Sex in Language : Euphemistic and Dysphemistic Metaphors in Internet forums

Metaphor has long provided a rich way to speak about the unspeakable, to refer to delicate issues. Sex is one such area. This book follows a cognitive-linguistic and relevance-theoretic approach to the language of sex, considering metaphor as a bridge that brings together mind and language. It does this through the analysis of the antithetical mechanisms of verbal mitigation and offence. These two mechanisms are (more commonly know as) euphemism and (its lesser known companion term) dysphemism.

The volume reflects on the social and communicative functions that sexual metaphors perform in a sample of almost two hundred postings taken from internet forums. How do people think about sex? How do people avoid talking about sex? How do people paraphrase sexual topics? It offers an account of how real language users understand sexual taboo in present-day English and also a great grounding in manual corpus work on a qualitative level.

“The focus on and analysis of metaphors used in speaking about sexual body parts, effluvia, acts, and accessories is the main strength of the present work .. Sex in Language is entertaining to read” —Keith Allan, from the 'Foreword'

“Clearly structured, well-argued and makes an important contribution to the sociolinguistic and pragmatic research field. It is certain to find a wide readership among scholars and students of languages, linguistics and social theory. I strongly recommend it.” —Professor Andreas Mussolf, University of East Anglia, UK