Abstract
A great variety of terms describe this activity:1 the dozens, sounding and signifying are three of the most common. The activity itself is remarkably similar throughout the various black communities, both in the form and content of the insults themselves and in the rules of verbal interaction which operate. In this section we will refer to the institution by the most common term in Harlem — sounding.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Abrahams, R. (1962) ‘Playing the Dozens’, Journal of American Folklore, 75, pp. 209–18.
Dollard, J. (1939) ‘The Dozens: the Dialect of Insult’, American Image, 1, pp. 3–24.
Kochman, T. (1970) ‘Towards an Ethnography of Black Speech Behavior’, in Afro-American Anthology, Whitten, Jr, N. E. and Szwed, J. F. (eds) ( New York: Free Press ).
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1997 Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Labov, W. (1997). Rules for Ritual Insults. In: Coupland, N., Jaworski, A. (eds) Sociolinguistics. Modern Linguistics Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25582-5_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25582-5_37
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-61180-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-25582-5