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1 - Animacy and Countability of Slurs

Shifting Grammatical Categories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2022

By
Natalia Knoblock
Edited by
Natalia Knoblock
Natalia Knoblock
Affiliation:
Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan
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Summary

The study highlights semantic, syntactic, and functional features of two novel slurs that have recently entered the Russian and Ukrainian languages as a result of the Ukrainian crisis. The words ukrop (dill) and vata (cotton wool) underwent a semantic shift and acquired new negative meanings which can now be used to refer to the opposing groups in hostile communication. The chapter highlights semantic aspects of the words ukrop and vata that make them particularly suitable for use in dehumanizing metaphors, but the main focus of the study is the grammatical changes ukrop and vata underwent as a result of the semantic shift. Used in their traditional senses, both nouns function as uncountable, mass, inanimate nouns. However, novel uses of these words as slurs prompt some unconventional grammatical structures. For example, vata now demonstrates some non-standard subject-verb agreement patterns, and ukrop is sometimes used as a countable noun when it refers to people. Ukrop, used in its new sense, is also moving from the inanimate to the animate noun class. This discussion of the deviations from the grammatical norm expands into a conversation of the connections between the linguistic changes these words are undergoing and extralinguistic context of their use.

Keywords

slursneologismssemantic shiftanimacycountabilityconflict communicationverbal aggression
Type
Chapter
Information
The Grammar of Hate
Morphosyntactic Features of Hateful, Aggressive, and Dehumanizing Discourse
 , pp. 15 - 33
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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