(5) It is known and used more as Spanish

I am not in agreement with renaming the page as Castilian because it is not the most used word, but there is nothing denigrating about the word above all when many countries say Castilian without any problem […]JaimeDes 15:27 4 jan 2016 (UCT) (Discussion: “idioma español”, 2020).

Often, as in (5), disagreement is seen in the form of a first-person metacommunicative strategy (no estoy de acuerdo ‘I am not in agreement’, with both negation and the appearance of a performative verb. Other formulae observed include use of the verbs believe (no creo ‘I don’t believe’) or to differ (discrepo, ‘I differ’), negative evaluations of another’s opinion (tu opinión no me convence ‘your opinion does not convince me’), or simple negation (no ‘no’).

Differences of opinion can be expressed without impoliteness, which is exactly what the encyclopedia attempts to promote. In fact, in opinions such as those voiced in example (5), the person offering the opinion will usually frame their disagreement in an attenuated form as a way of protecting their own self-image (as an equable, tolerant person who weighs their opinions carefully) and as a politeness strategy directed at the other user (respectful of other’s interventions). Thus, as an attenuation strategy, the user in example (5) justifies their stance by saying: “no es la palabra de mayor uso ‘it is not the most used word’” (referring to the term castellano ‘Castilian’), and also makes an attenuating concession introduced by pero ‘but’: “pero no tiene nada de denigrante la palabra sobre todo cuando muchos países dicen castellano sin ningún problema ‘but there is nothing denigrating about the word above all when many countries say Castilian without any problem’”.

As affiliation strategies, in interventions containing agreement as much as those showing disagreement, users sometimes resort to conventional formulae for opening and closing conversations such as saludos ‘greetings’. This feature shows how, despite their asynchronous nature, these discussions behave like forums where turn taking alternates between speakers. We also see other expressives such as thanks. All these are acts of fostering social harmony, whose objective is the establishment and maintenance of a polite environment (Leech, 1983: 104). Specifically, thanking is a reactive act that speakers engage in depending on the prior actions of the hearer (Searle, 1969: 67) and has an important social function (Norrick, 1978: 285; Eisenstein and Bochman, 1996: 64). It enables speakers to establish a cordial atmosphere, contributes to the harmonious development of social relationships between members of the community, re-establishes the cost-benefit equilibrium between the speaker and hearer, and reinforces the positive face of the speaker (Haverkate, 1994: 82, 93). In this way, the recurrence of this most formulaic of speech acts, is very much in accord with the policies of the encyclopedia, which, in ever greater measure, attempt to instill cordiality between users faced with the acrimonious tone developed in certain discussions.

(6) Not without references. Thank you for your message, but for us to be able to include the information you are offering us, it is necessary that you supply trustworthy references to back it up, these can be books, web pages, newspapers, magazines, etc. You can consult Wikipedia: Verifiability for more information on the subject. Geom. 00:27 15 nov 2019 (UTC) (Discussion: Idioma español , 2020).

On the other hand, difference is expressed in more than a few cases –more than desirable, given the encyclopedia’s ever increasing insistence, on the necessity to maintain its stated policies– by showing not only disagreement, but expressing it