TABOO

Linguistics Study

Group member: 1. Hunh L Quang 2. Trn Nguyn Minh Hun 3. Nguyn Hng Kim Huyn 4. Nguyn Th Trc Giang 5. Nguyn Th Hoi Duyn 6. Hunh Th M K 7. Nguyn Th Lam Giang 7116557 7116565 7116566 7116559 7116555 7116569 6095695

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Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 2 1.1. 1.2. Taboo words in social life ............................................................................................................................ 2 Definition...................................................................................................................................................... 2

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Classification ....................................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1. 2.2. Review .......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Classification ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Religious ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Sex ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 Natural bodily functions ....................................................................................................................... 3

2.2.1. 2.2.2. 2.2.3. 3.

Taboo usefulness ................................................................................................................................................. 3 3.1. 4.1. Reasons why the taboo exists. ...................................................................................................................... 3 Motivation for people to use taboo words .................................................................................................... 4

4.

Taboo popularity ................................................................................................................................................ 6 5.1. 5.2. Frequency (How often do people say taboo words and who says them?) .................................................... 6 What are the most frequently used taboo words? ......................................................................................... 7

5.

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................................... 8 6.1. 6.2. Euphemism ................................................................................................................................................... 8 The relationship between euphemism and taboo words ............................................................................... 8

Reference ..................................................................................................................................................................... 9

1.

Introduction

1.1. Taboo words in social life Taboo refers to forbidden phenomena in our custom in general, as well as language. For example, in English-speaking countries, it is profane and tabooed to use words connected with sex, and Christian religion; and in some African tribes, women are forbidden to mention their husbands, fathers or father-in-laws directly by their name. Taboo has existed for a long time in our world and it continues developing in a dynamic way all the time. In terms of language, taboo relates to both taboo words (e.g. fuck and cunt) and taboo topics (e.g. abortion and death). However, in our study, we have focused on the former. 1.2. Definition Taboos have always existed in language and culture even though the term taboo was not defined until the year 1777 by Captain James Cook. He reports the word taboo (from Tongan tapu) as signifying something forbidden (Cook 1812:676). Even though the definition of taboo has remained more or less the same over the years, in todays Western world taboos are nevertheless not such strong social prohibitions as they once were. The concept of taboos is indeed difficult to define, for it is a vast and constantly changing area (Hughes 2006:462). According to Trudgill, taboo refers to something prohibited, and he described taboo as following: [b]ehavior which is believed to be supernaturally forbidden, or regarded as immoral or improper; it deals with behavior which is prohibited or inhibited in an apparently irrational manner (Trudgill 2000:18). And in terms of language, taboo is associated with things which are not said (Trudgill 2000: 18). There are many definitions of taboos but for purposes of the present study we chose the definition by Farberow (1963:2), who defines the term taboo as follows: Taboos are primarily backward-oriented, for, by being essentially forbidding and prohibiting, they tend to preserve the past and to control the impingement of the future on the present. Of course, not all taboos are old. New ones constantly appear, taking various shapes and forms as the substance of the culture evolves, but they all serve the same goal preservation of the status quo. This definition is the most appropriate for the present study as excluding taboos from learning materials preserves the past instead of reflecting the modern, diverse culture in which the learners currently live in. Moreover, even though the definition by Farberow is over fifty years old, in our opinion it is still applicable today.

2. 2.1.

Classification Review

Widely speaking, taboo is a broaden conception which could be divided into Cursing, Profanity, Blasphemy, Obscenity, insults, Sexual Harassment, Vulgar Language (Categories of Taboo Words). Jay Timothy used the term cursing to define taboo language, and divided it into: swearing, obscenity, profanity, blasphemy, name calling, insulting, verbal aggression, taboo speech, ethnic-racial slurs, vulgarity, slang, and scatology (Timothy 1999: 25). Edwin Battistella defined taboo words as offensive language which falls into several categories: epithets, profanity, vulgarity, and obscenity (Battistella 2005: 38). 2.2. Classification In our study, taboos words were divided into 3 categories: Religious, Sex (sex organ), Natural bodily function. 2.2.1. Religious Many people consider these words to represent holy or sacred subjects and so they are offended when the words are used out of context or in a disrespectful way 2.2.2. Sex The second category of swear words tend to contain the strongest words in the language. These words are all related to sexual acts and the sex organs. Most of them are punchy in style and are intended to shock or offend in the most emphatic way. These words are generally avoided in polite conversation as well as on TV and radio and in the newspapers, although as time goes by and society changes more and more swearing can be heard and read in the media. For example breasts, screwing, tits, cunt, shit 2.2.3. Natural bodily functions The third category of taboo (or swear) words concerns the functions of the body, specifically lavatories words connected with things produced by the body. People generally do not like to speak openly about toilet functions. 3. Taboo usefulness

3.1. Reasons why the taboo exists. As long as taboo language is forbidden and inappropriate, why do people use them? People use taboo language for reasons such as hurting others, expressing themselves. And the most crucial reason is power.

Timothy (1999) emphasizes that taboo language, first of all, is emotionally powerful. As emotional, sexual and aggressive animals, human beings have the needs to express and relieve themselves of depression, as well as establish an identity through his/her speech at the same time, and using taboo language is definitely an effective way to accomplish this aim, since language is a major vehicle everyone can approach most frequently and conveniently. Furthermore, breaking the rules (may) have connotations of strength or freedom which (people) find desirable (Trudgill 2000: 18). Besides it could be also largely because taboo words are frequently used as swear-words, which is in turn because they are powerful (Trudgill 2000: 19).Timothy calls this factor as psychosocial factor underlying cursing. However, psychological factors are necessary, but not sufficient (Timothy 1999: 95). Psychological factors are influenced by other factors such as linguistic and sociocultural constraints because human is social animal anyway. The other two major influential factors are pragmatic factor and cultural/social factor. The former is more than a linguistic term, focusing more on things like pragmatics contains terms like identity of speaker, conversational strategy, social network, and the like which involves the context in which the conversation occurs. Speakers will use curse words based on their social utility (Timothy 1999: 164), which means that the usage of taboo language depends on the consequences following the speech act if the employment of taboo language will lead to a costly end (e.g. embarrassment, punishment, banishment), it will be eliminated. While if it will lead to a beneficial consequences (e.g. relaxation, solidarity, humor), it could be quite a sensible option. In this sense, the usage of taboo language could be positive when it occurs in circumstances like joking and sexual enticement, but it could also be negative when used to harm someone, like name calling and sexual insults (e.g., kiss my ass, piss off) (Timothy 1999: 164). The latter one cultural/social factor is the underlying norm defining what taboo language is. Different culture has different ways to define taboo language. For instance, the British English takes words like bloody, wog as tabooed (OED), but it does not apply to the American English (Webster). The culture/social factor could vary from place to place and at the same time the type of word that is tabooed in a particular language will be a good reflection of at least part of the system of values and beliefs of the society (Trudgill 2000:18). 4.1. Motivation for people to use taboo words Because of their special features which speakers cant convey ideas when using non- taboo words , taboo words can be frequently seen in utterances , especially in casual talk .Using taboo words has a lot of reasons which depends on conversational goals-relating to venting expression, emphasis, creating the topics with impression on others and understanding in conservation - and natural development.

The first reason to motivate for using taboo lexicons is that taboo words can be used to express a wide range of emotional expression. First, forms of epithets or insults directly to others are responsible for using taboo lexicons. When people who have a little or lose control dont know what they have to talk at the moment , the common way for them in order to express their feelings a fit of anger, or a little annoyance is using the taboo words. Swearing is often cathartic- it often frees us of the feelings of anger or frustration they hold and allow expression for them. They can call the name and put down someone to diminish their bad feelings at the point of time. Two thirds of their swearing data which are involved to personal and interpersonal expressions of anger or frustration are venting expression. It is considered to be the main reasons for using swearing words From point of view of most of people, it is a deteriorate phenomenon of manner to use taboo words because of negative outcomes. However, positive social outcomes can be found in using them. In jokes, humour, social commentary, sex talk, story telling, in group slang , they are used to promote social harmony or cohesion. The second one is to emphasize. When they want to emphasize how great they feel something is, a swear words emphasizes the positive feelings they have for that object, situation, person or event. Taboo words can emphasize the emotional reaction they have toward them and easily convey strong emotional reaction to others. Third, using taboo as the need for learners in some cases. Because of their importance in real talk which native speakers can apply them in their habit, it is essential for us to teach a language, rather than we must teach cultures in which exist. Taboos are key elements of every culture, so we must teach them too. Learners who need English to live and work in a country where it is the first language have to understand both taboo language and taboo topics, they will grasp both. It is very dangerous for them not to understand them. They learn so that they can communicate with others successfully. It is worth using them in appropriate circumstances. Fourth, taboos are a rich area of language which teachers can benefit from so that their students can take a fancy to them and feel excited about topics of lesson . Therefore, using taboo topics can be highly productive. When teachers teach about the taboo language and topics of our culture we share something special and unique .Something they dont see in coursebook. They generate high levels of interest and involvement in learners Finally, one of reasons to motivate people to use taboo lexicons is their existence naturally. Some of todays most swear words have been around more than a thousand year .They are a natural part of human speech development. They dont seem to of fensive when appearing in casual talk. In fact, many of us are conventional habits but some bystanders may think they are impolite .Swearing is almost a universal constant in most peoples lives. We learn which words are taboos

and which are not through our normal children. Kids often learn the first four letter word before they learn the alphabet. Taboo words persist because they can intensify emotional communication to a degree - the way to convey the level of contempt unparalleled which non-taboo words cant do 4. Taboo popularity

5.1. Frequency (How often do people say taboo words and who says them?) Taboo words are used persistently over a persons lifetime and are frequently uttered in public. The term persistence here refers to the fact that we say taboo words as soon as we speak and we continue to swear into old age even through dementia and senile decline (Jay, 1992, 1996a, 2000). Taboo speech persists through brain dysfunction for aphasics and Alzheimers patients who forget the names of their family members but still remember how to swear, or they mysteriously begin swearing in cognitive decline when before they did not. Paul Brocas famous aphasic patient, Leborgne, lost his facility for fluent speech but his swearing did persist. Neuro-scientists over the years have gone to great lengths to explain the language functions Leborgne lost but not why his swearing persisted through brain damage (Jay, 2000, 2003). Field studies of swearing have provided consistent estimates for frequency of using taboo words. Jay (1980a) found 70 swear words in an 11,609-word tape-recorded sample of conversation or a rate of 0.7% of the corpus. More recently, a British spoken word corpus showed that swear words occurred at a 0.3% to 0.5% rate (McEnery, 2006). Similarly, using an electronically activated recorder, Mehl and Pennebaker (2003) found a 0.5% taboo word rate over a 2-day period. The rate of swearing was consistent over the recording sessions for individual speakers (r = .86). Substantial individual differences were also found: taboo word rates varied from a minimum of 0% per day to a maximum of 3.4% per day. In regard to swearing on the Internet, Thelwall (2008) reported a .2% swearword rate in MySpace, and Subrahmanyam, Smahel, and Greenfield (2006) reported that 3% of chat room utterances contained obscene words (1 obscenity every 2 min). Recent work by Mehl and colleagues (Mehl, Vazire, Ramirez-Esparza, Statcher, & Pennebaker, 2007) determined that the average speaker uses 15,000 - 16,000 words per day. Estimating spoken word rates using the figures mentioned above (0.5% to 0.7%) suggests that speakers utter 8090 taboo words per day. As for who swears, that depends on ones group identity and personality factors. Swearing has been documented in the lexica of many social groups: soldiers, police, high school and college students, drug users, athletes, laborers, juvenile delinquents, psychiatric patients, and prisoners; although production rates are unknown (see Jay, 1992, 2000). Ones social rank plays a role in
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swearing; McEnery (2006) found socially low-ranking speakers produced higher rates of swearing than did high-ranking speakers. An individuals personality also plays a significant role in frequency of taboo word use; hostility, sexual anxiety and religiosity loom preeminent. Hostile swearing is a defining feature of the Type A personality. In contrast, swearing is not prevalent in populations characterized by high religiosity, sexual anxiety, or sexual repressiveness (Janschewitz, 2008; Jay, 1992, 2000). Mormons and other religious affiliates opt out of swearing altogether and turn to euphemisms instead (see Jay, 2005). According to Mehl, Gosling, and Pennebaker (2006) swearing is negatively correlated with high scores on the Big Five personality factors of agreeableness and conscientiousness. Recently, Fast and Funder (2008) found that people who swore most frequently in life-history interviews were generally described as more extraverted, dominant, and socially negative. Their research complements Mehl et al. (2006) in that people who swear more are clearly lower in agreeableness and higher in extraversion. In contrast to Mehl et al. (2006), Fast and Funder found no strong negative correlation with conscientiousness: females swearing was only slightly negatively correlated with it (r = -.12), and males swearing was correlated with neuroticism (r = .20). 5.2. What are the most frequently used taboo words? A summary of our studies conducted in 1986, 1997, and 2006 indicates that public taboo word episodes rely on a small set of words that are repeated often (see Jay, 1992, 2000; Jay & Janschewitz, 2008, for details). This conclusion extends beyond previous reports that were based on a single count from one specific time and place (e.g., Cameron, 1969, 1970). By looking at 20 years of taboo word data we can see what has changed and what has remained stable. Though over 70 different taboo words types were publicly recorded, most taboo word use involves 10 frequently used terms (fuck, shit, hell, damn, goddamn, Jesus Christ, ass, oh my god, bitch, and sucks), which account for roughly 80% of the data. In fact fuck and shit alone amount to one third to one half of all the episodes in counts between 1986 and 2006. The top 10 words are essentially the same set found in 1986, 1997, and 2006, Further, highly offensive words (cunt, cocksucker, nigger) occur relatively infrequently in public over the time period. The report of a stable lexicon over the years contrasts with a misperception that the most frequent swear words are in constant flux. Both speaker gender and age affect word choice and frequency; men swear more frequently in public than women (also see Jay, 1980b, 1996a; McEnery, 2006; Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003; Thelwall, 2008). Men accounted for 67% of public swearing episodes in 1986, but the gap narrowed to 55% by 2006. Men say more offensive words (e.g., fuck, shit, motherfucker) more frequently than women do. Women say oh my god, bitch, piss, and retard(ed) more frequently than men do.
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In fact the mild expletive oh my god accounted for 24% of the womens 2006 data and women were five times more likely than men to say it. Men and women swear more frequently in the presence of their own gender than in mixed-gender contexts. As for age, swearing occurs across all age ranges, but swearing rates peak in the teenage years and decline thereafter (Jay, 1992; Thelwall, 2008). 5. Conclusion

6.1. Euphemism Beside taboo words, there has been little EFL (English as a Foreign Language) research on euphemisms, despite two facts: fluency in English cannot be achieved without a reasonable command of them, and a great number are semantically opaque. For learners, euphemisms represent a part of English largely untaught. Euphemisms are words we use to soften the reality of what we are communicating to a given listener or reader. They are a universal feature of language usage; all cultures typically use them to talk about things they find terrifying (e.g., war, sickness, death) because, anthropologically, "to speak a name was to evoke the divinity whose power then had to be confronted" (Neaman & Silver, 1983, pp. 1-2). Similarly, we use euphemisms to express taboos, as we feel, on some instinctual level, that the euphemism keeps us at safe distance from the taboo itself. Another use of euphemisms is to elevate the status of something (e.g., using educator for teacher, attorney for lawyer); but in general, we use euphemisms to express what is socially difficult to express in direct terms. 6.2. The relationship between euphemism and taboo words There is a strong relationship between euphemism and taboo. Taboo refers to a proscription of behaviour for a specifiable community of one or more persons, at a specifiable time, in specifiable contexts (Allan and Burridge 2006: 11). Taboo mainly depends on the people, place and time involved, i.e. what someone may find offensive or impolite at a certain time and place may not be considered such by others. Language transformation resulting from euphemism has been termed the the euphemism treadmill by Stephen Pinker (1994). Euphemisms often evolve over time into taboo words themselves, or dysphemism, through a process of pejoration or association with the taboo topic. Euphemism, in the sense of sweet taking substituting for taboo, impoliteness, profanity or maintaining ones face, goes back to primitive people and their interpretation of tabooed objects as having demonic power that shouldnt be mentioned or touched (Allan and Burridge 2006: 11). However, a large number of euphemisms are not responding to taboos, rather they have more positive connotations and seem to be more appropriate in a particular context. So, euphemism
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interacts with style and each certain style defines the set of euphemisms which are conventional within that style (Allan &Burridge, 2007). In certain cultures, taboo are believed to have demonic power on people who touch or mention them. In certain case, euphemism has a damaging impact on language.; for example, in all native Australian languages, when a member of a community dies, the members of his community are forced not to mention his/her name or, even, any word that is similar in pronunciation to his/her name since these words are taboos and must be replaced. Consequently, they, the members of the community, are forced to search for sweet words (loanwords from other languages) to replace the lost words caused by the death of a community member. In Arabic culture, some people usually fear mentioning genies since they believe that genies have demonic effects on the people who mention their names. It is rare, especially for old people, to talk about genies in a funny way. Most old people believe that genies can avenge themselves on the people who make fun of them. It is because of the myth that speaking taboo words invites them and people do not want to invite these malevolent forces. They think that these taboos should not be invited by speaking their names and they should be kept away from them. As we have noticed that most of the background is dedicated to taboos and euphemism in the sense of sweet taking because we use euphemism to avoid taboos. In conclusion, taboo is not always impolite while conducting this study. Value of taboo is constructed by society. However when it comes to politeness, the value of politeness of taboo words is different depending on the person, place and time. Reference Cook, J. 1812. An abstract of Captain Cooks Last Voyage. In J. Pinkerton (ed.), A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in all Parts of the World: Many of Which Are Now First Translated into English. Digested on a New Plan. Illustrated with Plates. Volume the Eleventh. London: Longman. Hughes, G. 2006. An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English-speaking World. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Trudgill, Peter. 2000. Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society. Fourth edition. London: Penguin. Categories of Taboo Words. [Online]. Available from World Wide Web: https://e-folio.web.virginia.edu/E-folio-Archive2/1/EDIS542/2003Fall1/cs/UserItems/Pages/sc6bj_873.html [Accessed 22nd Nov 2008] Timothy, Jay. 1999. Why We Curse.
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http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.bibl.hkr.se/lib/kristianstad/Top?layout=document&id=50001 52&?nosr=1 Philadelphia, PA, USA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. [Accessed 31st November 2008] Battistella, Edwin .L. Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? Cary, NC, USA: Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2005. Farberow, N. L. 1963. Taboo topics. New York: Atherton Press. http://www.icaltefl.com/index.php/resources/vocabulary/90-taboo-words http://ezinearticles.com/?Religious-Tattoos---Taboo-Or-Not-Taboo?&id=639156 http://www.englishclub.com/esl-forums/viewtopic.php?t=38114 http://www15.uta.fi/FAST/US1/LP/lf-taboo.html Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. New York: William Morrow. Euphemism Dictionaries Allan, K & Burridge, K 2006. Forbidden words. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Allan &Burridge (2007) .The Pragmatics of Connotations. Journal of Pragmatics.Vol 39, 1047-1057. Neaman, J. S., & Silver, C. G. (1983). Kind words: A thesaurus of euphemisms. New York: Facts on File, Inc. Jay, T. (2009). Do offensive words harm people?. Psychology, public policy, and law, 15(2), 81. Jay, T. (2009). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 153-161.

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