As with “violence” itself, it seems like some uses of “bullying” strike me as being somewhat metaphorical rather than literal; but the folks using it those ways may not agree.
That said, my experience in school was that physical violence and “word stuff” could be combined arms in an effort to create misery or to drive someone away: perpetrators could use physical harm when they expected to get away with it; aggressive posturing (e.g. miming a punch) to remind the victim of the possibility of physical harm; and verbal attacks when they expected to get away with those.
As with “violence” itself, it seems like some uses of “bullying” strike me as being somewhat metaphorical rather than literal; but the folks using it those ways may not agree.
That said, my experience in school was that physical violence and “word stuff” could be combined arms in an effort to create misery or to drive someone away: perpetrators could use physical harm when they expected to get away with it; aggressive posturing (e.g. miming a punch) to remind the victim of the possibility of physical harm; and verbal attacks when they expected to get away with those.
Metaphor makes sense; I’dn’t thought of that. Thanks!