The Dysphemism Figa/Fica: Polysemy and Metonymic Extensions in Web Texts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/2284-0184/13152Keywords:
Metonymy – Semantics – Frame – Sexism – depersonalizationAbstract
The article proposes a reflection based on the analysis of the semantics of occurrences of figa/fica, and of some of its derivatives, in contemporary Italian texts taken from the web, focusing on the action of metonymy in linking the colloquial, and latently dysphemic, designation of a part of the body with the designation of the whole constituted by the ‘female person’, and with further components of a conceptual domain, or frame, that includes a ‘stereotypical’ conception of women and their sexual role. It will be noted that the metonymic projections under examination typically have the pragmatic effect of depersonalising and de-individualising, to the point of dehumanising, the female persons to whom they refer.
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