‘La falta de inteligencia’ como objeto de insulto. Un análisis sobre el léxico coloquial y argótico del español contemporáneo

Stupidity’ as an object of insult. Analysis of the colloquial and slang vocabulary in contemporary Spanish This paper presents a short analysis of the Spanish insulting vocabulary related to the lack of intelligence of an insulted person. Nearly 150 lexical units were selected from the following dictionaries: Inventario general de insultos by Pancracio Celdrán Gomáriz and Diccionario de argot by Julia Sanmartín Sáez. The analysis focuses on distinguishing word formation processes and semantic displacement types in the words belonging to this category of insult in the Spanish language. The results single out the semantic and thematic fields used most frequently in the metaphorization process in the investigated group of words, and point out to the most recurrent word formation processes occurring in this lexical category