STEREOTYPES AND ANIMAL NAMES USED AS PEJORATIVES IN BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE

Abstract

In this article, we will investigate the linguistic functioning of slurs, focusing on pejoratives derived from animal names in contemporary Brazilian Portuguese. We categorize these terms into three groups: offenses, slurs, and gendered slurs. Each category has specific characteristics that influence its grammatical and semantic behavior, as well as reflect social stereotypes. For this analysis, we adopt the theory of stereotypes proposed by Saab and Orlando (2020), which centers on exploring the relationships between (negative) stereotypes and slurs. Our aim is to demonstrate that the notion of stereotype is a valuable tool for analyzing slurs based on animal names in Brazilian Portuguese.