journal-title":"Jpn. Stud"},{"key":"B44","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"241","DOI":"10.1177\/0957926598009002006","article-title":"German 'cultural scripts': public signs as a key to social attitudes and cultural values","volume":"9","author":"Wierzbicka","year":"1998","journal-title":"Discourse Soc"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frai.2022.1000188\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]],"date-time":"2023-01-09T10:27:36Z","timestamp":1673260056000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frai.2022.1000188\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]]},"references-count":44,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/frai.2022.1000188"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/frai.2022.1000188","relation":{},"ISSN":["2624-8212"],"issn-type":[{"type":"electronic","value":"2624-8212"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,1,9]]},"article-number":"1000188"}}