| dc.description | In this article, I will argue for abandoning definitions and will suggest the following. First, it is crucial to consider the enormous variety of forms of verbal duels across the world, many of which may not deploy insults or at least may not do so most of the time, and are not performed by young people or by males. Second, it is important for future inquiry to carefully distinguish insults from what I will call "outrageous speech" such as "dirty words" and profanity. Third, we need to rethink the link between insults and aggressiveness. Insults are not necessarily threatening, and cannot always be interpreted as aggressive or violent behavior, or even as "causing offense" to the other party. Finally, it is important to avoid conflating verbal duels with ritual insults, since these are substantially different, albeit overlapping, genres. I will try to tackle each of these issues in order. In conclusion, I will ask the question of why, despite so much evidence to the contrary, a reductionist and overgeneralizing perception of verbal duels as the catharsis of aggression among young men persists. The answer, I will suggest, may be connected to a tendency to dismiss and gloss over argumentative genres of language.// | eng |
![[PDF]](/xmlui/themes/Mirage2//images/mimes/pdf.png "PDF file"){kind=small}