Connecting Morphology and Ideology:
Grammatical Changes Prompted by Semantic Shifts
Natalia Knoblock
Abstract
Keywords: slurs, discursive strategies, semantic shift, grammatical animacy, grammatical number
The presentation highlights semantic, syntactic, and functional features of two novel slurs that have recently entered the Russian and Ukrainian languages as a result of the current social, political, and military crisis. The words ukrop (dill) and vata (cotton wool) underwent a semantic shift and acquired new negative meanings which can now be used to refer to the opposing groups in hostile communication.
The project relies on the Critical Discourse Analysis framework, which views discourse as an embodiment of social practices and underscores the conscious and strategic character of linguistic acts (e.g., Fairclough 1995; van Dijk, 2009), as well as the modern research into linguistic creativity (Harris 1980; Carter 2004). It also utilizes the Deliberate Metaphor Theory, which combines cognitive-linguistic and pragmatic approaches in the study of metaphors when they are used “to change the addressee’s perspective on the referent or topic…of the metaphor” (Steen 2008, p. 222). The presentation highlights semantic aspects of the words ukrop and vata that make them particularly suitable for use in dehumanizing metaphors. In their non-slurring senses, they denote a plant (dill) or a material (cotton wool); and by using these slurs, speakers metaphorically move their opponents lower on the Great Chain of Being (Lakoff & Turner, 1989) where humans occupy a privileged position above animals, plants, and inanimate objects.
The main focus of the study is the grammatical changes ukrop and vata are undergoing as a result of the semantic shift. Used in their traditional senses, both nouns function as uncountable, mass, inanimate nouns. However, novel uses of these words as slurs prompt some unconventional grammatical structures. For example, vata now demonstrates some non-standard subject-verb agreement patterns, and ukrop is sometimes used as a countable noun when it refers to people. Ukrop, used in its new sense, is also moving from the inanimate to the animate noun class. This discussion of the deviations from the grammatical norm expands into a conversation of the connections between the linguistic changes these words are undergoing and extralinguistic context of their use.
References
Carter, R. (2015). Language and creativity: The art of common talk. Newcastle upon Tyne: Routledge.
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Harris, R. (1980). The Language-Makers. London: Duckworth.
Lakoff, G. & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Steen, G. (2008). The paradox of metaphor: Why we need a three-dimensional model of metaphor. Metaphor & Symbol, 23, 213–241.
Van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Society and discourse: How social contexts influence text and talk. Cambridge University Press.