Grumbling through time

In this paper, we introduce an annotation scheme for other-addressed complaints, listing and exemplifying the most important parameters that emerged from our analysis of three datasets: historical correspondence data (seventeenth to nineteenth century), present-day e-mails (from a political workplace setting), and informal present-day text messages. We illustrate how our annotation scheme can be used to contrast complaint strategies across time and media. Beyond contributing a scheme that can be used to systematically annotate and analyse complaints, this paper also gives first insights into other-addressed complaint strategies in correspondence to and from individuals from the seventeenth century to the early 2000s.