Alle Publikationen
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2017
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(2017): The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Increases in the Use of Swear Words in American Books, 1950-2008. In: SAGE Open 7 (3). DOI: 10.1177/2158244017723689
Abstract: Evidence is accumulating that American culture has become more individualistic since the 1950s. In the present research, we focused on one plausible manifestation of individualism, the use of swear words in cultural products. We examined trends in the use of the seven words identified by George Carlin in 1972 as the seven words you can never say on television in the Google Books corpus of American English books from 1950 to 2008. We find a steady linear increase in the use of swear words, with books published in 2005-2008 twenty-eight times more likely to include swear words than books published in the early 1950s. Increases for individual swear words ranged from 4 to 678 times (ds = 6.58-45.42). These results suggest that American culture has become increasingly accepting of the expression of taboo words, consistent with higher cultural individualism.
2015
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(2015): The landscape of impoliteness research. In: Journal of Politeness Research 11 (2), S. 329-354. DOI: 10.1515/pr-2015-0013
Abstract: This article attempts to give a state-of-the-art picture of impoliteness studies and to indicate a few prospective research directions to enrich them. It critically surveys a number of theoretical and methodological problems (impoliteness vs. rudeness; intention; sanctioned face-threat; and impoliteness strategies), as well as the paramount topics of investigation (such as disagreement; arguments; insults, taboo words; or sarcasm), and discourse domains in which impoliteness can be found. Importantly, this paper brings to focus a selection of notions central to impoliteness, albeit not yet widely recognized in the scholarship on impoliteness. These include: slurs; pejoratives; and a number of phenomena promoted by computer mediated communication (e.g., flaming or trolling).
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(2015): “Swear words” and “curse words” in Australian (and American) English. At the crossroads of pragmatics, semantics and sociolinguistics. In: Intercultural Pragmatics 12 (2). DOI: 10.1515/ip-2015-0010
Abstract: This study seeks to show that Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) analytical techniques allow an integrated semantic-pragmatic approach to the use of "swear words" and "curse (cuss) words". The paper begins with a semantic exegesis of the lexical items swear word and curse word. This is helpful to delimit and conceptualize the phenomena being studied, and it also hints at some interesting differences between the speech cultures of Australian English and American English. Subsequent sections propose semantic explications for a string of swear/curse words and expressions as used in Australian English, including: exclamations (Shit! Fuck! Damn! Christ! Jesus!), abuse formulas (Fuck you!, Damn you!), interrogative and imperative formulas (e.g. Who the fuck do you think you are?; Get the hell out of here!), and the free use of expressive adjectives, such as fucking and goddamn, in angry swearing. A novel aspect, with interesting implications for the relationship between semantics and pragmatics, is that the explications incorporate a metalexical awareness section, modelling speaker awareness of the ethnometapragmatic status of the word in the community of discourse. The study goes on to address so-called "social/conversational" swearing. I propose cultural scripts to capture some Anglo ethnopragmatic assumptions about how the use of swear/curse words can be affected by perceptions of familiarity, solidarity, and mutuality. Differences between Australian English and American English are discussed at various points.
Keywords: Art der Beziehung zum Interaktionspartner, Bekanntheitsgrad, Beleidigungen/swearwords etc., Kultur, mutuality, Relevenz von persönlichem Bekanntheitsgrad beim Benutzen von Schimpfwörtern, social/conversational swearing, Solidarität, Soziale Distanz, Sprachgebrauch, time, Verwendung von grober Sprache/incivility 2008
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(2008): The pragmatics of swearing. In: Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 4 (2). DOI: 10.1515/JPLR.2008.013
Abstract: The main purpose of swearing is to express emotions, especially anger and frustration. Swear words are well suited to express emotion as their primary meanings are connotative. The emotional impact of swearing depends on ones experience with a culture and its language conventions. A cognitive psychological framework is used to account for swearing in a variety of contexts and provide a link to impoliteness research. In support of this framework, native and non-native English-speaking college students rated the offensiveness and likelihood of hypothetical scenarios involving taboo words. The ratings demonstrated that appropriateness of swearing is highly contextually variable, dependent on speaker-listener relationship, social-physical context, and particular word used. Additionally, offensiveness ratings were shown to depend on gender (for native speakers) and English experience (for non-native speakers). Collectively these data support the idea that it takes time for speakers to learn where, when, and with whom swearing is appropriate.
Keywords: Bekanntheitsgrad, Beleidigungen/swearwords etc., Contextual variability of swearing appropriateness, Favoriten, Genderabhängigkeit, (Individueller) Sprachstil, Konventionen, Kultur, Muttersprachler vs. Zweitsprachler, Relevenz von persönlichem Bekanntheitsgrad beim Benutzen von Schimpfwörtern, Situationsbedingter Kontext, Sprachgebrauch, time, Verwendung von grober Sprache/incivility
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