In accordance with the larger concept of the SFB, project B8 seeks to expand the investigations conducted in the preceding funding phase on the effects of performance on conventionalized linguistic systems to include aspects of aggression and violence. The project will focus on the analysis of the different manifestations of verbal aggression and the interaction of utterances and contextual factors that constitute it. On this basis we aim to examine the inscription of negative evaluations onto the linguistic system.
The project is divided into the following two sub-projects: Verbal Aggression and On the role of performativity in processes of grammaticalization.
Sub-project 1: Verbal Aggression
The newly established sub-project takes on the broadened concept of the SFB to explore the performative power of language by analyzing case studies illustrating the harmful potential of speech acts. Relevant studies that have revealed three clear but heretofore unconnected focal areas will serve as a starting point: (i) the analysis of the inventory of swear words, insults, and discriminatory grammatical structures that various languages have developed as their arsenal to conduct verbal aggression; (ii) the hierarchies of power within the narrow definition of race and gender studies; and (iii) politeness research with its analyses and typologies of face threatening acts. Within these parameters we aim to continue with traditional studies of conventional means of verbal aggression (intonation, lexis, grammar) and augment them through more comprehensive comparisons and new approaches. In addition, the project will examine the interplay of contextual factors that give rise to verbal acts of violence in cases where a linguistic system does not possess a prefabricated arsenal. This research forms the groundwork for developing a typology of violent acts that will serve as a common framework for the various lexical differentiations of individual languages.
Language can narrate, cause, or imitate violence in processes of reflection, provocation, mimesis, and ritual. But it can also inflict violence. In his lecture series, "How to do things with words", J.L. Austin for the first time shifted the performative nature of speech to the centre of reflections on the philosophy of language. Communicative acts that are unpleasant or even violent in their nature (e.g. threats, accusations, complaints, discriminations, etc.) are among the things that can be done with words. In speech act theory these effects were analyzed as aspects of of both illocutionary and perlocutionary acts. Strictly speaking, all communicative acts can be violent, including non-verbal ones such as intonation, gestures, or the absence of speech in contexts where it is expected. Linguistic acts that stage negative evaluations, prejudices, attributions, and discriminations also affect the vocabulary and grammar of a language by inscribing a certain value judgment onto the linguistic system. The conventionalization of contextual factors largely resembles the phenomena that can be observed within grammaticalization and that will be investigated further in sub-project 2.
The following goals guide our project:
- to identify the conventionalized, linguistic (or communicative) means of verbal violence,
- to establish what contextual parameters determine the violent nature of utterances,
- to analyze the ways in which negative evaluations, prejudices, and aggressions are inscribed onto and conventionalized by linguistic expressions
- to determine how the study of linguistic violence can contribute to the further development of speech act theory, and
- to formulate clearer definitions of the terms 'verbal aggression' and 'violent speech acts'.
Sub-project 2: On the role of performativity in processes of grammaticalization
Of the various hypotheses developed with regard to the factors that trigger processes of grammaticalization, two will be of particular relevance to the project in the upcoming funding phase. The first hypothesis suggests that grammaticalization occurs in contexts that 'invite' pragmatic inferences, reanalysis, or metaphorical or metonymic interpretations (Hopper/Traugott 2003, Heine/Kuteva 2002). In this view grammaticalization is context-bound and is therefore also called context-induced re-interpretation.
The second hypothesis proceeds from the assumption that transgressions of the linguistic system in the performance are not wholly random but that they follow general trends and are even predictable to a certain degree. Therefore, the conditions for grammaticalization derive from general, cognitive principles. This hypothesis is based on comparative studies of developments in a variety of languages (see for example Heine/Kuteva 2002: Heine/Reh 1984, Bybee/Perkins/Pagliuca 1994). Grammaticalization is here seen as a process that can be traced with the help of abstract schemes of meaning. Processes of grammaticalization are viewed as a linear progression of successive developmental stages, where usually source and target play the most important role. The development MOVEMENT > FUTURE serves as one example from the verbal arena.
Taking into consideration the above explanations and our preparatory research, the project will focus on the following question: how can we reconcile the notion of language change as language-specific transgressions in certain contexts with the 'teleological' assumption of general tendencies of change? Our investigations will focus on the tension between concrete performative acts in context-based transgressions and the general, trans-linguistic tendencies of language change, and on our attempts to reconcile the two. We hope to determine through empirical studies what cognitive principles guide these general tendencies of change and whether we can confirm or revise the trajectories of grammaticalization postulated by past studies. These issues will be examined in more detail with regard to selected examples of verbs and a hitherto largely neglected class of adjectives, so-called 'privative' adjectives.
Bibliography
- Bybee, Joan/Perkins, Revere/Pagliuca, William: The evolution of grammar: tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
- Heine, Bernd/Kuteva, Tania: World Lexicon of Grammaticalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- Heine, Bernd/Reh, Mechthild: Grammaticalization and reanalysis in African languages, Hamburg: Buske, 1984.
- Hopper, Paul/Traugott, Elizabeth: Grammaticalization, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
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