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<p>Hebrew has the particle <i>ya</i>, borrowed from Arabic, whose
most common use is before a NP containing a derogatory expression,
e.g. <i>ya idiot</i> (the latter borrowed from English).
However, it's not *always* derogatory, and I don't know what the
conditioning factors are. And of course I suspect that there's a
similar pattern in the source language Arabic; maybe somebody who
knows more can chip in here.</p>
<p>David<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 14/12/2021 20:49, Riccardo Giomi
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CA+KJqQFvciz3OJ5Y7eYc5Zh-oQ_U4M5YtBH7FW=xoEpsXZkk5Q@mail.gmail.com">
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<div>Dear all,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>A student of mine would like to investigate the linguistic
coding of insults across languages. She is particularly
interested in finding out whether languages can have dedicated
(uses of) grammatical forms/constructions for this specific
purpose. The best example I could come up with so far is the
use of the Portuguese third person reflexive possessive
adjective (determiner in Brazilian Portuguese) <i>seu/sua</i>
with epithets which are meant as insults. An example would be</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><i>Cala=te, seu burro!</i></div>
<div><a href="http://shut.up.IMP.2.SG" moz-do-not-send="true">shut.up.IMP.2.SG</a>=2.SG.OBJ
3.SG.REFL.POSS <a href="http://donkey.M.SG"
moz-do-not-send="true">donkey.M.SG</a></div>
<div>'Shut up, you idiot!'</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>(Where, funnily enough, the third person of the
adjective/determiner is presumably the polite form!) This is
an interesting case, I think, because as far as I can see you
never use <i>seu/sua </i>in 'plain' vocatives, nor with
terms of endearment, nor, for that matter, with NPs which are
not used as invocations. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I am wondering whether anyone is aware of a language which
has some grammaticalized form or construction that can be used
in this specific way. Note that I am not interested in, say,
abusive pronouns or honorifics or general expressions of the
speaker's disappointment ('frustrative' markers) but only in
grammaticalized means of marking the speech act as an insult.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Many thanks in advance and best wishes to all,</div>
<div>Riccardo<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-- <br>
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data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
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<div>Riccardo Giomi, Ph.D.<br>
</div>
University of Liège</div>
<div dir="ltr">
Département de langues modernes : linguistique,
littérature et traduction</div>
<div dir="ltr">Research group <i>Linguistique contrastive
et typologie des langues</i></div>
<div>F.R.S.-FNRS Postdoctoral fellow (CR - FC 43095)</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@shh.mpg.de">gil@shh.mpg.de</a>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
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