[Review to] Address Variation in Sociocultural Context. Region, power and distance in Italian service encounters

This review has a main topic: the Italian address system, which is interesting from many points of view. First of all, if we consider address pronouns, Italian has a more complex system than those in use in Romance languages that use a binary address system (T or V) as it employs three forms: tu (2SG), lei (3SG feminine), voi (2PL) used as a V form. Since Italian is a pro-drop language, where subject agreement is triggered by the verb, these three different forms produce different types of agreement in the singular e tu with 2SG verbs, lei with 3SG verbs e and in the plural: voi with 2PL verbs. A second interesting aspect concerns the sociolinguistic variation involving these forms, whereby voi is used to different extents in different areas of Italy. The book under review explores the vitality of the tripartite system and also its regional distribution. The analysis is based on a significant collection of original data, discussed from both a quantitative and a qualitative perspective, always in connection to a specific socio-interactional context of use, i.e. Italian restaurant encounters. The specific object of the research is the reported use of singular address pronouns.