An Analysis of Swear Words in “Once Upon a Time
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AN ANALYSIS OF SWEAR WORDS IN “ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD” FILM Peggy Andriani Kakisina1,*, Isti Purwaningtyas2 1Department of Languages and Literature, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang 65145, Indonesia 2Department of Languages and Literature, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang 65145, Indonesia ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Swear words are one of the linguistic choices which show cultural aspects. Once Upon a Time… in Found in both oral and written forms. Swear words represent emotions and Hollywood convey powerful messages. Some people utter swear words because of specific Swear Word reasons, and they occasionally ignore their literal meaning. The phenomenon Semantic referent of swearing also happens in films. Based on the film Once Upon a Time... Swearing motive in Hollywood, this qualitative research addressed the semantic referents of swear words and the motives of swearing. By employing content analysis, the results show that (a) 59 swear words are classified into nine semantic referents, consisting of offensive slang (17%) as the main referent, followed Article History: by profane or blasphemous (15%), psychological-physical-social deviations Received: 30/05/2020 (15%), scatological and disgusting objects (15%), sexual references (12%), Accepted: 16/11/2020 substandard vulgar terms (10%), ethnic-racial-gender slurs (7%), animal Available Online: names (5%), and ancestral allusions (4%) and (b) swearing are caused by 30/11/2020 three motives, namely psychological, social, and linguistic. The study concludes that the film contains severe and various swear words, and particular situations can lead the characters to swear. General readers are hoped to be more considerate in expressing themselves and be wiser in determining their word choices. 2442-305X / © 2020 The Authors, this is open access article under the (CC-BY-NC) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), DOI: 10.19105/ojbs.v14i2.3394 * Corresponding Author: Email address: [email protected] (P. A. Kakisina) A. Introduction hearer. This kind of influence can be As the initial communicative device, delivered in the form of swear words. language holds an essential role in Swearing has always been connecting people. English as the global considered as an inappropriate act. language serves as the lingua franca that Regardless of the offensiveness, swear unites people across the world. Like any words are used in everyday lives, merely other language, English contains a power as a means of expressing people‟s that can impact the speaker and the emotions. However, the meaning of swear OKARA: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, Vol. 14, No. 2, November 2020 224 words and the reasons for swearing are communicating. Informal situations also barely acknowledged by the speakers tend to be the most appropriate occasion themselves. Andersson and Trudgill whereby people may express themselves define swear word as a type of language through swear words.5 Because of that, which refers to taboo things, illustrates the status of swearing as a rude and powerful feelings, and should be offensive act decreases. It also gradually interpreted imprecisely.1 However, loses the ability to create shock value for Karjalainen argues that not all taboo becoming more accustomed around words are classified into swear words.2 societies.6 Thereby, swearing turns into a As one of the activities that some culture, a part of a social life now. people might find taboo and offensive, The use of swear words in social life swearing is marked by the connection of continues to evolve and eventually shift powerful attitudes and emotions, the through generations. The persistence and social context between the addressers the offensiveness are the outcomes of the and the addressees, as well as the addressees‟ viewpoint regarding the formality and the nature of the topics instead of the words alone. The circumstances.3 Jay suggests that a government also tolerates the use of swearing style depends on the personal vulgar language by allowing ideas, such knowledge formed by individual as verbal art, containing words that may experiences, psychological construction, be considered offensive by some people.7 and the culture whereby the person is Kristiano and Ardi describe that the raised.4 This implies that swearing literal meaning of swear words is behavior is a product of social and cultural generally neglected since they do not contexts during the process of represent what is intended to be referred psychological development. to as swearing.8 This prompts the use of Some people may avoid uttering swear words connotatively. The swear words, yet others tend to insert connotative meaning of swear words is them due to various reasons while 5 Yehuda Baruch et al., “Swearing at Work: The Mixed Outcomes of Profanity,” Journal of 1 L. Andersson and P. Trudgill, Bad Language Managerial Psychology 32, no. 2 (2017): 149–62, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990), 53. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-04-2016-0102. 2 Markus Karjalainen, “Where Have All the 6 Karyn Stapleton, “Swearing,” in Interpersonal Swearwords Gone? An Analysis of the Loss of Pragmatics (New York: De Gruyter Mouton, 2010), Swearwords in Two Swedish Translations of J. D. 289–305. Salinger‟s Catcher in the Rye,” Pro Gradu Thesis 7 Edwin L. Battistella, Bad Language: Are Some Faculty of Arts Department of English University of Words Better than Others? (New York: Oxford Helsinki (University of Helsinki, 2002), 18. University Press, 2007), 76. 3 Ad J. J. M. Vingerhoets, Lauren M. Bylsma, and https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172485. Cornelis de Vlam, “Swearing: A Biopsychosocial 001.0001. Perspective,” Psychological Topics 22, no. 2 8 Johan Tobias Kristiano and Priyatno Ardi, “Swear (2013): 287–304. Words in Bad Boys II: A Semantic Analysis,” 4 Timothy Jay, Why We Curse: A Neuro-Psycho- Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Social Theory of Speech (Amsterdam: John Teaching 21, no. 2 (2018): 191–98, Benjamins, 1999), 20. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2018.210208. OKARA: Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra, Vol. 14, No. 2, November 2020 225 related to the personal association that the satisfactory standard of language), shows a specific attitude to a particular and; offensive slang (expressed through entity or circumstance. slang which contains insult).10 Horan also The literal meaning, usually coded argues that swear words are usually as the denotative meaning, is carried in a structured out of animals, sex, bodily referent. Kreidler states that referent is the excretions, and disease.11 In agreement extralinguistic object referred by a word.9 with Jay, Trudgill asserts that taboo words Referent is not the same as reference. He involve terms linked to sex, excretion, defines reference as the relational religion, animals, and female relation.12 concept between a language form and Despite their inappropriateness, some physical entity, which is the referent swear words offer various functions to the of that sign. In other words, reference and addressers. They imply verbal aggression, referent illustrate the successful way of represent group identity, reflect the the speakers and the hearers in using emotions, emphasize, and serve as language expressions since they both grammatical categories.13 Swearing does have the same common knowledge about not merely celebrate the verbal a certain situation of language use. aggression but also a means to cope with Jay identifies types of semantic anger which will escalate into positive referents of swear words as sexual affective valence and lower physical references (expressed through sexual activation.14 terms related to sexual acts, sexual anatomies, and sexual deviations); 10 Timothy Jay, “The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo profane or blasphemous (expressed Words,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 4, through religious denotations); no. 2 (2009): 153–61, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01115.x. scatological and disgusting objects 11 Geraldine Horan, “„You Taught Me Language; (expressed through excretion organs and and My Profit on‟t/Is, I Know How to Curse‟: processes as well as body products); Cursing and Swearing in Foreign Language Learning,” Language and Intercultural animal names; ethnic-racial-gender slurs Communication 13, no. 3 (2013): 283–97, (expressed through hate speech, https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2013.804533. 12 Peter Trudgill, Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to discrimination, and pride of own culture); Language and Society, 4th ed. (London: Penguin psychological - physical - social deviations Books, 2000), 18. https://doi.org/10.2307/326846. 13 (expressed through psychological states, Eric Holgate et al., “Why Swear? Analyzing and Inferring the Intentions of Vulgar Expressions,” in physical appearances, and against-norm); Proceedings of the 2018 Conference on Empirical ancestral allusions (expressed through Methods in Natural Language Processing, EMNLP 2018 (Brussels, 2018), 4405–14, family members and ancestors); https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/d18-1471. substandard vulgar terms (expressed 14 Simona A. Popuşoi, Grigore M. Havârneanu, and through offensive phrases that are below Corneliu E. Havârneanu, “„Get the F#∗k out of My Way!‟ Exploring the Cathartic Effect of Swear Words in Coping with Driving Anger,” 9 Charles W Kreidler, Introducing English Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology Semantics (London: Routledge, 1998), 131. and Behaviour 56 (2018): 215–26, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203265574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2018.04.013.