Language Taboos Research Articles

LINGUISTIC TABOO IN AFRICAN MARRIAGE

This paper presents a descriptive examination of a cultural practice within the Oromo community of Ethiopia, known as laguu or lagacha. This custom involves refraining from mentioning the names of relatives by marriage. The phenomenon is significant within ethnolinguistics, particularly in this culture, yet it remains relatively unexplored in literature. The study reveals that due to this language taboo, individuals such as spouses and in-laws refrain from using each other's names and instead employ various alternative terms, many of which are newly created. It further delves into the taboo words and elucidates the methods employed to find substitutes.

Language taboos in Poland: the role of situational context and topic group in the response to taboos

Contemporary taboo manifests itself mainly on the language surface and is linked to socio-cultural conventions; it is based on issues that should not be addressed. Taboos change over time and differ between cultures. It is a pilot of the author’s questionnaire examining the role of situational context and topic group in response to taboos. Three situational contexts were identified (family, friends, work), and four topic groups (finance, values, sexuality, diseases). Furthermore, five types of responses to taboo were distinguished; avoidance, lecturing, confrontation, discretion, and lack of taboo. People taking part in experiment were tasked with reading twelve scenes and selecting for each of them one of five proposed answers. The study was conducted online using Qualtrics. 83 people were surveyed, including 66 women, 12 men, and 5 non-binary people. The results were subjected to statistical analyses, mostly Paired- Samples T Test. Statistical analysis confirmed both hypotheses; there are statistically significant differences between the strategies of responding to taboos depending on situational context and topic group. The most frequent differences occurred between work context and the contexts of family and friends. The average number of responses based on lack of taboo was more common in scenes about sexuality, scenes dealing with the topic of values were more often responded to with avoidance strategy and confrontation strategy. Discretion was used less frequently in scenes about diseases, and lecturing was chosen more often. This is one of the first studies to address the role of situational context in responses to taboos in Poland.

Language Taboos in Social Activities of the Acehnese Community

This study aims to describe language taboos in the context of social activities within the Acehnese community. The research design employed is field research, utilizing a qualitative approach. The method employed is descriptive-analytical. The data for this research focus on language taboos within the Acehnese community in the Pidie Regency. The data sources are informants, comprising Acehnese individuals residing in the Pidie Regency, spanning three sub-districts, with a total of 21 informants. Data collection involves structured and unstructured interview techniques, supported by the participant observation method with face-to-face conversations and the baiting technique. The data analysis technique used is qualitative analysis with stages such as selection, description, grouping, and data analysis. The research findings reveal language taboos in the social activities of the Acehnese community as follows: (a) language taboos in hunting activities; (b) language taboos in farming activities; (c) language taboos in carpentry activities; (d) language taboos in trading activities; and (e) language taboos in courtship activities.

Taboos In The Madurese Language In The Montorna Community In Sumenep District

Research on taboos in the Madurese language in the Montorna community, Sumenep district, is interesting to study, because taboo language in the Madurese language in the Montorna community, Sumenep district occurs frequently, even found almost every day. Both language taboos are related to spirits, and animal names, or because of the level of language used, and also because the understanding of words is determined by speech intonation and facial expressions. The purpose of this paper is to analyze taboo language in Madurese in the Montorna community, Sumenep district. This type of research is qualitative research that uses case studies. Data collection techniques used are observation, interviews, and field notes. Qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive methods. The results of this study are Knowing: 1). many kinds of Rude / Taboo Language in Maduranese, such as Animal Names spoken to other people, bad prayers, and so on 2). level of language in Maduranese and its use, such as yes'-enje', enggi-enten, or engghi-punten 3). understanding of words determined by speech intonation and facial expressions in the Montorna community, Sumenep district. The recommendation for further research is to provide solutions or ways of forming taboo language, in order to avoid it.

On the Cultural Reflection of the Chinese Taboo Language

With the increasing communication between people from different cultures, many taboo language problems emerge. Taboo language is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cultural phenomenon. Different social backgrounds and historical cultures will have different language taboos. Taboo language is changing continually with time. Taboos in the Chinese language reflect the cultural practices, religious beliefs and moral traditions of the Chinese people. Starting from "taboo language", this thesis adopts the method of analysis to study the origin and development of Chinese taboo language, introduces the national psychology, religious beliefs, social customs and cultural background of the Chinese nation, further explores the cultural roots that cause Chinese taboo language, and reveals the profound cultural connotations of Chinese taboo language.

Customary Values and Daily Communication of the Baduy Community in Indonesia

This article describes how customary values have implications for communication practices in the daily life of the Baduy people, one of the famous indigenous communities in Indonesia. Utilizing the ethnography of communication method, this study describes how customary values in the Baduy community have contributed in establishing local-ecological consciousness and primordial outlook which is reflected in their communication on daily basis. Practically, the Sundanese language used by the Baduy people is different from the main Sundanese, especially in the context of dialect and structure as they do not have any concept of language level which is commonly found in mainstream Sundanese while their dialect is more loud and straight. Furthermore, in daily communication, they also apply language taboos through a sort of law and norm so-called “pikukuh” by prohibiting of certain words which philosophically related to their basic belief. Therefore, language taboos in the Baduy community can also be understood as symbolic messages based on their local-primordial outlook.
 
 Received: 14 August 2022 / Accepted: 20 October 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022

Taboo Words as a Component of Invective Vocabulary and Their Determining in Arabic against the Background of Russian and English Languages

The paper is devoted to understanding of the taboo phenomenon in language as a component of invective vocabulary on the example of Arabic, English and Russian languages, and also to study of the borders of this phenomenon and methods of its determination. In his study of conceptual features of forbidden words the author of the article refers to the works of K. Allen and K. Burridge, as well as M. Ljung. In addition to the theoretical works of linguists, the author analyzes the existing practice of implementing linguistic prohibitions in Russian, English, which affects such areas as legislation and media. Especially valuable material that was analyzed, was studies of English-speaking media regulators and major broadcasting companies. The main purpose of these surveys was to identify the list of words that audience considered unacceptable on the air, i.e. taboo. As for Arab law, there is no separation of vocabulary on permissible and unacceptable, as well as there is no obvious border and in Arabic language standards or usage. However, this does not mean the lack of prohibited words and the author clearly demonstrates the presence of taboos on examples from Arab media. In addition, the article discusses the works of Arab linguists M. A. Khatyab and N. Ya. Kanbar, dedicated to taboo vocabulary. Nevertheless, the problem of reliable determination and identification of language taboos has not been solved yet, and the author of the paper proposes a relevant criterion to determine the taboo words on the basis of the approaches existing in modern linguistics.

Translating in a constrained environment

Abstract Translating children’s literature has been an object of interest researched from a number of vantage points, including the question of constraining factors. Scholars have highlighted mainly the question of dual readership or cultural adaptation, frequently without a global and systemic analysis of all impediments. This article examines the Polish translation of the German book for children, Katharina von der Gathen’s Klär mich auf, from a constraint-based framework. This article focuses on the reconstruction of the constraints in the translation process: the point of departure is the framework with three basic factors that constrain translation, i.e., the intention of the author/translator, text type, and the profile of the audience. The presented argumentation incorporates other formal impediments, such as the visual layer of the book and the semiotic make-up of the source text, language taboo and censorship or the literary polysystems. The analysis of the constraint framework helps to comprehend the translation in terms of the ST-TT relationship regarding their intended audiences, genre-related features, and the child-adult duality.

Swearing in South Africa: Multidisciplinary research on language taboos

Research on swearing (used here as a hypernym to include other phenomena and/or synonyms like cursing, profanity, taboo language, etc.) has been prevalent for many years internationally, also from a variety of scientific disciplines. Most of the research literature, however, is on swearing in English, although studies have also been conducted on some other languages. By contrast, very little to no research has been done on swearing within the South African context, which is quite surprising, given that using certain swearwords (i.e., racial slurs) is punishable by law. To address this void, we established a multidisciplinary project with its primary roots in the digital humanities, and with inputs from and implications to (amongst others) linguistics, literary studies, communication studies, neurology, psychology, sociology, computer sciences, and law. This project (and specifically the topic of swearing) holds the potential to provide insights in human cognition and social interaction, while situating it broadly within the scope of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The project commenced in July 2019, and is currently ongoing. In this paper, we firstly provide a rationale for the project, before introducing each of the five subprojects. These subprojects pertain to swearing and the law; a swearing constructicon (a kind of online dictionary) for Afrikaans; swearing in the entertainment world and in the media; swearing as a linguistic innovation; and an end-user facing project website. We also report on some of the outputs from the project that are already available, and others that are still being developed and investigated. We conclude with a brief overview of some of the potential impacts of the project.

A taboo on personal names and on the pronoun ty as a component of Russian speech etiquette

The article shows that the language taboo on pronouncing personal names, which is usually described as a phenomenon typical of archaic cultures, is also characteristic of the modern Russian language, where names of older relatives usually are replaced by words dad, mother, grandfather, grandmother, uncle and aunt. In the XVIII and XIX centuries in Russia there was a taboo on the use of names, patronymics and surnames of persons senior in civil or military rank. At present, it is preserved in the military sphere of communication, where it is forbidden to address by name or surname to senior in rank. The taboo phenomenon can also be an explanation of etiquette designation the respected interlocutor by Russian pronoun vy (ʻyouʼ pl.) instead of ty (ʻyouʼ sg.).

Language taboos and ways to overcome them: the practice of working in a foreign audience

Foreign students who speak the language at an advanced level can and should master all layers of the vocabulary of the Russian language, including taboo words and expressions. However, the selection of language material and building a system of training exercises are of great importance here. Only such systematic preparatory work, from our point of view, can give a positive result in the process of studying RFL. The author emphasizes that the two most important theoretical concepts that need to be introduced to students are linguistic taboos and euphemisms, and it is also important to talk about the relationship of these terms with each other. The main reason for euphemization is the desire to soften the meaning of what was said, to avoid conflict of communication, communicative failures. Euphemism, therefore, is a turn of speech that is used to soften it. Choosing taboo topics for discussion in the audience, we should limit ourselves to topics that would be relevant to students, and a set of tokens that would be feasible for them. At the same time, it is important to use texts of different styles of speech, mainly colloquial and journalistic. Nevertheless, examples of euphemisms can also be found in literary texts. It also makes sense to use such exercises, especially when it comes to writers familiar to the audience. The article gives examples of the most diverse groups of euphemisms: there are everyday, professional, economic, political, diplomatic, social tokens. All of them are united by the increased frequency of use and relevance for modern young people. The author concludes that any systematic work with taboo vocabulary in RFL classes allows students to develop their communicative competence, integrate into the cultural environment of linguistic speakers, and understand the national and cultural features of a particular ethnic group. That is why working with language taboos and ways to overcome them is a promising direction in the process of teaching the Russian language to foreign applicants for higher education.

Social Dialects in Modern French Language

The article is a study of phonetic-morphological and semantic-stylistic features of argotic vocabulary in contemporary French language. The work is devoted to questions of structural-semantic and phonetic-morphological peculiarities of the argotic vocabulary in printed mass media. The conducted research has shown that the argotic vocabulary can be considered as a special lexical subsystem of spoken language, which is characterized by a steady tendency to penetrate into higher linguistic levels due to its phonetic-morphological and semantic features. The systematization of phonetic and semantic processes in the argotic dictionary is carried out. We have noticed that argot from a linguistic point of view is an expressive lexical subsystem of spoken language, which is characterized by a large expressive potential and rapid changes in vocabulary and penetrates into higher levels of the French language. From the point of view of modern linguistics, the French language can be viewed in vertical and horizontal sections. Horizontal division is caused by the existence of the dialectal partition of the French language. The vertical division is explained by the existence of social groups that use one or another sociolect. Analyzing the evolution of the definition of argot, we can assume that in its development argot passed the long way from the language taboo to the special lexical subsystem of the literary-spoken language. We have noticed that it is important to distinguish argot and spoken language. In spite of the both scientific and practical interest in the spoken language problem and the emergence of numerous studies that led to the creation of colloquialism as a special section of linguistics, a number of aspects of spoken language (approaches to its identification, differentiation of spoken language and related phenomena) remain insufficiently highlighted. The spoken language (vernacular), according to modern linguistic assertions, occupies an intermediate position between the spoken-literary language, dialects and sociolects. We have noticed that the democratization of the norms of the literary language led to the emergence of a literary-colloquial form of spoken language. Such a combination of literary and spoken language is caused by the nature of social development. Key words: argot; slang; French language; dialect; argotheistic vocabulary; non-normative variant elements; semantics; phonetics; morphology; mass media.

PORTRAITS OF POLITICIANS: TYPOLOGY AND VERBAL ORGANIZATION

The article deals with the genre corpus of modern political portraits which are studied from the point of view of their typologization and verbal organization. The corpus of political portraits can be differentiated on various principles. First, these are political portraits proper showing the figure and activity of the politician from a certain perspective, in a more or less complete way, and verbal portraits reflecting the specificity of verbal communication. Second, these are portraits-memoires and journalistic portraits (a narration about a politician, an interview with them). Third, these are portraits of federal and regional politicians. Fourth, these are detailed political portraits and mini-portraits (slogans-characteristics). Finally, it is possible to single out political portraits within the frames of a single semiotic row (verbal) and creolized portraits created with the help of two semiotic rows - verbal and visual. Political portraits proper are based primarily on the category of evaluation and polarization of a “good politician” and a “bad politician”. Analysis of the verbal portraits of politicians is often conducted from the position of their idiostylistic peculiarities which are, to a large extent, determined by the chosen image construct. Idiostyle is also formed by the memes of politicians and language taboos imposed by a number of laws and requirements of political correctness. Both analysis and preparation for publication of books (memoires) of a politician can be approached via form or content. In their turn, journalistic portraits translated through various media outlets need typologization and systematization in the first place. It is possible to single out more than 20 kinds of political portraits on the material of mass newspapers alone, each of which has an original genre, verbal and pragmatic organization. V. V. Putin takes the lead among all politicians of the federal level whose portraits are actively created by mass media. Nowadays, we see a growing interest in the study of the portraits of regional politicians and in the scientific detection of the practical schemes of their image construction. As far as creolized portraits are concerned, they are more often than not built around a precedent visualized image of a famous politician of the past or the present. The visual and verbal semiotic rows may intersect each other, complete each other, and their creative combinability allows the authors to make up an original memorable image of a statesman. In general, the author of the article highlights the following tendencies of development of the genre of political portrait: a) increase in the number of aspects within the frames of which the politician’s personality is described, intimization of information; b) increase in the number of genre variants; c) increase in the percentage of creolized portraits; d) use of the comic forms in the portraits - humor, irony, sarcasm, parody - which is especially typical of popular mass media.

Le tabou dans la dénomination de lingerie féminine

Parmi plusieurs domaines de la vie quotidienne marqués par le tabou langagier nous pouvons distinguer celui de la lingerie féminine qui, se référant à des parties du corps humain dites honteuses, recourt à l’euphémisation pour échapper à l’expression de ce qui est gênant. Le présent article aura pour but d’analyser comment et par quels moyens linguistiques ce phénomène s’effectue dans les dénominations des pièces de lingerie. L’analyse sera effectuée dans quatre langues : le français, l’italien, l’anglais et le polonais. Nous allons également prendre en considération le phénomène des noms de marques dans le rayon vestimentaire mentionné afin de pouvoir observer comment le concept de l’interdiction linguistique est réalisé à travers ce type d’appellations. Cette étude sera portée sur différents contextes formels, stylistiques mais aussi pragmatiques.

Karnawalizacja grozy w folklorze dziecięcym

Artykul zatytulowany Karnawalizacja grozy w folklorze dzieciecym porusza temat kreacyjnego jezyka dzieci w wieku przedszkolnym i wczesnym wieku szkolnym, w ktorym jako dominanty kompozycyjne pojawiają sie absurd, groteska, aluzyjnośc, turpizm, makabra, niestosownośc, obscena, skatologiczny zart, infantylizacje, profanacje, hiperbole oraz ludyczne puenty. Szczegolowej analizie poddany zostaje folklor dzieciecy, czyli spontaniczna, wierszowana aktywnośc slowna dzieci towarzysząca zabawie. Tego rodzaju improwizowane mikroformy wierszowane wpisane są w kulture dzieciecą i powstają w grupie rowieśniczej poza oficjalną kulturą jezykową jako slowny akt buntu dzieci wobec narzucania im przez doroslych jezyka sformalizowanego, instrumentalnego, ukierunkowanego na odwzorowanie rzeczywistości. Dzieci mają satysfakcje z lamania tabu jezykowych i wprowadzania w konsternacje starszych od siebie. W wierszach tych obserwowac mozna typowy dla struktury karnawalu gest, jakim jest wzniesienie na piedestal najslabszego w hierarchii spolecznej – w zabawie – dziecka, ktore eksponuje poprzez jezyk karnawalową wizje świata. Analiza obejmuje obecne w obiegu ustnym dzieci wiersze i krotkie formy prozatorskie obrazujące groze skarnawalizowaną. Karnawalowe ujecie grozy przez dzieci jest przejawem obalania monolityczności strachu, egzorcyzmowania leku poprzez śmiech, neutralizowania go i nadawania „strachom” po bachtinowsku rozumianej „geby”, innymi slowy budowania ludycznej i groteskowej wersji świata – na opak.

An Analysis on Dynamic and Static Aspects of Language Taboo from Cross-cultural Perspective

With acceleration of globalization, cross-cultural communication is increasing day by day. Language is the carrier of culture and promotes effective communication. Under the multicultural context of cross-cultural communication, language taboo regarded as part of culture is one of important sensitive issues. Because there are always some conflicts in the cross-cultural communication. Some conflicts are caused by language taboo. This article starts from cross-cultural perspective, deeply interprets language taboo in all aspects, understands and masters phenomenon to take appropriate measures, aims to provide constructive views of exploring cross-cultural communication skills. Knowing the static and dynamic changes of language taboo phenomenon would help people effectively master communicational skills to avoid misunderstandings.

Ukrainain Swearing in the Mirror of German Translation

The article deals with the problem of swearing and its translation from Ukrainian intoGerman. It provides the analyses of the previous researches covering the topics “foul language”,“obscene language” and “swearing”. Swearing is a language taboo that conveys the negativeenergy a speaker wants to get rid of by the means of shifting it on the recipient. It is not always therecipient who is the addressee of the swearing, since language taboo includes the usage of anaddress-free swearing, the latter one belonging to the parenthetic words which are languageincrustations and which do not carry semantic meaning. But in the language there are also otherobscene words with the semantically-lowered connotation. The article reveals the differences in theusage of swear language by different nations, it also provides the comparison of the Ukrainian,Russian and German swearing. It is pointed out that Russian obscene language is more connectedto the rude names of genitals, sexual intercourse and sexual deviations, but it is less connected tothe physiological ejections. The article studies the influence of the Russian culture on other nations’cultures, including the Ukrainian one. In the Ukrainian and German languages, contrary to theRussian language, obscene words are mainly connected to the physiological ejections (scatologicalhumour). After careful study of the certain scholars works the author of the article alsodemonstrates the ways obscene words come up in the Ukrainian language. The article alsodemonstrates the ways of translation of the swearing the examples being provided from the fromthe post-modern literature works.

Overcoming the First Language Taboo to Enhance Learning a Foreign Language

One of the most controversial issues in foreign language teaching and learning over many years has been the role of the mother tongue. In fact, many educators have tried to completely eliminate L1 from the foreign language classroom. Furthermore, many educational establishments have perceived the role of the mother tongue as being a negative influence upon the learning process, and have rules in place which insist on a L2 only policy. However, as will be shown in this research, attempting to ban the mother tongue is an impossible task. In addition, this study will show that there is no definite research which can demonstrate that an L2 only learning environment has more of a positive effect upon the learning process than allowing the use of the mother tongue. Moreover, if used sparingly and in a pre-planned way, the first language can play a positive role in the learning of a foreign language.

Überlegungen W. Bangs zu komanisch *kär balık „Acipenser huso”

The following article deals with W. Bang’s attempts to give an etymology of an assumed Qoman *kar ~ kär balık „sturgeon” to which he traces back a name of the Sea of Azov given in the „Chiliads” by Tzétzis. The author of the present article explains *kar ~ kär balık as a language taboo and gives an equivalent to this from Yakut (xatïïs „sturgeon”).

Language taboos of American college students

(1935). Language taboos of American college students. English Studies: Vol. 17, No. 1-6, pp. 81-91.