Taboo in Discourse: Studies on Attenuation and Offence in Communication

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Taboo in Discourse: Studies on Attenuation and Offence in Communication combines cognitive, multimodal, translation and (critical) discourse-related issues with the intent of widening the field of study of taboo in communication. This volume explores the complex interplay between taboo and language in a range of social contexts, cultural settings and real-world discourse types: from political speeches to television series through cartoons, novels, oral interviews or official advertisements. Through a selection of empirical studies anchored in analyses of authentic and contextualized language data, this book examines the communicative functions of the different categories of taboo naming, from euphemism (attenuation) to dysphemism (offence).

By bringing together contrasting (yet complementary) examples of taboo-related research, this volume yields insights into the way taboo emerges in discourse and allows to have access to attitudes, stereotypes and value judgments regarding taboo which are more or less implicitly communicated in the public sphere.