Gentle Layer
An added emotional or linguistic layer that buffers harshness and makes communication more tolerable without distorting the underlying content. It denotes a graded softening property of a message relative to its plain form.
Operational Definition
Graded condition assessed per message: the degree of tone-buffering present relative to a neutral baseline, while content equivalence is held constant. It is rated as buffering intensity with a content-preservation check, not counted as an event.
Measurement Schema
Proposed measurement protocol (not yet empirically validated): Paired rater rating of harshness or softening on a 1-7 scale (two raters, ICC), plus a separate content-equivalence verification step checking that the buffered version preserves the information; could be reported as a softening delta with content held constant.