Book
Open Access
The Grammar of Impoliteness
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Edited by:
Daniel Van Olmen
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Funded by:
Lancaster University
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2026
About this book
The dominant view in linguistics nowadays is that impoliteness is purely a matter of situational assessments by speech participants. This volume challenges that orthodoxy. Bringing together studies on structures that convey insults, threats and more in a wide range of languages, it shows that there is, in fact, a formal side to impoliteness. The volume reveals shared features of and sources for grammatical expressions of impoliteness, explores ways in which their impolite character can be established and offers new insights into their diachrony.
Author / Editor information
M. Andersson, Uppsala, Sweden; J. Culpeper, Lancaster, UK; R. Giomi, Amsterdam, Netherlands; D. Van Olmen, Lancaster, UK.
Topics
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Frontmatter
I -
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Contents
V - Introduction
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1 The grammar of impoliteness
1 - From morphemes to periphrastic structures
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2 Impolite suffixoids in English slang
29 -
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3 A theoretical and experimental investigation of the morpho-syntax of an anti-honorific prefix in Korean
61 -
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4 Blessings and curses are structurally different: Data from Daghestan
95 -
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5 Che ti venga NP, a conventionalised impoliteness formula for Italian disease curses (14th–20th century)
129 -
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6 Wehe ‘woe’ + verb-second conditional clause in German: A conventionalized threat construction?
179 -
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7 ‘What the hell?!’ vs. ‘Wat de hel?!’: Contrasting the intensifying whx construction in English and Afrikaans
215 -
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8 Such an impoliteness: Evidence for the ‘evaluative such construction’
253 -
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9 Conventionalized impoliteness in English and Polish: The case of ‘you idiot!’
283 -
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10 A corpus-based exploration of British English impoliteness formulae
307 - Conclusion
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11 What’s in a word? Reflections about impoliteness and future directions
337 -
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Index
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
December 2, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9783111477084
Hardcover published on:
December 29, 2025
Hardcover ISBN:
9783111475271
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
10
Main content:
280
Illustrations:
15
Tables:
46
Keywords for this book
Grammar; Impoliteness; Conventionalization; Pragmatics; Verbal Aggression; Corpus/Experimental Pragmatics
Audience(s) for this book
Researchers in and Students of (Im)politeness Studies, Pragmatics, Comparative/Contrastive Ling., Historical Linguistics
Creative Commons
BY-NC-ND 4.0
Safety & product resources
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Manufacturer information:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com
