SWEAR WORDS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING-TEACHING

Kristina Andang(1*), Barli Bram(2),

(1) Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta
(2) Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This study attempts to explore the frequency of use of swear words and their implication for English language learning-teaching. Swear words or expletives are usually considered negative or rude to be used even in the United States or United Kingdom as English-speaking countries. In English language learning-teaching, swear words become part of linguistic studies and socio-cultural knowledge for teachers and students. This study aims to resolve two questions, namely first, what swear words have the highest frequency based on COCA and second, what implications of the frequency of swear words are for learners and teachers of English. Data were collected from a survey conducted using Facebook, which is a social medium used widely in both the United States and Indonesia for more than 13 years, and were retrieved from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), more precisely the frequency of swear words. The results of this study are expected to give knowledge on English language learning-teaching in a cultural context.


Keywords


expletive, swear word, profanity, English language learning-teaching

Full Text:

PDF

References


Bram, B. (2011). Major total conversion in English: The question of directionality. PhD thesis, Victoria University of Wellington. Google Scholar

Cechova, H. (2006). Usage and origins of expletives in British English. A Diploma Thesis. Brno: Masaryk University Press.

Chirico, R. (2014). Damn! A cultural history of swearing in modern America. Durham, NC: Pitchstone Publishing.

Dewaele, J.M. (2004). The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multi-linguals. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 25(2/3), pp. 204-222.

Dewaele, J. M. (2017). Self-reported frequency of swearing in English: do situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables have similar effects on first and foreign language users? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(4), 330-345.

Goddard, C. (2015). Swear words and curse words in Australian (and American) English. At the crossroads of pragmatics, semantics and sociolinguistics. Intercultural Pragmatics, 12(2), 189-218.

Gvendir, E. (2015). Why are males inclined to use strong swear words more than females? An evolutionary explanation based on male intergroup aggressiveness. Language Sciences, 50, 133-139.

Herring, S.C., & Kapidzic, S. (2015). Teens, gender, and self-presentation in social media. International encyclopedia of social and behavioral sciences, Oxford: Elsevier.

Jay, T. & Janschewitz, K. (2008). The Pragmatics of swearing. Journal of Politeness Research, 4, 267 288.

Lancker, D.V. & Cummings, J.L. (2016). Expletives: neuro-linguistic and neurobehavioral perspectives on swearing. Brains Research Review, 31, 83104.

Matthew, I.B. (2013). Cross cultural contexts in English language teaching. Lingua Didaktika, 7(1), 38-43.

Sood, S.O., Antin, J. & Churchill, E.F. (2011). Using crowdsourcing to improve profanity detection. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. (www.aaai.org)

Stone, T.E., McMillan, M. & Hazelton, M. (2015). Back to swear one: A review of English language literature on swearing and cursing in Western health settings. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 25, 6574.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v21iSuppl.1195

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Kristina Andang, Barli Bram



Indexed and abstracted in:

     

 

 

LLT Journal Sinta 1 Certificate (S1 = Level 1)

We would like to inform you that LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching has been nationally accredited Sinta 1 by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia based on the decree  No. Surat Keputusan 169/E/KPT/2024. Validity for 5 years: Vol ... No 1, 20... till Vol ... No 2, 20...


Sinta 1 certificate to post here asap. Thank you for your patience and understanding. 

 

  

 

This work is licensed under CC BY-SA.

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

 

Free counters!


 LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt, e-ISSN 2579-9533 and p-ISSN 1410-7201, is published twice a year, namely in April and October by the English Language Education Study Programme of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.