Pejorative terms for people in the Serbian language

Abstract

The objective of this research is the pejorative connotation of lexemes denoting and qualifying people in the contemporary Serbian language. These nominal units with negative expressive tonality have a specific semantic structure where, apart from denotative components, connotative semantic components - evaluative, expressive and emotional semes - play a significant function in the forming of their lexical meaning. Pejorative terms for people have been analysed from different points of view, such as lexical-semantic, derivative and linguo-cultural at some points. The main goal was to establish parameters having a negative impact on certain individuals or social groups within the Serbian cultural and linguistic background - to reveal the collective negative assessment based on different associations, stereotypes, beliefs and prejudice incorporated in the Serbian linguistic and social community. The choice of speaker?s nomination units used to point to one?s ethnical or religious beliefs, age, sexual orientation, social or financial status, physical or intellectual shortcomings, mental handicap, personal characteristics, etc. is the index of the person?s negative and contemptuous emotional attitude to the members of the linguistic community within the aforementioned marks. Therefore, the classification of lexemes in this research is primarily based on the semantic criterion, where we have defined seven thematic categories of pejorative terms. On the other hand, we were also interested in some structural (derivative) characteristics of derogatory nouns referring to people in the Serbian language. It has been established that the pejorative meaning might be a product of semantic and affixal derivation. The traditional approach to studying lexical meaning in this research is related to the cognitive approach, combining componential and conceptual methods of analysis with the descriptive method.