<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>This paper examines the thematic structure of a corpus of insults using the inference-boundary model of Theme and Rheme. It focuses on the concept of negative inference—which must be generated for an insult to be successfully delivered—and shows how it allows us to better understand and characterize the form that insults generally take. The analysis suggests that insults are typically structured to generate backward-looking negative inferences from the decoder, much in line with how new information (in this case, the thrust of the insult) is generally located in final position. The paper also proposes a summary statement capturing the general configuration of insults and suggestions for further research.</p>
</abstract>

This paper examines the thematic structure of a corpus of insults using the inference-boundary model of Theme and Rheme. It focuses on the concept of negative inference—which must be generated for an insult to be successfully delivered—and shows how it allows us to better understand and characterize the form that insults generally take. The analysis suggests that insults are typically structured to generate backward-looking negative inferences from the decoder, much in line with how new information (in this case, the thrust of the insult) is generally located in final position. The paper also proposes a summary statement capturing the general configuration of insults and suggestions for further research.

The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences

ExELL

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences"}

This paper examines the thematic structure of a corpus of insults using the inference-boundary model of Theme and Rheme. It focuses on the concept of negative...

The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences

Published Online: Dec 30, 2022

Page range: 1 - 21

Received: May 30, 2022

Accepted: Oct 17, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/exell-2022-0008

Keywords
insults, Theme, Rheme, inference, inference-boundary model, systemic-functional linguistics

© 2022 Alvin Ping Leong et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The language of insults: A look at Theme, Rheme and negative inferences

Published Online: Dec 30, 2022

Page range: 1 - 21

Received: May 30, 2022

Accepted: Oct 17, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/exell-2022-0008

Keywordsinsults, Theme, Rheme, inference, inference-boundary model, systemic-functional linguistics

© 2022 Alvin Ping Leong et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
insults, Theme, Rheme, inference, inference-boundary model, systemic-functional linguistics