The power of words connotations euphemisms and dysphemisms

The power of words: connotations, euphemisms and dysphemisms Bárbara Eizaga March 2015

Introduction In this part we will look at sources for new vocabulary. Connotation motivates: a) The choice between near synonyms b) New language expressions to avoid injury or to indicate in-group solidarity, politeness, deference, political correctness, insult or aggression.

Connotation Definition: The connotations of a word are semantic effects that arise from encyclopaedic knowledge about its denotation and also from experiences, beliefs, and prejudices about the contexts in which the expression is typically used. Reminder: Denotation is the relation between language expressions and things or events in any possible world.

Linguistic vs. Encyclopaedic knowledge Linguistic knowledge is described in terms of linguistic elements, i. e. concerns the core meaning of lexical items. Encyclopaedic knowledge covers world knowledge associated to a given word, not immediately relevant to linguistic structure. Book Written or printed work of some length Hardcover or paperback, fiction or crime … Linguistic knowledge World knoweledge

Connotations vary independently of sense and denotation; and they vary between speech communities , e. g. : 1. Tom’s dog killed Jane’s rabbit 2. Tom’s doggie killed Jane’s bunny. In (2), the speaker is either a child or addressing to a child. A dog can be referred to as Dish-licker bow-wow hound cur Practice 3

Connotation So it is not the denotation but the connotations of a term which help us to identify the community attitude towards it. Many words suffer PEJORIZATION, i. e. downgrading, through society’s perception of a word’s denotatum contaminating the word itself. Pejorization is clearly seen with regular taboo terms: ØI’m going for a piss I’m going to the loo ØYou’re fired We’ll have to let you go

Dysphemism The effects of connotation can be either euphemism or dysphemism. Definitions: ØA dysphemism is a word or phrase with offensive connotations either about the denotatum or to the audience, or both. ØDysphemisms intentionally constitute a less pleasant or grosser (i. e. impolite) way of saying something. ‘Dirty words’ are dysphemistic in contexts where they are tabooed.

Dysphemism: examples ØColoured ØDracula’s tea bags ØShithouse Black tampons toilet ØScumbag condom undesirable person ØScrew sexual intercourse make a big mistake ØBleeding like a stuck pig bleed a lot Practice 1

Taboos Ø Some words undergo pejoration because of a taboo against talking about the things they name. ØTaboo words are those considered offensive, shocking or indecent when used in certain contexts, i. e. things people do not talk about. A taboo term, a strong dysphemism, is often replaced by more positively viewed euphemistic words whose original meaning has been extended to create a new sense for it, e. g.

Taboos Abortion pregnancy termination Cannibalism a human being eating the flesh of another human being. Bestiality or Zoophilia Taboo topics sexual relations between a human and an animal. sex, death, excretion, bodily functions and religious matters. Practice 2

Euphemisms: functions The replacement for a taboo term is a euphemism, a word or phrase used as an alternative to a dispreferred expression. It has several functions: 1. Attenuating a painful evocation: euphemisms serve to distance people from unpleasant or less happy facts of our existence: e. g. Death Die the final sleep go to sleep, go on a journey, pass away

Euphemisms: functions The notion of death is made more tolerable to human consciousness by calling it by some other name. 2. The function of naming the taboo object: Euphemism is used in reference to certain disease. Words for diseases are doubtless rooted in anxiety and superstition. An ailment of any sort is often referred to as a condition: Øheart condition, kidney condition, etc. Ø‘Leprosy’ Hansen’s disease. ØEuthanasia mercy killing.

Euphemisms: functions 3. The dignifying function: Attempt to dignify occupation by giving them high-sounding titles: Øjanitor Ø garbage man Ø rat catcher Ø maid custodian sanitary engineer extermination engineer domestic engineer One of the great concerns is the progressive age: The elderly, senior citizen or seniors, goldenager, retiree, mature students, veterans,

Euphemism & political correctness Related to this function, euphemisms try to preserve political, correctness, so that nobody’s feeling shall ever be hurt, at least not by words: Ø Correction facility jail Ø comfort woman prostitute Ø Differently-abled disabled Ø On the streets homeless

Euphemisms: functions 4. The politeness: euphemisms are used to take the place of words or phrases you might not want to say in a polite way i. e. to soften an expression. It implies a word without saying it (periphrasis or circumlocution) Øadult beverages Ø adult entertainment Øsleep together Øbig-boned Øchronologically-challenged beer/liquor pornography have sex overweight late Practice 4

Empowerment and danger in knowing the name: how this affects vocabulary

Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash; ‘tis something, nothing; ‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed. (Shakespeare, Othello III. iii. 155)

Empowerement and danger in the name For many people, a person’s name (like their mind, spirit and soul) is an inseparable part of the body. To utter a tabooed name is to assault the owner of name. In Australian, Austronesian and African cultures, names of the dead are taboo. naming What applies to the names of ordinary folk applies to rulers and gods, because any threat to their power endangers the society they dominate.

Empowerement and danger in the name Naming or addressing a ruler often involves extreme euphemism in the form of respect and superior power to speaker: ØHer Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. This mode of naming and addressing exaggerates the importance of Named by magnifying their perceived higher social status.

Empowerement and danger in the name Taboos on the names of gods try to avoid metaphysical malevolence by counteracting possible blasphemies that arouse their wrath. To avoid blasphemies the word God is avoided in euphemistic oaths: ØGosh!/ Golly! ØGoodness (knows)! Ø(Good) gracious! ØGorblimey!> God blind me! Ø(Oh) Lord!/ Lawdy!/La! ØFor goodness’sake!

Empowerement and danger in the name The power of names isn’t lost; we still say: ØMake a name for oneself ØBring one’s name into disrespute ØHave a good name/ clearing one’s name Names are linked with name-bearers: ØHe’s a little Hitler reference to name-bearer ØShe boycotts opening day. Use of proper ØHe has lynched 3 people. names as ØHe has hoovered the carpet general verbs Practice 5

Why dirt clings: naturalist belief Euphemisms often degenerate into taboo terms by the taboo topics: Undertaker once meant “odd-job man” someone who undertakes to do things Euphemism funerals person taking care of Term narrowed to taboo sense alone funeral director

Why dirt clings: naturalist belief Euphemisms often start with a modifying word that is later dropped as the phrase stops being euphemistic: ü funeral undertaker üMentally deranged (=mentally disordered) üLunatic asylum (=place of refuge por lunatics).

Why dirt clings: naturalist belief Taboo terms are classified as such because of the belief that their form reflects the essential nature of the taboo topics they denote. Thus, they are often said to be unpleasant or ugly -sounding (being miscalled dirty words). Naturalist belief: causal relation between words & original meanings 2 reasons why language abandons homonyms of taboo terms when they can be Salience of taboos Speakerswon’triskusing taboos unless intended

Why dirt clings: naturalist belief In the C 19 th, the terms legs and breast were considered inappropriate and so avoided even when speaking of a cooked fowl. Instead, they referred to its dark/red meat and white meat. British still use cock to mean “rooster”; but, because of the taboo homonym meaning “penis”, cock die out in American in the C 19 th. Effect on words having cock

Why dirt clings: naturalist belief The following words were influenced by taboo avoidance: Ø Family of Louisa May Alcott (Little Women) changed their name from Alcox. Ø Haystack was replaced by haycock. Ø Weather-vane instead of weather-cock. Ø Cockroach is often clipped to roach in American. Cockpit and cocktail aren’t avoided, probably because in these words cock- isn’t the head of the noun.

Why dirt clings: naturalist belief When there is little likelihood of misunderstanding, the homonyms of a taboo term are likely to persist in language: ‘female monarch’ ØQueen ‘gay male’ ‘eccentric’: It’s queer but he’s odd ØQueer ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’: He’s queer ‘bullshit’(uncountable NP heads) ØBull ‘male bovine animal’(countable NP)

Why dirt clings: Summary A word or longer expression with bad connotations (however unjustifiable) will suffer pejorization give a dog a bad name Polysemous words with taboo senses are downgraded by SEMANTIC NARROWING to the taboo senses alone. Words with a taboo homonym tend to be downgraded out of use. Practice 6

Upgrades, downgrades, and deceptions There are many euphemisms for avoiding the distasteful, upgrading what is favoured and downgrading what isn’t: Bribes, graft and expenses-paid vacations are never talked about [in the US House of Representatives] on Capitol Hill. Honorariums, campaign contributions and per diem travel reimbursements are. Positive connotations Honorariums Campaign contributions Travel reimbursements negative connotations bribes graft expense-paid vacation

Upgrades, downgrades, and deceptions We use some alternative expressions to the dispreferred ones because they have positive instead of negative connotations: ØA widow who prefers to say she has paying guests (fewer negative connotations) rather than lodgers. ØWe have regretfully concluded that your manuscript falls outside the scope of our current

Upgrades, downgrades, and deceptions ØIf you jump out of a 10 th-storey window, you won’t go splat when you hit the ground, you’ll suffer sudden deceleration trauma. ØThe final remark on the hospital chart of a case of negative patient care outcome was ‘Patient failed to fulfull his wellness potential’. ØA preloved object sounds more attractive than a second-hand or used one, which can be found in an opportunity shop, specializing in reutilization marketing.

Upgrades, downgrades, and deceptions Euphemisms are often linked with speaker’s point of view, dysphemisms with some other view – it is an us versus them situation: ØSpeakers’ military heroes make a tactical withdrawal; the enemy retreats. Ø Speaker’s troops cause collateral damage; the enemy commits terrorist acts against civilians. Dysphemisms are used to talk about speaker’s opponents, things s/he wishes to downgrade or express disapproval of. Dysphemisms are used for the opposite reason that a euphemism is used.

Upgrades, downgrades, and deceptions Dysphemistic terms of insult include: 1. Comparisons of people with animals ascribed 2. certain behaviour: bitch, chicken, dog, mule, rat, snake, etc 3. Epithets derived from tabooed bodily organs (asshole, prick), bodily effluvia (shit), and sexual behaviours (fucker, wanker, whore). 4. Ascriptions of mental ‘defect’: idiot, moron, maniac. 5. Sexist, racist, and other –IST dysphemisms. 6. Insults invoking slurs on the character: bag, fuddy-duddy, grump, hag. Practice 7

Sources for euphemisms and dysphemisms

Sources for euphemisms and dysphemisms Euphemism and dysphemism motivate language change by promoting new expressions, or new meanings for old expressions, and causing some vocabulary to be abandoned. 1. One source new vocabulary is REMODELLING: ØJesus is end-clipped to Jeeze and Gee. More adventurous remodelling are: By Jingo!, Jeepers Creepers, Jimmy cricket, Crumbs, Cripes. One of the best disguised remodellings is For crying out loud! (=for Christ’s sake). Devil’s name is avoided in Old Nick, Old Harry, Old Bendy, Old Bogey, What the dickens (= “what the devil…”).

Sources for euphemisms and dysphemisms 2. PHONETIC SIMILARITY creates a new sense for a word: sugar or shoot as euphemistic dysphemisms replacing dysphemistic shit. The act of uttering the remodelled forms is no less dysphemistic than the act of uttering shit. 3. ACRONYMS like snafu for ‘situation normal, all fucked up”. 4. ABBREVIATIONS like S. O. B. for “son-of-a-bitch”. Unlike acronyms, they are written & pronounced as strings of letters rather than as words. 5. VERBAL PLAY: rhyming adds sense to cobblers awls (=balls) “rubbish nonsense”, Brahms and Listzt (=pissed) “drunk”; alliterations in pull the pope, jerkin’ the gherkin for “masturbate Practice 8

Jargon Definition: JARGON is the language peculiar to a trade, profession, or other group. Specialist or technical language, sublanguage Members of a trade, profession, or other group who use a particular jargon are IN-GROUPERS with respect to that jargon. People not within the group are OUT-GROUPERS. Jargon is used pejoratively.

Jargon: Characteristics 1. LEXICAL MARKERS: a) vocabulary specialized in some DOMAIN. Lexical relations will reflect the taxonomies within that domain (forms, varieties, families, etc. ) b) Idioms & abbreviations: in linguistics, NP (noun phrase); in logic, iff (if and only if); etc. 2. SYNTACTIC MARKERS: imperatives in recipes, impersonal passives in reporting experiments, . . . 3. PRESENTATIONAL MARKERS: prosodic (rhythm, etc. ) and paralinguistic &/or kinesic (gesture, etc. ) characteristics in a spoken medium, typographical conventions in a written medium: hushed tone & minimal kinesic display in a funeral as opposed to football commentary.

Jargon: Functions üPRIMARY FUNCTION: to serve as a technical or specialist language. üSECONDARY FUNCTION: to promote in-group solidarity, and to exclude as out-groupers those people who do not use the jargon. Jargon is efficient, economical & crucial to capture distinctions not made in the ordinary language. sentence langue Linguists word linguisticalese system redefine grammar parole co-occurrence speech chain syntagmatic relation

Jargon: Example Legalese legal vocabulary: ü borrowings from Latin & French: de novo “from the beginning”, mens rea “guilty mind”, voir dire “ to say truly”. ü 2 or 3 synonyms as ‘doublets’ or ‘triplets’: act and deed, cease and desist, will & testament (conjoining a noun of German origin with a Romanic one). ü Long & complex sentences difficult to understand: A term of sale shall not be taken to exclude, restrict or modify the application of this Part unless the term does so expressly or is inconsistent with that provision String of negatives

Jargon: Example For in-groupers jargon binds professionals & members of the group using a specific jargon. Using appropriate jargon shows in-group membership. Legal & medicine jargon Long & difficult to learn Sense of belonging to an exclusive club (ingroupers).

Jargon: Example Legalese legal vocabulary: ü borrowings from Latin & French: de novo “from the beginning”, mens rea “guilty mind”, voir dire “ to say truly”. ü 2 or 3 synonyms as ‘doublets’ or ‘triplets’: act and deed, cease and desist, will & testament (conjoining a noun of German origin with a Romanic one). ü Long & complex sentences difficult to understand: A term of sale shall not be taken to exclude, restrict or modify the application of this Part unless the term does so expressly or is inconsistent with that provision String of negatives

References Ø Allan, K. (2000), Natural Language Semantics. Cornwall: Blackwell. Ø Duda, B. (2011), “Euphemisms and dysphemisms: In search of a boundary line”. Círculo de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación 45: 3 -19. Ø Kiefer, F. (1990), “Linguistic, conceptual and enclopedic knowledge: Some implications for lexicography. ” In T. Magay & J. Zigány. Buda. LEX ‘ 88 Proceedings. Papers from the 3 rd International EURALEX Congress, Budapest 4 - September 1988: 1 -10.