Ladder Instant Messages: Written Messages
The data belongs to the LADDER web project (https://zenodo.org/records/4895219) and was collected between 2020 and 2023. The corpus consists of written instant messages in Italian from native speakers and learners of Italian. Most of the informants are university students, and the messages were elicited with the help of six different DCTs. Along with the texts, metadata were also registered with the help of an online questionnaire giving sociolinguistic information about the informant (age, self-assessed language level, place of residence, native language, etc.). The DCTs elicit different speech acts (requests, refusals and cancellations) with different degrees of formality (study/work or free time) and are directed at different people (lecturer, friend, boss). The situational contexts of the speech acts can be described as follows:
a) low level of social distance between sender and recipient
Scenario 1: Request
Scenario 2: Rejecting a request
Scenario 3: Short-notice cancellation of an invitation
b) medium level of social distance between sender and recipient
Scenario 4: Request
Scenario 5: Rejecting a request
Scenario 6: Short-term rejection of an invitation

The collected instant messages amount to 33,877 tokens. The prompts were presented in Italian as follows:

1. Sei in Erasmus in Italia. Avete creato una chat con 10 compagni di corso. Hai perso la tua tessera della biblioteca a vuoi chiedere se qualcuno ti può aiutare perché ti serve un libro entro domani...per esempio prestandoti la sua. Cosa scrivi?
Engl: You are taking part in the Erasmus program in Italy. You have created a chat with 10 classmates. You lost your library card and want to ask if someone can help you because you need a book by tomorrow.... E.g. by lending you their card. What do you write?
2. Ricevi questo messaggio da un amico/a che fa un seminario con te: "Ciao, sono a corto di tempo. Ho visto che hai preso 30 all'esame. Potresti darmi una mano e restare con me in biblioteca oggi?" Non vuoi aiutare il tuo amico. Come reagisci?
Engl: You receive this message from a friend who is attending a seminar with you: "Hello, I'm running out of time. I saw that you got a 30 on the exam. Could you help me and stay with me in the library today?" You don't want to help the friend. How do you respond?
3. Cinque giorni fa hai promesso ad un/a amico/a che questa sera sareste andati al cinema assieme. Però hai cambiato idea. Cosa fai? Cosa scrivi?
 Engl:  Five days ago, you promised a friend that tonight you would go to the movies together. But you changed your mind. What would you do? What do you write?
4. Sei al lavoro e hai smarrito il documento elettronico per entrare nel parcheggio. Sei nuovo in questo gruppo di lavoro e hai solo il numero del tuo diretto superiore. Gli mandi un messaggio per chiedergli se ti può aiutare.
Engl: You are at work and have lost your electronic badge to enter the parking lot. You are new to this work group and only have the number of your direct supervisor. You send him/her a message and ask if he/she can help you.
 5. Ricevi questo messaggio dal/la tuo/a superiore. "Gentile collega, domani c'è una scadenza importante. Per caso sarebbe in grado di restare oggi in ufficio oltre l'orario?" Non vuoi restare in ufficio oltre il normale. Come reagisci?
Engl: You receive this message from your supervisor. "Dear colleague, tomorrow is an important appointment. Would you be able to stay in the office after hours today?" You don't want to stay in the office beyond normal working hours. How do you respond?
6. Cinque giorni fa hai promesso al/la tuo/a superiore che oggi saresti andato a una cena di lavoro. Però devi disdire. Cosa fai?
Engl: Five days ago, you promised your superior that you would go to a business dinner today. However, you have to cancel. What do you do?

Contact: Nicola.Brocca@uibk.ac.at
Metadata Creator: Nicola Brocca
Research Discipline: Linguistics
Subject: Corpus of Computer-Mediated Communication for the Analysis of the Acquisition of Pragmalinguistic Competences, L1/L2 Data
Related Collections: Ladder Mail corpus, DisDir corpus
Available Since: first version of the corpus published in June 2021 in https://zenodo.org/records/4895219
Time of Data Collection: 2020-2023