The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences
This paper examines the thematic structure of a corpus of insults using the inference-boundary model of Theme and Rheme. It focuses on the concept of negative inference—which must be generated for an insult to be successfully delivered—and shows how it allows us to better understand and characterize...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2022-10-01
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| Series: | ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics) |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/exell-2022-0008 |
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| _version_ | 1832576248570707968 |
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| author | Leong Alvin Ping |
| author_facet | Leong Alvin Ping |
| author_sort | Leong Alvin Ping |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper examines the thematic structure of a corpus of insults using the inference-boundary model of Theme and Rheme. It focuses on the concept of negative inference—which must be generated for an insult to be successfully delivered—and shows how it allows us to better understand and characterize the form that insults generally take. The analysis suggests that insults are typically structured to generate backward-looking negative inferences from the decoder, much in line with how new information (in this case, the thrust of the insult) is generally located in final position. The paper also proposes a summary statement capturing the general configuration of insults and suggestions for further research. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-a172968493cf48bdaec8e50fa4128d7b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2303-4858 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics) |
| spelling | doaj-art-a172968493cf48bdaec8e50fa4128d7b2025-01-31T08:34:31ZengSciendoExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics)2303-48582022-10-0110112110.2478/exell-2022-0008The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferencesLeong Alvin Ping0Nanyang Technical University, SingaporeThis paper examines the thematic structure of a corpus of insults using the inference-boundary model of Theme and Rheme. It focuses on the concept of negative inference—which must be generated for an insult to be successfully delivered—and shows how it allows us to better understand and characterize the form that insults generally take. The analysis suggests that insults are typically structured to generate backward-looking negative inferences from the decoder, much in line with how new information (in this case, the thrust of the insult) is generally located in final position. The paper also proposes a summary statement capturing the general configuration of insults and suggestions for further research.https://doi.org/10.2478/exell-2022-0008insultsthemerhemeinferenceinference-boundary modelsystemic-functional linguistics |
| spellingShingle | Leong Alvin Ping The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics) insults theme rheme inference inference-boundary model systemic-functional linguistics |
| title | The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences |
| title_full | The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences |
| title_fullStr | The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences |
| title_full_unstemmed | The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences |
| title_short | The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences |
| title_sort | language of insults a look at theme rheme and negative inferences |
| topic | insults theme rheme inference inference-boundary model systemic-functional linguistics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/exell-2022-0008 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT leongalvinping thelanguageofinsultsalookatthemerhemeandnegativeinferences AT leongalvinping languageofinsultsalookatthemerhemeandnegativeinferences |