Rights statement: This article has been accepted for publication in Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, Volume 4, Issue 2, 2016, pages: 178 –201, © 2016 John Benjamins, the publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use the material in any form.
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Face attack in Italian politics
T2 - Beppe Grillo’s insulting epithets for other politicians
AU - Bortoluzzi, Maria
AU - Semino, Elena
N1 - This article has been accepted for publication in Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, Volume 4, Issue 2, 2016, pages: 178 –201, © 2016 John Benjamins, the publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use the material in any form.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The second largest party in the Italian Parliament, the “5-Star Movement” is led by comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo. Grillo is well-known for a distinctive and often inflammatory rhetoric, which includes the regular use of humorous but insulting epithets for other politicians, such as Psiconano (“Psychodwarf”) for Silvio Berlusconi. This paper discusses a selection of epithets used by Grillo on his blog between 2008 and 2015 to refer to Berlusconi and three successive centre-left leaders. We account for the functions of the epithets in terms of Spencer-Oatey’s (2002, 2008) multi-level model of “face” and of Culpeper’s (2011) “entertaining” and “coercive” functions of impoliteness. We suggest that our study has implications for existing models of face and impoliteness and for an understanding of the evolving role of verbal aggression in Italian politics.
AB - The second largest party in the Italian Parliament, the “5-Star Movement” is led by comedian-turned-politician Beppe Grillo. Grillo is well-known for a distinctive and often inflammatory rhetoric, which includes the regular use of humorous but insulting epithets for other politicians, such as Psiconano (“Psychodwarf”) for Silvio Berlusconi. This paper discusses a selection of epithets used by Grillo on his blog between 2008 and 2015 to refer to Berlusconi and three successive centre-left leaders. We account for the functions of the epithets in terms of Spencer-Oatey’s (2002, 2008) multi-level model of “face” and of Culpeper’s (2011) “entertaining” and “coercive” functions of impoliteness. We suggest that our study has implications for existing models of face and impoliteness and for an understanding of the evolving role of verbal aggression in Italian politics.
U2 - 10.1075/jlac.4.2.02bor
DO - 10.1075/jlac.4.2.02bor
M3 - Journal article
VL - 4
SP - 178
EP - 201
JO - Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
JF - Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict
SN - 2213-1272
IS - 2
ER -