‘I love James Blunt as much as I love herpes’ – ‘I love that you're not ashamed to admit you have both’: Attempted insults and responses on Twitter

C. McVittie; Rahul Sambaraju; F. Bain

doi:10.1016/j.langcom.2020.10.001

‘I love James Blunt as much as I love herpes’ – ‘I love that you're not ashamed to admit you have both’: Attempted insults and responses on Twitter

C. McVittie, Rahul Sambaraju, F. Bain

School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

To date, little research has examined participants' understandings of insults. We examine (potentially) derogatory talk and its consequences in interactions on Twitter, considering instances on the Twitter feed of one high-profile user. Discourse analysis identifies four forms of response to attempted insults: (1) ascribing category membership to first contributor, (2) taking up first contributor self-identification, (3) syntactic echoing, and (4) co-constructing criticism. These responses treat the original remark as literally accurate, and thereby ‘breach’ the usual expectations of talk. Thus, insulting is an outcome that must be accomplished in interaction. Otherwise, derogatory talk can become no more than failed insults.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	23-34
Journal	Language and Communication
Volume	76
Early online date	24 Oct 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.10.001
Publication status	Published - Jan 2021

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

breaching experiment
conversation analysis
doing literal
insult talk
Twitter

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10.1016/j.langcom.2020.10.001

McVittieEtAlLC2020ILoveJamesBluntAccepted author manuscript, 676 KB

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title = "{\textquoteleft}I love James Blunt as much as I love herpes{\textquoteright} – {\textquoteleft}I love that you're not ashamed to admit you have both{\textquoteright}: Attempted insults and responses on Twitter",

abstract = "To date, little research has examined participants' understandings of insults. We examine (potentially) derogatory talk and its consequences in interactions on Twitter, considering instances on the Twitter feed of one high-profile user. Discourse analysis identifies four forms of response to attempted insults: (1) ascribing category membership to first contributor, (2) taking up first contributor self-identification, (3) syntactic echoing, and (4) co-constructing criticism. These responses treat the original remark as literally accurate, and thereby {\textquoteleft}breach{\textquoteright} the usual expectations of talk. Thus, insulting is an outcome that must be accomplished in interaction. Otherwise, derogatory talk can become no more than failed insults.",

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KW - breaching experiment

KW - conversation analysis

KW - doing literal

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JO - Language and Communication

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ER -

‘I love James Blunt as much as I love herpes’ – ‘I love that you're not ashamed to admit you have both’: Attempted insults and responses on Twitter

Abstract

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

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