Academic literature on the topic 'Pejorative function'

The article is devoted to the study of linguistic means of realizing pejoration in the novels by S. Mayer. The topicality of the study is caused by scholarly necessity and importance of studying pejoration from anthropocentric viewpoint, since this vocabulary is rapidly developing and requires analysis and research from different positions. Moreover, the emotive component and the evaluative category in pejoratives have been insufficiently studied. The following definition of pejoratives has been put forward: they are lexemes that have negative, emotionally loaded expressive evaluation and create preconditions for the achievement of an illocutionary goal. They belong to the low style, have a synonym in neutral vocabulary register, have denotative and connotative components of meaning, are prone to change the sign of evaluation, in terms of hybrid semantics have both truth-conditional and use-conditional components and are contextually preconditioned. Vocabulary, the pejorative meaning of which is denotatively registered in lexicographic sources is determined as absolute. Pejoratives, whose meaning is not lexicographically registered, are classified as relative. Semantic field of pejorative vocabulary corpus consists of the nucleus, close and distant periphery. All means of distant periphery serve as intensifiers of pejorative meaning. On the semantic level pejoratives may function as a metaphor, epithet, oxymoron, hyperbole, litote, metonymy, simile, irony and sarcasm. On the syntactic level pejorative vocabulary is integrated into interrogative constructions, inversions, syntactic reductions, stylistic repetitions, antithesis, and word-play. The degree of expressiveness of pejorative meaning has been estimated by means of Likert scale, and it includes the following items: punctuation, semantic and stylistic means, syntactic and stylistic means, graphic symbols, nonce-words and adj/adv + n structure. Pragmatic analysis has yielded the following result: pejoratives are potentially manipulative linguistic means.

By using a pseudoword paradigm, we tested whether derogatory labels (e.g., pejorative labels addressing group members) differed from category labels and general slur in their descriptive (i.e., pointing to group membership) and expressive functions (i.e., perceived offensiveness and social acceptability). Results indicated that derogatory labels were similar to category labels in their descriptive function, and had higher expressive function than slurs. Participants’ prejudice toward the groups that were targets of derogatory label reduced their perceived offensiveness than in turn increased their social acceptability.

Dialectal suffixes -acz [-oc], -ak [-ok], -ula and -ka in zagórzański dialect usually form pejorative names of people. Among female names, a special example is the suffix -ula, which is either non-existent in other dialects, or has a different function (forms names of wives or cows). By means of the words built with the use of these suffixes, language users make assessments and express critical attitude towards others.

Wziął braciszek strzelbiczkę, trafił myśliweczka w główeczkę… On (Un)conventional Uses of Diminutives in Polish Folk SongsThe paper attempts to specify the function of diminutives in folk songs, and to find to what degree they can be considered a reliable source in the reconstruction of the linguistic image of the world. The starting point are the findings of Jerzy Bartmiński who distinguished five main functions of diminutives in folk songs: intellectual (communicating smallness), emotional (communicating endearment), rhythm-creating, rhyme-creating, and structural-poetic (signalling the style of the folk song: affectionate, tender, and noble). An analysis of lyrics where diminutives appear frequently and, unusually for them, in contexts of pejorative nature (e.g. in the wife’s description of how she killed her husband: zabiłam go drewienkiem w komórce pod okienkiem), allows the author to formulate a hypothesis that the structural-poetic function of diminutives is not only to establish a “tender and gentle” style in order to evoke positive emotions (create a positive image of the world), but also to evoke negative emotions (and create a negative image of the world). In pejorative texts, partially desemantized diminutives with their conventional tenderness and gentleness, can either soften the evil and the horror of the depicted world, neutralize negative emotions, or they can create such a sharp contrast with the “heartless” story which is being told, that the evil and dread of the world are intensified together with negative emotions. But this diversity of functions that diminutives can play in folk songs, ther partial desemantization and conventionality, render them particularly difficult to analyze, and a reasearcher of the linguistic image of the world should approach them with caution.

The present paper aims to define the status of x-phemisms as dynamic phenomena. A detailed analysis of the research data taken from English socio-political discourse presented in a range of English-language news sources, such as The Guardian, The Seattle Times, ABC News, The New York Times, English media discourse and dictionaries of Contemporary English has been carried out. The paper finds that x-phemisms are non-linear phenomena. Thus, when distinguishing between euphemisms, dyspemisms and orthopemisms one should take into consideration diachronic meaning change, the previous context, the current context, intention, subject-object relationship. For instance, in particular contexts ethnic pejorative words irrespective of their negative meaning can perform a function of either euphemisms or dysphemisms, which depends on the feelings of similarity or distinction generated by ethnic boundaries and experienced by the speaker. The paper reveals that an ethnic pejorative word is dysphemistic once it refers to the ethnic group the speaker doesn’t belong to, but becomes euphemistic once applied to one’s own ethnic group. This illustrates contextual and pragmatic nature of x-phemisms. The proposed approach to the study of x-phemisms has several empirical and theoretical implications for further research on these phenomena.

Long before Michel Foucault compared the factory to a prison, employer paternalism had acquired a pejorative sense for many observers. Those who favored the idea in France preferred the term “patronage,” following the usage of engineer and social philosopher Frédéric Le Play. The Centre des Jeunes Patrons (CJP), a progressive employers' group founded in 1938 in the wake of the Popular Front social crisis, vowed to “rehabilitate the patronal function.” Corporatist theorists imagined new forms of “association” or “community” in the workplace, a conscious break with paternalist habits of rule by “divine right.”

To the Turkish words in the official Bulgarian Language today there is a negative attitude. The presence in the Bulgarian literary language of great number of lexemes of Turkish origin, which are not recognised from the big part of society, even specialists, as Turkish and which do not have Bulgarian counterparts, is not acknowledged as a valuable contribution to the basic lexical fund. The interest is focused on the usage of some Turkish words with pejorative meaning in journalistic and everyday speech. The function and the stylistic-emotional characteristics of the Turkish loan words in the present artistic texts are not researched.In the paper the Turkish words in the artistic debut of the contemporary writer Hasan Efraimоv „Dervis’ Karakondzhul“(evil ghost) presenting the representatives of Turkish cultural and linguistic environment, having specific national colour, are analysed. To the Turkish words in the official Bulgarian Language today there is a negative attitude. The presence in the Bulgarian literary language of great number of lexemes of Turkish origin, which are not recognised from the big part of society, even specialists, as Turkish and which do not have Bulgarian counterparts, is not acknowledged as a valuable contribution to the basic lexical fund. The interest is focused on the usage of some Turkish words with pejorative meaning in journalistic and everyday speech. The function and the stylistic-emotional characteristics of the Turkish loan words in the present artistic texts are not researched. In the paper the Turkish words in the artistic debut of the contemporary writer Hasan Efraimоv „Dervis’ Karakondzhul“(evil ghost) presenting the representatives of Turkish cultural and linguistic environment, having specific national colour, are analysed.

In this paper I examine a particular type of morphological negation in French, namely non- prefixation on nominal bases (e.g. non-violence ‘nonviolence’). Drawing on a wide range of authentic examples from the Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé (TLFi), the French literary database Frantext and the internet, I show that although the basic meaning of non- prefixation is negation, the nouns prefixed by non- (abbreviated as [non-N]N) may carry an additional nuance, which can be pejorative or euphemistic; hence the hypothesis defended in this paper that the prefix non- can also serve pragmatic purposes.
 After having briefly described the morphological and semantic variety of nominal lexemes which can be the input of non- prefixation, I show that [non-N]N can have three different readings, namely what I call the “complementary” interpretation (e.g. les Italiens et les non-Italiens aiment la cuisine italienne ‘Italians and non-Italians like Italian cuisine’), the “ontological” interpretation (e.g. Toute sa vie durant, Gandhi est demeuré convaincu du bien-fondé de la non-violence ‘For all his life, Gandhi was convinced of the legitimacy of nonviolence’), and the “contrary interpretation” (e.g. Les fleurs, je m’en fiche. Serais-je une non-femme? ‘Flowers, I don’t care! Could I be a nonwoman?). In the second section, I describe the pejorative and euphemistic uses of [non-N]N. The pejorative useshave been noticed by several authors (a.o. Gaatone 1971, 1987, Di Sciullo and Tremblay 1993, 1996 for French, Zimmer 1964, Algeo 1971, Bauer 1983, Horn 1989 for English); I show that these uses arise when the [non-N]N have a contrary interpretation and that they are quite frequent. I also emphasize the importance of the discourse context compared to the semantics of the base noun. Then I address the euphemistic uses of [non-N]N, which are linked to the ontological interpretation, and which are more constrained and thus less frequent; I note that these uses function almost as a politeness device. The fourth section provides an attempt to draw a parallel between certain uses of [non-N]N and the polemic and metalinguistic uses of sentential negation, as they have been described by Ducrot (1980, 1984) and Horn (1985, 1989).

Background: Radiologically isolated syndrome (RIS) is characterized by patients with asymptomatic T2 hypersignals detected by brain MRI fulfilling dissemination in space criteria and is suggestive of subclinical multiple sclerosis (MS). In previous studies, it was demonstrated that visual evoked potential and cerebrospinal fluid help to identify pejorative markers in converting to MS. Objective: To date the cognitive function has never been investigated in a cohort of RIS. The objective of this study was to investigate cognitive function in a cohort of 26 RIS patients. Methods: We prospectively assessed the BCcogSEP (a French adaptation of the Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB) including eight cognitive tests) of 26 patients with RIS, compared with 26 MS patients and 26 healthy subjects matched for age, sex and level of education. Results: When comparing the three groups, the cognitive performance was significantly lower in the RIS and MS groups compared with healthy subjects for the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) 3 seconds ( p = 0.002), phonemic fluencies ( p = 0.02), the code of the WAIS ( p = 0.05), the direct ( p = 0.002) or indirect ( p = 0.007) digit span test, the cross-taping test ( p = 0.019) and Go—No-Go ( p = 0.001). When we compared RIS and MS, the cognitive performance was significantly lower in MS patients for the direct span number ( p = 0.003) and cross-tapping test ( p = 0.05). We did not find significant differences between the three groups for the other tests. We did not find a correlation between clinical, biological and MRI results and cognitive dysfunctions. Conclusions: This study confirms the recently developed concept of RIS patients who present similar features to MS patients. Further studies are necessary to confirm these initial results and to correlate cognitive disorders with MRI surrogate markers.

The article explores the use of verbal aggression by anti-liberal “new media”. This source material was selected following the infamous Financial Times interview with Vladimir Putin, where he proclaimed that liberalism had become obsolete. The study explores the purpose, objects, and means of expressing verbal aggression. This study highlights the main ways in which a holistic trend of political philosophy comes under a sustained attack.
 The research establishes that lexemes without a default negative connotation, rather than pejorative invectives, are the primary means of expressing aggression. The study further maintains the existence of certain verbal aggression discourse algorithm whereby the use of one potentially aggressive lexeme automatically triggers the use of another lexeme. The analysis shows that anti-liberal discourse is intertwined with antisemitism, homophobia, and negative sentiment towards the internet.
 Anti-liberal environment is not limited to pro-government sentiment – occasionally the head of state alsocomes under its critique and its standard allegations. The source of verbal aggression is particularly crucial in the “new media” era: verbal aggression can originate both in governmental institutions and the demassified field. The origin of verbal aggression will further determine its consequences, ranging from impacting the fate of the object of verbal aggression to uniting the supporters sharing the sentiment behind the verbal aggression and/or pro-government opinion. Here neutral lexemes without a default negative connotation take on the function of the means of verbal aggression. This way neutral words such as liberal, Jew, gay become pejorative invectives. These words now carry a high potential for expressing aggression when used in conjunction with other words and phrases.