Resumo

GONZALEZ DE REQUENA FARRE, Juan Antonio. From fools to idiots. Discursive transformations of the explicit lexicon of intellectual denigration. Nóesis, Rev. cienc. soc. [online]. 2021, vol.30, n.59, pp.98-119.  Epub 16-Jan-2023. ISSN 2395-8669.  https://doi.org/10.20983/noesis.2021.1.6.

Although there are valuable essays and studies in the social sciences on stupidity, the different forms of lack of human intelligence are best conceived when they are associated with the lexicon and discourses of intellectual denigration in a specific idiomatic setting such as the modern Spanish-speaking community. In this study, a lexicographic analysis of the frequencies of the main explicit terms of intellectual denigration (necio, tonto, ignorante, estúpido, bobo, idiota, imbécil and insensato) is carried out in the CORDE and CREA corpus, from 15th to 20th century. Furthermore, we qualitatively analyze the definitions of the lexicon of intellectual denigration in some modern dictionaries, and we interpret the representative discourses in which that vocabulary acquires meaning. As a result, a shift in lexicons and discourses of intellectual denigration is observed, which we could characterize as a psychologization or mentalization of intellectual incapacity, as well as a transition from moral discourse to medical-legal discourse.

Palavras-chave : stupidity; lack of intelligence; intellectual denigration; denigrating lexicon.

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