30

Most of the Linguists who have recently studied insult recognise (more or less explicitly) that it cannot be dealt with in a strictly semantic fashion, as pragmatic factors are central to the issue (see for instance Fisher, 1995; Siblot 1995; Lagorgette 2002, 2003; Rosier et Ernotte 2001, etc.). This study focuses on the sociopragmatic, interactional dimension of insults.Our reflection covers on the one hand a very social point of view aiming at spelling out the perception of insults by speakers of Quebec French; our corpus shows that utterances containing either form “insulter” and “insultant” refer more often to actions than to words. On the other hand, a more pragmatic point of view is developed, showing how insulting forms function within conversational contexts. The absence of an answer when axiological forms are used in family interactions (the items belonging therefore to an interzone between ritual and personal insults) leads to reconsider the status of such exchanges. We propose that it would be theoretically productive to think of insults as a zone within a continuum going from mockery to reproach and accusation (Laforest 2002), which would enable one to understand the different meanings associated by speakers to the feeling of “being insulted”. A further advantage would be that threats (as perceived) as a social act could be measured on a scale of intentions rather than on that of vulgarity.