Abstract
The paper deals with the phenomenon of verbal aggression treated as a specific feature of communication both in interpersonal exchanges and in mass media as well as in political discourse. It examines the relation among the notions of im/politeness, rudeness and verbal aggressivity (the last two routinely described as a use of vulgarities).
The aggression in the socio-psychological sense is based in instictive self-defense (or defense of one's own territory); seen in the broader framework of social interaction, aggressive communication occurs in two forms: a/ as a hostile aggression which is impulsive, driven by anger and primarily aiming at harming the target; b/ as an instrumental aggression which is premeditated as a means of retaliation or obtaining some goal (e.g., to boost up speaker's position). Analyses of dialogues have demonstrated that the aggressive/openly offensive communication can be seen not just as a borderline case of impoliteness but, more accurately, as a parallel phenomenon, a communicative strategy which can use vulgarities but can dispense with them as well.