« Minable, vous avez dit « minable » ? » : qualification, insulte et politique
Journal Title: Argotica - Year 2013, Vol 0, Issue 1
Abstract
In the collective imagination, swearwords are associated with crudeness. They do not seem compatible with the serious and restrained politician image. Indeed, the duty of politicians to project a respectful and acceptable image of themselves, towards citizen body, determines their linguistics productions. However, politics is also a field of battle for power. In this context, politicians wield language as a weapon to criticize, to belittle their opponent. In this violence, the word that pops up may be a swearword, an insult, a de-rogatory qualification... The politicians return to the crudeness which was forbidden them. When public opinion considers that the politician, using a rude word, breaks rules of propriety, a controversy may burst. We had an example on December 12, 2012 with the use of the word “minable” by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to describe the supposed tax refugee of actor Gérard Depardieu in Belgium. The controversy surrounding the tax refugee of the actor was shift into the legitimacy of Prime Minister to describe the Depardieu action, using “minable”. Depardieu reacted himself a few days later writing an open letter in which he said he was insulted by Jean-Marc Ayrault. In this paper, we propose to ponder this derogatory qualification and to bring to light the lexical, syntactic and pragmatic properties of the utterance in which it occurs, which led to its categorization and its reception as an insult in the Gerard Depardieu speech and in the speech of different media.
Authors and Affiliations
Elodie Baklouti
Keywords
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