“INTELLECTUAL SWEAR WORDS” IN GERMAN

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of “intellectual swear words”. The article is based on the theories of S. Marten-Cleef, I. Opelt (ridicule); B. Seidel (official and unofficial personal names: nicknames); А. Riedel (etymological investigation of swear words). The relevance of studying “intellectual swear words” is tied to the possibility to decipher the hidden meaning associated with the literal meaning that creates a comic effect. The language of the modern German “educated” class serves as an object of research, and the means of speech by which emotions can be expressed through their second meaning is the subject. It has been emphasized that these implicit meanings and ways of explaining them are still insufficiently explored in modern linguistics. 75 lexical units were examined. On the basis of the research it was pointed out that a substantial number of “intellectual swear words” (34 lexical units) are associated with the terms “intellect” and “intellectual”. Other identified groups: determine the status of a person (9 lexical units), terms to describe an amateurish person (6 lexical units), characterize the unpleasant human traits (22 lexical units), denote people with different worldviews (4 lexical units). It should be noted that most of the examined items of speech are borrowings from Latin, but there are also Greek-Neo-Latin, Greek, English and Italian words, many of which were used in different aspects of life in the past, others are very modern. We regard “intellectual swear words” as a particularly fine stylistic device that uses a lot of irony, but cannot always actually be perceived (due to their own ignorance, lack of critical thinking, etc.). To understand this, one must be educated, have developed critical thinking and a fine sense of language. “Intellectual swear words” were thus considered as both a tool of expression and the indicator of intelligence level. Learning of these words would be particularly instructive for foreign language learners to help understand the deep meaning of particular phrases in order to prevent misunderstandings in communication.