Abstract
Swear words are generally used to articulate anger, pain, excitement, frustration, or surprise. It is often imitated by children who may not really understand the meaning of the swear words. This survey-based study aims to identify the swear utterances of male and female teenagers, find out their commonly-used swear words, and investigate whether bilingual male or female students of Grade 12, Binus International School, Simprug, Jakarta, use more swear words. A combination of multiple choice and open-ended questionnaire was constructed and the analysis revealed that swearing is inevitable and becomes a part of the male and female language repertoire. Both groups of students are said to employ the use of Indonesian and English swear words in carrying-out conversations in order to release stress and express intense emotions. However, male students tend to use more swear words that are associated with sexuality.
Highlights
Swearing is a natural human practice in different corners of the globe. Ljung (2011, p. 4) defines swearing as the use of utterances containing taboo words
This mini research stems from our desire to identify the swear utterances of 15 male and 15 female bilingual Grade 12 students from Binus International School Simprug Jakarta and to find out the kinds of swear words commonly used by the two gender groups
One of the female participants said, “I use this swear word because it denotes that the person I am cursing is a piece of garbage.”
Summary
Swearing is a natural human practice in different corners of the globe. Ljung (2011, p. 4) defines swearing as the use of utterances containing taboo words. According to the “difference theory” (among others Uchida, 1992; Tannen, 2001), men and women are biologically different and so it is not surprising that they have different ways of speaking, both groups live in the same environment They establish different relationship with the society as if each belonged to a different environment and culture and the result of which is reflected in their language. The study, which was based on 16 informal conversations, reveals that Javanese swear words are commonly used among peers to indicate solidarity and friendship To this effect, this mini research stems from our desire to identify the swear utterances of 15 male and 15 female bilingual Grade 12 students from Binus International School Simprug Jakarta and to find out the kinds of swear words commonly used by the two gender groups. It aims to investigate which group applies more swear words and to find out the attitude of the students towards the use of swear words
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