Taboo Words Research Articles

From Latin QUO(D) VELLES to Romagnol Cvël: A Case of Degrammaticalisation from a Free‐choice Indefinite to the Noun ‘Thing’1

AbstractDegrammaticalisation is an oft‐dismissed category of language change. In this paper evidence is provided for its existence, its triggers, and its conditions. This case study details the development of an understudied Old Italo‐Romance indefinite, covelle, a polarity‐sensitive item roughly translating as ‘anything’ which originated from a Latin free relative with Free‐Choice interpretation. It is shown that in Old Italo‐Romance the original Free Choice use was expanded to further nonveridical contexts. Subsequently, a curious development of covelle in Old Romagnol, a 16th‐century Gallo‐Italic variety, is examined whereby polar neutralisation (loss of sensitivity to polarity) of the indefinite was taking place. Contextually, a process of degrammaticalisation had begun through which the indefinite pronoun developed into the classifier ‘thing’. In Modern and Contemporary Romagnol cvël is almost exclusively employed as a noun/classifier. It is argued that two parallel processes have initiated a cycle that led cvël to complete degrammaticalisation: (i) the grammaticalization of the old noun for ‘thing’, co(n)sa, into a wh‐word, calling for lexical replacement, and (ii) competition from the Negative Concord Item gnit. The development of covelle in Romagnol represents a well‐documented case of degrammaticalisation, whose causes and conditions can be thoroughly described and motivated within an interaction with cyclical change.

Taboo words in pediatric oncology: Communication experiences of nurses and physicians with dying children and their families

PurposeDespite the numerous benefits of effective communication between patients, families, and healthcare professionals, there are still substantial barriers and communication challenges. This study investigated the experiences of nurses and doctors working in different pediatric hematology-oncology units in Turkey communicating with children and their parents about end-of-life issues. MethodThis qualitative study was conducted with twenty-four physicians and nurses. A descriptive phenomenological approach was used. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step reflexive thematic analysis. The MAXQDA software was used to facilitate data management. ResultsThe findings revealed three main themes describing end-of-life communication experiences of physicians and nurses: Avoiding communication with a dying child, Everyone knows but nobody talks, and Complicating aspects of the setting. ConclusionsCommunication with dying children and their families is essential. However, multiple barriers remain for healthcare providers to do so. That issue burdens the child and their family more during the end-of-life, which is already a challenging experience to handle. Healthcare professionals need urgent training in communication with the dying children and their families.

A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF TABOO WORDS IN THE EMERGENCY 2022 MOVIE

This research focuses on the Sociolinguistic Analysis of Taboo Words in The Emergency 2022 Movie. The qualitative method used was content analysis. The data of this research were taken from the Emergency 2022 movie. The data was collected by watching the movie and reading the transcript, identifying and underlying the taboo words. The data were analyzed using Batistella's theory to describe the types of taboo words and Wardhaugh's theory to describe the function of taboo words. First, the result there are 143 taboo words used by characters with percentages for each type: epithet 16 instances (11.2%), profanity 22 instances (15.4%), vulgarity 10 instances (7%), and obscenity 95 instances (66.4%). The obscenity type is the most frequently used taboo word. Second, there are four functions, which can be seen in the movie with the following percentages: 23 cases (16.1%) to draw attention, 66 cases (46.1%) to show contempt, 51 cases (35.7%) to be provocative, and 3 cases (2.1%) to mock authority. The most common function in the Emergency 2022 film seems to be to show contempt.

TABOO LANGUAGEIN MAENGGI KI’S MY ID IS GANGNAM BEAUTY

In this study, the researcher analyzes taboo language phenomenon in a comic entitled My ID Is Gangnam Beauty especially on the kinds of taboo language used uttered by the characters with good academic background. The objectives of this research are to identify and describe the types of taboo language uttered by the characters of Maenggi Ki’s My ID Is Gangnam Beauty, to find out the most dominant types of taboo language of taboo language uttered by the characters in Maenggi Ki’s My ID Is Gangnam Beauty and to find out the reasons for the most dominant type of taboo language uttered by the characters in Maenggi Ki’s My Id Is Gangnam Beauty. The researcher uses a descriptive qualitative method based on Batistella (2005) theory and Wardhaugh (2006) theory. The technique of analyzing data are: classifying, analyzing, discussing and reporting. Based on the result on the analysis, there are four types of taboo language that found in My Id Is Gangnam Beauty: Ephitet, Obscenity, Profanity, and Vulgarity. The most dominant type is Ephitets type which are found one hundred six (106) times out of 84 episodes. There are 4 the functions that can be reasons of most dominant taboo language is occur that found in My ID Is Gangnam Beauty: To Draw Attention to Oneself, To Show Contempt, To be Provoke, To Mock Authority out of 84 episodes.

The Usage of Taboo Words in Dave Chappelle's The Closer Stand-Up Comedy

The Usage of Taboo Words in Dave Chappelle's The Closer Stand-Up Comedy

An Analysis of Taboo Words in Megan Thee Stallion’s Song Lyrics on Album “Fever”

This article aimed to talk about taboo words in the song lyrics on Megan Thee Stallion's "fever" album. The researcher discussed the types, functions, and meanings of the taboo words used in the song lyrics by Megan Thee Stallion. The album song "fever" by Megan Thee Stallion served as the research sample, and its lyrics were found using Google. To describe the types of taboo words and the functions of taboo words, the researcher used theories from Wardhaugh and Batistella, respectively. The researcher then used dictionaries, the internet, and articles to find the definitions of taboo words in Megan Thee Stallion's song lyrics in order to support the information. Based on data analysis, it was found 442 total taboo words. The lyrics on Megan Thee Stallion's album "fever" contain the highest percentages of obscenity (36.4%), epithets (34.3%), and vulgarity (28%). Three functions were also found to have the highest percentages for the function of using taboo language. There are showing contempt (45.57%), being provocative (31.41%), and drawing attention (23%) are some examples. The use of words that mocked authority then became at the very least used.

The pragmatic dimensions of swearing in films: Searching for coherence in dubbing strategies

Swearing is exploited to release strong emotions, attack the interlocutor's face and build interpersonal solidarity, both in spontaneous interactions and in film. In audiovisual translation, it tends to be toned down or omitted, with research mostly explaining neutralisation as censorship-driven and treating the translation of taboo language as an internally-undifferentiated, arbitrary procedure. In the present corpus-based study we move away from the external, socio-cultural motivations for loss to assess whether specific pragmatic, structural-functional and textual dimensions of swearing account for preferred translational strategies and impact the translational outcomes. All occurrences of F-words in a parallel corpus of Anglophone films and their Italian translations are examined in their bilingual concordances at the utterance level and in the wider multimodal context. The quantitative and qualitative analyses outline the interaction between structural-functional patterns and pragmatic functions with reference to the translation strategies of full translation, mitigation, de-swearing and omission. The findings unveil coherence in Italian translators' preferences for pragmatically-motivated cross-linguistically viable language patterns which foreground the heightened emotional charge and the abusive dimensions of taboo words, thus pointing to a principled approach to translational solutions which boost the conflictuality intrinsic to film.

Aggravated impoliteness in Chinese online negative restaurant reviews

Abstract This paper examines aggravated impoliteness in online restaurant reviews, with a dataset consisting of 92 negative reviews from the Chinese-based website Dazhongdianping. It first analyzes the usage and frequency of different types of aggravated impoliteness strategies. The topic categories of the review samples are then investigated, and the connection between these two aspects is further discussed. The variety of aggravated impoliteness strategies includes: preceding intensifiers, indignant exclamations, unpalatable questions, emoji, postpositional intensifiers, unfavorable comparisons, emphatic structure and taboo words, in decreasing order of frequency. These strategies are employed in connection with the ratings of: food, service, general experience, interpersonal judgments, price and environment. This study contributes to the impoliteness research by investigating the aggravated impoliteness in Chinese online data, and also enriches and provides insights into research on the genre of online consumer reviews.

Investigating Linguistic Taboos: A Case Study of PewDiePie's Use of Forbidden Words in the "Why I Deleted the Subreddit" YouTube Video

The primary objective of this research is to uncover the utilization of taboo language in Pewdiepie's YouTube video titled "Why I deleted the subreddit." Employing a descriptive qualitative approach, a total of nine instances of taboo words were identified and categorized according to Wardhaugh's (1986) proposed typology. The most prevalent type of taboo word observed in the video was "fuck," which pertains to explicit references to sexual intercourse, accounting for 45% of the total occurrences. Following this dominant category, sexual references constituted the second most prominent type, while instances of blasphemous language, ethnic-racial insults, ancestral allusions, and vulgar terms accounted for 11% each. By analyzing the motives behind the usage of these taboo words, he was found to serve the purpose of expressing various emotions, achieving specific outcomes, and conveying the speaker's anger and frustration. 
 Keywords: Taboo Word, PewDiePie, YouTube

Book Review: The Challenge of Subtitling Offensive and Taboo Language into Spanish. A Theoretical and Practical Guide

Book Review: The Challenge of Subtitling Offensive and Taboo Language into Spanish. A Theoretical and Practical Guide

How do the ethnicity minangkabau male express their masculinity in language: A identity point of view

Modernization significantly alters the structure of human existence, including the relationship between men and women. This change creates a new dimension of masculinity, including in literary works, specifically Novels. Clear language inequality between men and women gives rise to differences in language characteristics or word choice when men and women communicate. The novel 'Tamu’ by Weiran Hadi, set in Minangkabau Socio-Cultural Background, served as the data source for this qualitative descriptive study based on Coates' concept of masculinity. This analysis reveals that the characters in Weiran Hadi’s novel “Tamu” exhibit three linguistic traits indicative of masculinity as formulating new conceptualizations of Minangkabau culture in psychology: the use of profanity and taboo words, the use of commands and directives, and the use of rhetorical questions. Inversely proportional to the use of language by women, they are more on intuition when talking with others than their male counterparts, whereas male users approach language more directly and with less emotional investment.

A Study of Gender Difference of Using Taboo Words in The Euphoria Series

Taboo word is a forbidden word to use in any situation because it can cause discomfort to others, however taboo word can easily be spotted in everyday conversation. With that phenomenon, the analysis is conducted to investigate the use of taboo words and identify the difference between women and men character with the theory from Jay to categorize type of taboo words and a theory from Coates and Lakoff to examine how men and women speak differently. This study used the Euphoria series as a main source of the study due to the popularity of this series among young generation. The findings reveal that out of 229 collected data, ten different categories of taboo words exist in this series which are cursing (17,03%), followed by profanity (8,73%), blasphemy (0,44%), taboo (3,95%), obscenity (8,73%), slang (10,48%), epithet (21,40%), insult and slur (17,47%), and finally scatology (0,87%) and also the difference between women and men in using taboo words. .

A Study on the Translation Strategies of Taboo Language used in the English Subtitle of the Korean Film “Drug King”

A Study on the Translation Strategies of Taboo Language used in the English Subtitle of the Korean Film “Drug King”

A corpus-based study of euphemising body parts in Arabic subtitles

Drawing on prior taboo classifications and euphemism strategies, this study investigates the euphemisms that result from subtitling private body part-related taboo words (PBPRTW). The study utilised quantitative (frequencies and percentages) and qualitative approaches based on subtitler’s linguistic choices and the reasons behind their selection. The sample comprises 75 Hollywood feature films and their Arabic correspondences based on six criteria. The study adopts Pinker’s (2007) and McEnery’s (2006) for taboo language classifications and Al-Adwan’s typology for euphemism strategies, which draws upon Williams (1975), Warren (1992), and Davies (2003). The PBPRTW were selected on the basis of their frequent occurrence in the corpus, appearing more than 150 times. They serve various functions, including descriptive, abusive, referential, and idiomatic. The findings indicated that only approximately 5% of obscene words are retained in Arabic subtitles, while 95% of the English subtitles in the corpus are toned down, euphemised, or omitted. The study identified seven euphemistic strategies employed in dealing with PBPRTW in Arabic subtitles: metaphorical transfer, preservation, implication, metonymy, semantic misrepresentation, and widening. These findings have some implications for subtitlers when translating PBPRTW.

Insults, offensive language, and taboo words in court interpreting in Spain: A corpus study of interpreted renditions by higher education students

The court interpreter’s performance is integral to ensuring a fair trial. When dealing with insults, offensive language, and taboo words it is especially important to interpret renditions accurately and completely, as uttered insults or other expressions of verbal violence may be considered an aggravating factorof an offence, or they may in themselvesconstitute the offence of defamation [injuria] or defamatory allegation of a criminal offence [calumnia] under the Spanish Criminal Code. An experimental study was carried out in order to test the hypothesis that students with a good language and interpreting skills are unable to interpret this type of rendition in a court setting. A corpus was created compiling the renditions of 46 higher education students while they did the interpreting exercises from a collection of specific teaching materials based on the use of audiovisual recordings of real criminal trials (Hunt-Gómez, 2013). There were 123 renditions per student, with a total number of 5,658 renditions, of which only those containing insults, offensive language, or taboo words were analysed, transcribed, and categorised according to the student’s ability to convey meaning and to express the intensity of the original message. Results showed that dealing with impolite or taboo language was an added difficulty for students, despite their command of both their working languages and interpreting techniques. Consequently, interpreting training should include specific exercises in order to trigger students to produce a pragmatic equivalent when dealing with these types of renditions so that future interpreters are equipped with the appropriate strategies when faced with real-life situations.

Taboo Language in Bahraini Arabic

This paper explores the use of taboo language in Bahraini Arabic, drawing on two frameworks put forth by Qanbar (2011) and Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) regarding categorizing taboo language in the case of the former and the politeness theory in the case of the latter. This paper aims to investigate the use of taboo language/expressions in Bahraini Arab society. As well as the social, cultural, and religious factors for labeling certain expressions taboo in Arab societies. This was investigated by looking into previous research, listening to Bahraini Arab university students’ everyday conversations, and administering a self-assessed close-ended questionnaire. As a result of scanning previous research & listening to Bahraini Arab university students’ everyday conversations, a corpus of Bahraini taboo expressions, including but not limited to terms referring to origins, animals, entities, objects, sex and sexuality, and religions was collected, and the principal reason for labeling certain expressions in Arab societies, especially in Bahraini Arab society was found to be primarily religious as well as social. Furthermore, the conducted self-assessed close-ended questionnaire taken by 88 Bahraini Arab university students resulted in finding that both males and females are heard using taboo language equally, receiving 58.6%, young adults aged 17-30 are the age group frequently heard using taboo language, receiving 81.8%, taboo language is mostly used in a private setting, precisely among friends only, receiving 48.9%, and the frequently used category of taboo expressions is animal terms receiving 81.4%.

THE TYPES AND THE FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES OF TABOO WORDS IN EUPHORIA SEASON 2 TV SERIES SCRIPTS

The objectives of this research are to identify the different types of taboo words and to describe the functions of taboo words as they are used by characters in the Euphoria Season 2 TV show. The descriptive qualitative method was used in this research because the data is in words rather than numbers. This study's primary theory is that of Michael Swan (2005) and Timothy Jay (1992). The researcher discovered four types of taboo words after classifying 50 data of taboo words in Euphoria Season 2 TV Series, namely lavatory 4 data (8%), private parts of body 17 data (34%), religion 12 data (24%), and sexual activity 17 data (34%). Meanwhile, from those 85 data of taboo words, the researcher found some functions of taboo words anger and/or frustration 14 data (16%), descriptive-evaluative 40 data (47%), joking 9 out data (11%), surprise 6 data (7%), and sarcastic irony or insult 16 data (19%).

Taboo Words Analysis in Fast and Furious 8 Movie by F. Gary Gray

This study analyzes the taboo words in Fast and Furious 8 movie by F. Gary Gray. Taboo words occur not only in everyday life but also in the movie. This study aims to investigate the types of taboo words using the theory of Jay (1992) and the functions of taboo words using Wardhaugh's theory (2006). This study employed a descriptive qualitative as a research method. The result of this study shows there are seven types of taboo words, namely cursing 17 data, profanity 9 data, obscenity 1 data, epithet 15 data, vulgarity 14 data, insult and slur 7 data, and scatology 6 data. Then, there are four functions of taboo words, namely to draw attention 42 data, to show contempt 16 data, to be provocative 10 data, and to mock authority 1 data. Based on the analysis results, the word hell appears to be the second most taboo word used in this movie and has become the most dominant type of taboo word, namely cursing. This is because they use cursing to express their feelings, such as anger, annoyance, or shock, and to emphasize something in an utterance. Furthermore, all the words hell in this movie have the function as to draw attention. To draw attention appears as the most dominant function in Fast and Furious 8 movie because it can represent the character's intention of using taboo words.

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.

The Analysis of Impoliteness Strategies on Ice Cube's Songs

This study analyzes impoliteness strategies, specifically identifying the types and functions of impoliteness strategies contained in the lyrics of rap songs from Ice Cube. The total rap songs used in this study amounted to 10 rap songs. This research uses descriptive qualitative as a research method. There are 53 lines of stanza in lyrics taken and after being identified the data related to the type and function of Jonathan Culpeper's impolite strategy theory. The results of the analysis indicate that most used impoliteness strategy appears in the lyrics of rap songs from Ice Cube is Positive Impoliteness with 24 data. In the lyrics of the song, Ice Cube uses a lot of taboo words, unfamiliar words, and improper identity changes. In addition, the function Affective Impoliteness is the most used in the lyrics with 20 data. In addition, this study also describes the representation of the African-American race described by Ice Cube through the lyrics of the rap song. What can be found is the use of terms that refer to the African-American race, the way that the police treat the African-American race, and also the representation of the injustices that the African-American race gets.