Abstract

Invective has various uses including expressive intensification, bandinage, calumny, insult, challenge, and provocation. For many of these uses, obscene words can advance the purposes of the speaker, but are inessential and self-defeating in many cases. The relation between some of the most common styles of invective and older forms of malediction, the uses of invective, the doctrine of fighting words and its difficulties, the role of obscenity in invective, and derivative uses of obscenity are discussed.