Direct and Indirect Verbal and Bodily Insults and Other Forms of Aggressive Communication - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 245

Table 13.1 Bad words, imprecations, curses, and insults

Bad word

Imprecation Curse Insult

Example Bloody Damn! May you sink!

Go to hell!

Idiot!

Cause Frustration Frustration Feeling of injustice Feeling of injustice

Triggering emotion Anger Anger Anger Anger

Felt emotion Anger Anger,

disappointment

Revenge, hate Revenge

Expressed emotion Anger Anger,

disappointment

Revenge, hate Disgust, contempt

Expression/communication Expression,

communication

Expression,
communication

Communication Communication C metacommunication

Type of communicative action Single word Communicative

act

Communicative act Communicative act

Goal If expressive, to

give vent to anger
If communicative,
to communicate
aggressive intent

To give vent to
anger or
disappointment

Wish negative event for
Target
Revenge over Target
Reject relation with Target

Attack target's image
Attack target's self-image
Revenge against target

Performative Optative Imperative or optative Informative or vocative

Propositional content Taboo object,

action, or event

Negative event
for target

Target's action negative for
himself or negative event for
target

Negative property or degrading category
of target

Characters Sender, third

entity

Sender, target, third entity Sender, addressee, target, audience

Addressee Addressee D third

entity

For imperatives
Addressee D target
For optatives
Addressee D third entity

Addressee D target