A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF USE AND PERCEPTION OF INSULTS: TLEMCEN SPEECH COMMUNITY

Human beings use language to accomplish a variety of social acts. They are supposed to select from the whole grammatical correct expressions available to them, the ones which appropriately reflect the social norms that are settled to them for specific occasions. However, using speech goes beyond selecting correct grammatical sentences. This implies that each speech obeys the forbidden rules. Hence, it is not sufficient to acquire linguistic competence to speak adequately and to behave in a suitable and acceptable manner. It should be borne in mind that in addition to the environments and the social structure of a given speech community, its values can also have effects on its language. The most interesting way in which this may happen is through the phenomenon known as taboo which can be characterized by behaviours that are believed to be supernaturally forbidden, or regarded as immoral or improper.