Verbale Aggression

Paweł Bąk

Offene und versteckte Aggression im Gebrauch von Dysphemismen und Euphemismen

Abstract: The article sheds light on the connection between euphemism, dysphemism, and verbal aggression. Dysphemisms mostly appear with a pejorative effect in the literature, whereas euphemisms appear with a preventive or mitigating function. The concept of this article is based on the conviction that euphemisms and dysphemisms are not to be understood as expressions that inherently contain an enhancing or disavowing function. Rather, they involve euphemistic or dysphemistic acts, respectively, whose success (i.e. effect) is determined by all sorts of factors, and not only by lexical meaning. Among other things, the perlocutionary effect depends on the situational ...