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Chapter 13
Direct and Indirect Verbal and Bodily Insults
and Other Forms of Aggressive Communication
Isabella Poggi, Francesca D'Errico, and Laura Vincze
13.1
Introduction
An insult is the last move within the field of communication before resorting to
physical aggression, yet it is definitely to be preferred over physically acting out: as
Freud put it, insulting your enemy instead of throwing him a lance was the dawn of
civilization.
But what is an insult? How is it done? How do we distinguish it from and how
does it overlap with other communicative acts like curses, imprecations, or simply
bad words?
This paper outlines a model of insult in terms of a sociocognitive view of
multimodal communication, while setting it apart from other types of aggressive
communicative acts, and finally proposing an analysis of insults in Italian political
talk shows and social media.
Section 13.2 presents the sociocognitive reference model, Sect. 13.3 distin-
guishes insults from imprecations, curses, and bad words in terms of the presented
framework, and Sects. 13.4 and 13.5 present cases of direct and indirect verbal and
bodily insults in Italian TV and online political communication.
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