Derogatory Vocatives in Plautus: Analysis of Insults in Interactional Reactions

Abstract

This work is part of a research that aims to analyze vocatives that function as insults in Plautine comedies and to determine the contexts, motivations, effects and purposes that these elements acquire in them. This article focuses on the insults that arise in what we call “interactional reaction” to both non-verbal and verbal attacks from a interlocutor. In the first case we examine the insults prompted by the negative behavior of the interlocutor, previous to or simultaneous with the conversation, whereas in the second we analyze insults derived from the words of the interlocutor.