John Benjamins Publishing Company
Pejoration in contact
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Abstract
This paper analyses examples of pejoration in the dynamic multilinguals setting of urban German, and their possible Turkish sources. The focus of our investigation is on pejorative functions of m-reduplication (“Cola Mola”). In addition, we discuss usages of “Scherz”/“Spaß” ‘joke, fun’ in urban German, as well as their Turkish counterpart “şaka”, as markers that cancels the performative force of a preceding utterance and can thus bring about depejoration, the cancellation of initial pejoration. We show that the pejoration involved in our examples is pattern-based rather than linked to individual evaluative elements, and account for this as “constructional pejoration”. Interestingly, the patterns we find here are not exclusively pejorative, but can also support such concepts as amplification, ‘coolness’, and ludic aspects, putting a spotlight on links between pejoration and other cognitive domains. We model these links in a network of systematic conceptual relationships and pragmatic inferences.
Abstract
This paper analyses examples of pejoration in the dynamic multilinguals setting of urban German, and their possible Turkish sources. The focus of our investigation is on pejorative functions of m-reduplication (“Cola Mola”). In addition, we discuss usages of “Scherz”/“Spaß” ‘joke, fun’ in urban German, as well as their Turkish counterpart “şaka”, as markers that cancels the performative force of a preceding utterance and can thus bring about depejoration, the cancellation of initial pejoration. We show that the pejoration involved in our examples is pattern-based rather than linked to individual evaluative elements, and account for this as “constructional pejoration”. Interestingly, the patterns we find here are not exclusively pejorative, but can also support such concepts as amplification, ‘coolness’, and ludic aspects, putting a spotlight on links between pejoration and other cognitive domains. We model these links in a network of systematic conceptual relationships and pragmatic inferences.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- What is pejoration, and how can it be expressed in language? 1
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Pejoration in different linguistic domains
- Pejorative prosody 21
- How do evaluative derivational meanings arise? A bit of Geforsche and Forscherei 41
- Quantification with pejoratives 75
- Pejoration, normalcy conceptions and generic sentences 103
- Demonstrative pejoratives 119
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Pejoration, slurring and sarcasm
- Slurring as insulting 145
- A multi-act perspective on slurs 167
- The meaning and use of slurs 187
- Pejoration via sarcastic irony and sarcasm 219
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Pejoration in different linguistic contexts
- Pejoration in contact 243
- Bla, bla, bla in German. A pejorative construction? 269
- Pejoratives in Korean 301
- Pejorative aspects attributed to hearing people in signed constructed dialogue 325
- Index 355
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- What is pejoration, and how can it be expressed in language? 1
-
Pejoration in different linguistic domains
- Pejorative prosody 21
- How do evaluative derivational meanings arise? A bit of Geforsche and Forscherei 41
- Quantification with pejoratives 75
- Pejoration, normalcy conceptions and generic sentences 103
- Demonstrative pejoratives 119
-
Pejoration, slurring and sarcasm
- Slurring as insulting 145
- A multi-act perspective on slurs 167
- The meaning and use of slurs 187
- Pejoration via sarcastic irony and sarcasm 219
-
Pejoration in different linguistic contexts
- Pejoration in contact 243
- Bla, bla, bla in German. A pejorative construction? 269
- Pejoratives in Korean 301
- Pejorative aspects attributed to hearing people in signed constructed dialogue 325
- Index 355
