The Japanese expressive modifier baka ‘stupid’: An evaluation of the individual and the situation

Abstract

The English noun-modifying expressive modifier damn can express not
only a speaker’s negative attitude toward the target expressed in a noun but also the speaker’s negative attitude toward an entire proposition (=propositional reading)(e.g., Potts 2005; Gutzmann 2019). In this study, I investigate the Japanese noun-modifying expressive modifier baka ‘stupid’, and argue that unlike the English expressive modifier damn, it simultaneously conveys a negative attitude toward an individual expressed in a noun and an entire event within a single reading. This paper shows variations in and proposes a new typology of expressive modifiers.