Although the field of impoliteness research has greatly expanded in the last two decades, it has mainly focused on the western world while ignoring other regions such as India. The present study addresses this gap by examining impoliteness strategies employed in comments on two Indian YouTube videos that differ in level of controversiality. The data are 199 comments, written primarily in English. They are analysed as either off-record impoliteness or on-record impoliteness. Findings indicate that the controversiality of the topic influences participants’ choice of strategy: the on-record strategies of challenging or insulting others or making gender-based remarks occur significantly more in comments on the more controversial video than in comments on the less controversial video. In addition, female users employed fewer instances of impoliteness, as well as fewer on-record strategies, such as insulting others and using taboo language, than male users. These findings not only reflect gender-based norms in Indian society, where women are expected not to use taboo language, but also suggest that norms of offline communication carry over to online communication.

尽管最近二十年不礼貌的研究领域有了很大的扩展，但它主要集中在西方世界，而忽略了印度等其他地区。本研究通过检查对两个争议程度不同的印度 YouTube 视频的评论中采用的不礼貌策略来解决这一差距。数据是 199 条评论，主要用英文撰写。它们被分析为记录外的不礼貌或记录中的不礼貌。调查结果表明，话题的争议性会影响参与者的策略选择：挑战或侮辱他人或发表基于性别的评论的记录策略出现在对更具争议性的视频的评论中，而不是在对争议性较小的视频的评论中。此外，女性用户使用的不礼貌行为较少，以及比男性用户更少的记录策略，例如侮辱他人和使用禁忌语言。这些发现不仅反映了印度社会基于性别的规范，女性不应使用禁忌语言，而且还表明线下交流的规范可以延续到在线交流中。