Threats

A threat is a warning that something negative or violent will happen to a person or group, especially if a particular action or order is not followed. Through this action, the speaker aims at eliciting fear in the target in order to lead them to act in a certain way. More precisely, the fear is caused by the fact that threats “involve a harm of some kind […] that has not yet happened” and express “a warning that invites the person to take preventive steps in order to do what he or she can do to mitigate impending harm.” Together with insults, disdain and denigration, threats are then part of threatening speech acts. In other terms, through their discourse, the speaker places themselves in a position of strength by eliciting fear in the threat's target, thus modifying or hoping to modify their behaviour. Yet, the speaker does not intend to fulfil their part of the deal; they only want to prompt the target to act.