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Dysphemism (the opposite of euphemism) is a lexical resource in natural language, whereby lexemes are created for the purpose of combining denotation and negative attitude via a complex process of lexical compression. Just like euphemism, but with an opposite directionality, the process of dysphemizing produces cognitive synonyms that converge on denotation but diverge on attitude. For example, the Jordanian Arabic lexemes bitsammam ‘he is poisoning himself’ and ingalʿat ‘she has been extracted’ are dysphemistic counterparts of the neutral lexemes bōkil ‘he is eating’ and rawwa…

1. Definition Euphemism is a lexical resource in language, whereby an offensive or hurtful word/phrase is replaced with one that represents a less direct expression or carries a positive attitude. It is an important vehicle for creating cognitive synonyms in language: the original expression and its euphemistic counterpart come to share denotative meaning but differ in their attitudinal parameter. The two terms zabbāl ‘garbage man’ and ʿāmil naḏ̣āfa ‘a cleanliness worker’, for example, denote the same occupation in Arabic but the second reflects a positive soci…

Kinship has always played a significant role in human societies on the political, economic, and social levels. Throughout history, people have sought refuge in biologically based bonds expressed socially through kinship relations. These relations have provided political, economic, and social security for both the individual and the group at varying levels in human culture (Farber 1968; Goody 1969). The impact of kinship bonds has generally diminished with the emergence of industrialization and u…