Migrant voices: the construction of evaluation in narrative and interactional practices in Italian and Spanish

The project investigates the construction of evaluation in oral narratives produced by people with migration backgrounds living in Bologna, comparing interactions in Italian and Spanish. The research draws on two existing transcribed corpora, Stra-ParlaBO and CorEsBo, and examines narrative sequences concerning migration experiences, language learning, and relationships with people and institutions. The analysis focuses on evaluative vocabulary and constructions, discourse markers, reformulations, exemplifications, and interactional dynamics of negotiation, confirmation, clarification, repair and challenge. Through a comparative, sequential and interactional approach, the project aims to identify recurring evaluative patterns and explore how evaluations, categorisations, social identities and mutual positioning are constructed and negotiated in interaction.