DOCSLIB.ORG

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature (Linguistics) Bc. Lucie Šindelářová When It’s Damn Good: A Morphosyntactic Analysis of DAMN and a Corpus-Based Study of Its Semantic Prosody Master’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Wei-lun Lu, PhD. 2016 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgment I would like to thank my supervisor Wei-lun Lu, PhD. for the guidance he kindly provided me with and also my family for their endless patience and support. Notification The following text consists of profane and obscene language. The thesis is of a strictly academic and professional character and the use of such language is solely due to the purpose of the thesis which is to analyse a profane phenomenon. I decided not to use asterisks for two reasons. First, the profane content is analysed from a strictly scientific point of view without any other intention than to portray it and second, because asterisks would be all over the place. Should it present too disturbing an experience, I suggest they not continue reading. I hope that the readers will bear this in mind and forgive me for the excessive amount of swearing. 4 Table of contents Notification ..................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 7 PART I .......................................................................................................................... 10 1. SWEARING ......................................................................................................... 10 1.1 What the **** is swearing? ............................................................................. 10 1.2 Typologies of swearing .................................................................................... 13 2 DAMN ................................................................................................................... 16 2.1 From damnation to dammit! ............................................................................. 17 2.2 Morphological aspects peculiarities of damn ................................................... 18 2.2.1 Adjectival damn ........................................................................................ 19 2.2.1.1 Subjectification .................................................................................. 24 2.2.2 Damn as a noun ......................................................................................... 26 2.2.2.1 Idiomatic damn .................................................................................. 28 2.2.3 Adverbial damn ......................................................................................... 30 2.2.4 Damn! Interjection .................................................................................... 31 2.2.5 Damn as a (quasi) verb? ............................................................................ 32 2.2.5.1 Cursing construction .......................................................................... 38 2.2.6 Expletive derivation .................................................................................. 40 PART II ......................................................................................................................... 42 3 METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................. 42 3.1 Swearing as the good guy ................................................................................ 42 3.2 Semantic prosody ............................................................................................. 44 3.3 Web-crawled corpora ....................................................................................... 46 3.4 Sketch Engine ................................................................................................... 47 3.5 Research Design ............................................................................................... 48 3.5.1 Sampling ................................................................................................... 50 4 HYPOTHESES .................................................................................................... 53 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .......................................................................... 54 5.1 Damn in ETT .................................................................................................... 55 5.2 Damn in the BNC ............................................................................................. 58 5.3 Multiple premodification ................................................................................. 61 5.4 Corpora combined ............................................................................................ 65 5 6 NOTES ON FURTHER RESEARCH AND SOME IMPROVEMENTS ...... 66 7 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 68 List of abbreviations used ........................................................................................... 71 List of figures and tables ............................................................................................. 72 References ..................................................................................................................... 73 Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 82 Resumé .......................................................................................................................... 83 6 Introduction If it were to be claimed that the kind of language from the title of this work neither belongs on academic shelfs nor does it need to or should be studied, such a claim would be wrong. Speaking of the first proposition, fuck is as much of a word as butterfly. Curiosity about language and a tiny bit of sense of humour are the only traits required. After all, it would be a shame not to study something so complex, so frequently used and surrounded by so many 'hows' and 'whys' just because of an unfavourable label. And speaking of the second? Foul language, swearing or vulgar tongue are not topics as avoided as it could seem. Linguists have devoted quite some time to study these phenomena from different perspectives. Majority of the material available is primarily concerned with mostly non- grammatical topics such as sociolinguistics, social variables and pragmatic aspects (Jay, 1992, 1999; Jay & Janschewitz, 2008; Stenström, 2006; Ljung, 2009; Fägersten, 2012; Wang, 2013), psycholinguistics (Jay, 1999), historical development (Hultin, 2008; Mohr, 2013; Hughes, 2015; McEnery, 2006) and classifications and typologies of 'bad language' (Montagu, 1967; Hirsch, 1985; Jay, 1992; McEnery, Baker & Hardie, 2000; Ljung, 2011). Concerning vulgar language and its members studied as grammatical elements, there are two main publications to mention. Studies Out in Left Field: Defamatory Essays Presented to James D. McCawley on the Occasion of His 33rd Or 34th Birthday (Zwicky, Salus, Binnick & Vanek, 1992) is a collection of essays on different morphosyntactic and semantic aspects of swear words and they are not limited to English. The essays review and comment on some of the idiosyncrasies of vulgar tongue which are a reoccurring trait of this part of language. Pinker in chapter The Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television (2007) from his book also shortly comments on some of the not so easily classifiable words and phrases. 7 Nevertheless, both works deal with specific constructions rather than taking one word in particular and studying it in all the constructions it can possibly appear in. I believe this approach to be just as helpful in determining some patterns of swear words in general as studying one construction with the application of different swear words (such as give a shit/damn/fuck, bloody/damn/fucking awesome, damn/fuck it!, etc.). Investigating one word in different linguistic contexts can uncover some general intrinsic features and characteristics which cause that word to appear in different swearing structures. There is so far only one publication focusing on a single swear word and that is The F-word by J. Sheidlower (2009). My thesis contributes with a thorough study of one of the most popular swear words, which can due to its similarities in morphosyntactic and semantic features also help discover patterns applicable to a larger group of words and not just to damn alone. Furthermore, empirical research on swear words is to a large extent limited to frequency of use among swear words or within various social context, frequency based on illocutionary act, or level of offensiveness. Considering that swear words and foul language in general are often referred to as 'bad language', looking into how bad it really is nowadays is a relevant issue to investigate and using semantic prosody seems a logical direction. While the study of intensifiers and their semantic prosody is not new to research, semantic prosody and swear words are. Let me now briefly present the content of this thesis. The theoretical part (Part I) introduces the notion of swearing, emphasises its place in everyday speech, and offers a classification of the functions
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Therapeutic Implications of Swearing and Its Impact on Nurses
    Swearing: Impact on Nurses and Implications for Therapeutic Practice Teresa Elizabeth Stone RN, RPN, BA, MHM A thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Newcastle January 2009 Teresa Elizabeth Stone 1 Declaration I hereby certify that the work embodied in this thesis is the result of original research and has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other University or Institution. Signed: ……………………………………………………. Date: ………………………………………………… Teresa Elizabeth Stone Teresa Elizabeth Stone 2 Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my Mother and Pa who have given me a lifetime of love and support. Teresa Elizabeth Stone 3 Acknowledgments My list of dramatis personae for this study is long. My principal supervisor, Mike Hazelton, remained unfailingly encouraging and optimistic and his wealth of experience in research was invaluable. He told me he had been caught laughing to himself while reading through the questionnaire, a cameo of him that I treasure. Ed Clayton and Kim Colyas worked wonders with my statistics, and I painfully and slowly learned much and forgot more. Margaret McMillan came in slightly later in the piece, was completely inspirational, and really got me over the line. Jill Valdar is the editor and friend every girl needs, despite language that made her hair curl. Associate Professor Brian Taylor was a wonderful resource for all things linguistic and he gave freely of his own time. Heartfelt thanks to my wonderful husband Scott, who is forever supportive, and to Claudia, my dog, who has patiently accompanied me, snoring, as I wrote. Thanks, too, to the many nurses who participated in the study.
    [Show full text]
  • No. 18-302 on Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals For
    No. 18-302 IN THE ___________ ANDREI IANCU, UNDER SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE, PETITIONER, V. ERIK BRUNETTI RESPONDENT. On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit __________ BRIEF FOR THE CATO INSTITUTE, DKT LIBERTY PROJECT, AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY, P.J. O’ROURKE, AND NADINE STROSSEN AS AMICI CURIAE SUPPORTING RESPONDENT __________ Thomas Berry Ilya Shapiro 768 N. Wakefield St. Counsel of Record Arlington, VA 22203 Trevor Burrus CATO INSTITUTE 1000 Mass. Ave. N.W. Washington, D.C. 20001 (202) 842-0200 [email protected] i QUESTION PRESENTED Does the government get to decide what language is “scandalous”? ii TABLE OF CONTENTS QUESTION PRESENTED ........................................... i TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ....................................... iii INTEREST OF AMICI CURIAE ................................. 1 INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ........................................................... 3 ARGUMENT ................................................................ 7 I. “VULGAR” LANGUAGE PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN SOCIETY ........................ 7 A. Vulgar Language Is Necessary for Full and Authentic Expression ...................................... 7 B. Distaste for “Vulgar” Language Often Arises from Prejudice ................................................ 14 C. Profane Language Is Beneficial for Science and Health ..................................................... 17 II. THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT
    [Show full text]
  • A Study of Swearing in Shakespeare's Hamlet Asst.Lecturer.Saadiya
    A Study of Swearing in Shakespeare's Hamlet Set by Asst.Lecturer.Saadiya Wudaa Al-Quraishy University of Al-Qadissiya College of Education 2008 Abstract Swearing is part of everyday language use .This phenomenon is related originally to profanity or bad language . It is the use of taboo language to express certain emotions such as fear, anger, frustration, contempt, hatred…etc. to listeners. As a way of expressing emotions, the meanings of the swearwords, are not to be taken literally but as connotative: (1) Piss off ! (insulting request which means 'go away'). (2) Kiss my arsehole.(violent rejection to something). Swearwords can be related to different sources: religious terms (e.g. God damn it, go to hell), terms related to excrements or the organs that produce them (e.g. shit, buttocks), and terms that are related to sex and genitals(e.g. cunt, cuckold). The study examines the linguistic, semantic, and psychological aspects of this phenomenon. It covers different linguistic categories of swearwords, such as their being nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and interjections. They are used to issue different types of swearing: abusive ,cathartic, social, emphatic and blasphemous. Finally, the study limits itself to analyzing this phenomenon in selected texts taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet. 1.1. Swearing Andersson and Trudgill (1992:53) admit that swearing might (a) refer to something taboo in a given culture ,(b) be interpreted non-literally and (c)be used to express strong emotions and attitudes. Bousfield and Clupeper (2008:5 ) similarly show that swearing is the use of taboo language with the purpose of expressing the speaker's emotional state and communicating that information to listeners.
    [Show full text]
  • Framing Neapolitan Swearwords in Contemporary AVT Scenario: Swearing As Lingua-Cultural Phenomenon
    Framing Neapolitan swearwords in contemporary AVT scenario: swearing as lingua-cultural phenomenon Flavia Cavaliere, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II Citation: Cavaliere, Flavia (2019) “Framing Neapolitan swearwords in contemporary AVT scenario: swearing as lingua-cultural phenomenon”, mediAzioni 24, http://mediazioni.sitlec.unibo.it, ISSN 1974-4382. 1. Introduction The phenomena of swearing and impoliteness “are impossible to define universally because all are culturally and personally determined” (Jay and Janschewitz 2008: 269)1. Additionally, swearing and cursing are often interchangeably used as umbrella terms and may include obscenities, profanities, blasphemy, name-calling, insulting, verbal aggression, taboo speech, ethnic-racial slurs, vulgarity, slang and scatology (Jay 2000: 9)2. Notwithstanding this confusion – most probably also a reflection of the academic neglect of this language domain – all swearwords (SWs) are ‘emotional’ words and are all closely linked to culture. Though not a global feature of human communication, swearing is a regular linguistic practice common to most societies and cultures, “as old as man and coeval with 1 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000) establishes a taboo or swear word as a “ban or inhibition resulting from social custom or aversion”. 2 It might be useful to roughly distinguish between the concepts of swearwords, taboo words, slang and vulgarisms. As a general rule, swearwords are offensive words used intentionally to scorn someone. Taboo words and profanities, instead, are not just insults but proscribed words that are not accepted in a given society. Uttering them is generally perceived as an offence to the listener and they are used more frequently in oral speech than in written texts, though it is not unusual to find them in written language.
    [Show full text]
  • The Portrait of Swearwords and the Social Background of the Characters in the Breakfast Club Movie
    The Portrait of Swearwords and the Social Background of the Characters in The Breakfast Club Movie THE PORTRAIT OF SWEARWORDS AND THE SOCIAL BACKGROUND OF THE CHARACTERS IN THE BREAKFAST CLUB MOVIE Rizky Amalia Maulidiatsani English Literature Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University Of Surabaya [email protected] Abstrak Mengumpat adalah salah satu fenomena linguistik yang sering ditampilkan melalui berbagai media seperti majalah, koran, iklan, dan film; mengingat hal tersebut sudah cukup umum terjadi meski kadang masih dianggap hal yang tabu dan menyimpang dari norma sosial. Latar belakang sosial dapat memengaruhi terjadinya fenomena mengumpat pada masing-masing individu. Salah satu film yang dapat menggambarkan fenomena mengumpat yang berhubungan dengan latar belakang sosial adalah The Breakfast Club, karya John Hughes pada tahun 1985. Penelitian ini difokuskan pada perbandingan kebiasaan mengumpat oleh dua tokoh yang berbeda latar belakang yang dikorelasikan dengan tujuan untuk menunjukkan pengaruh latar belakang sosial terhadap kebiasaan mengumpat. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah (1) mengetahui jenis umpatan yang diucapkan oleh tokoh dengan karakteristik tertentu (2) mengetahui bagaimana kebiasaan mengumpat seseorang dapat menggambarkan latar belakang sosialnya. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode penelitian deskriptif kualitatif, dengan menggunakan teori utama oleh Steven Pinker (2007) dan Magnus Ljung (2011), serta teori tentang neo-psycho-sociocultural of cursing oleh Timothy Jay (2000). Analisis data memerlukan proses (1) klasifikasi data berdasarkan tokoh dan (2) diskusi penggambaran umpatan yang dihubungkan dengan latar belakang sosial. Hasil menunjukkan bahwa perilaku orang tua terhadap tokoh memengaruhi pembentukan karakter dan perilaku mengumpat mereka. Umpatan yang diucapkan Bender cenderung berupa abusive dan dysphemistic swearing, sedangkan umpatan oleh Brian cenderung berupa emphatic dan idiomatic swearing.
    [Show full text]
  • “Tha' Sounds Like Me Arse!”: a Comparison of the Translation of Expletives in Two German Translations of Roddy Doyle's
    “Tha’ Sounds Like Me Arse!”: A Comparison of the Translation of Expletives in Two German Translations of Roddy Doyle’s The Commitments Susanne Ghassempur Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dublin City University School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies Supervisor: Prof. Jenny Williams June 2009 Declaration I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not to the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my work. Signed: _____________________________________ ID No.: 52158284 Date: _______________________________________ ii Acknowledgments My thanks go to everyone who has supported me during the writing of this thesis and made the last four years a dream (you know who you are!). In particular, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Jenny Williams for her constant encouragement and expert advice, without which this thesis could not have been completed. I would also like to thank the School of Applied Language & Intercultural Studies for their generous financial support and the members of the Centre for Translation & Textual Studies for their academic advice. Many thanks also to Dr. Annette Schiller for proofreading this thesis. My special thanks go to my parents for their constant
    [Show full text]
  • “Swear Words” and “Curse Words” in Australian (And American) English
    “Swear words” and “curse words” in Australian (and American) English. At the crossroads of pragmatics, semantics and sociolinguistics Author Goddard, Cliff Published 2015 Journal Title Intercultural Pragmatics Version Version of Record (VoR) DOI https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2015-0010 Copyright Statement © 2015 Walter de Gruyter & Co. KG Publishers. The attached file is reproduced here in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/69530 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Intercultural Pragmatics 2015; 12(2): 189–218 Cliff Goddard “Swear words” and “curse words” in Australian (and American) English. At the crossroads of pragmatics, semantics and sociolinguistics 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.
    [Show full text]
  • The Treatment of Offensive and Taboo Terms in the Subtitling of Reservoir Dogs Into Spanish
    Offensive and taboo exchanges are very recurrent in Quentin Tarantino’s films, TRANS · whose screenplays are full of characters who swear, curse and make ample use núm. 20 · 2016 of taboo terms. The way subtitlers deal with such terms can cause a greater ARTÍCULO · 25-40 impact on the audience than oral speech (Díaz Cintas, 2001a). This paper aims to provide some insights, from a Descriptive Translation Studies (DTS) approach, into the subtitling of offensive and taboo language into Spanish by examining Tarantino’s first blockbuster, Reservoir Dogs (1992), and making use of a multi- strategy design, which enhances triangulation (Robson, 2011). The ultimate goal is to shed some light on the way this film has been subtitled in Spain, by assessing whether the dialogue exchanges have been rendered in the subtitles in a close way to the source text or, by contrast, some type of censorship (i.e. ideological manipulation) may have taken place. KEY WORDS: Interlingual subtitling, offensive and taboo language, translation strategies, multi-strategy design, ideological manipulation. The treatment of offensive and taboo terms in the subtitling of Reservoir Dogs into Spanish El tratamiento de los términos ofensivos y tabú en la subtitulación de Reservoir Dogs al español Los diálogos ofensivos y tabú son muy recurrentes en los filmes de Quentin Tarantino, uno de los cineastas cuyos guiones incluyen personajes que dicen palabrotas y utilizan todo tipo de términos tabú. La manera en la que los sub- tituladores tratan estos términos puede causar un gran impacto en la audien- cia, mayor que el producido por el lenguaje oral (Díaz Cintas, 2001a).
    [Show full text]
  • Mysterious Complementarity Between Capitalism and Arsenalism Metaphors Crucial to Sustainability and the Crisis of the Times -- /
    Alternative view of segmented documents via Kairos 10 February 2020 | Draft Mysterious Complementarity between Capitalism and Arsenalism Metaphors crucial to sustainability and the crisis of the times -- / -- Introduction Capital and capitalism: etymology and connotations Arsenal and arsenalism: etymology and connotations Arse vs Ass: etymology and slang Problematic language for problematic times -- systemic function of "expletives"? Relation between "capitalism" and "arsenalism" in practice Nature of a "missing link" between capitalism and arsenalism: role of a "hole"? Neglected systemic cycles mysteriously encoded in profanity? Profanity as a compactification of an intuited multidimensional experience Requisite new language implied by an unconscious secret language? Towards a comprehensible encoding of higher dimensionality in sexual terms? Cognitive "three ring circus": capitalism, alternativism, arsenalism? Mutual entanglement of "capital" and "arsenal" in practice References Introduction The discourse between those in favour of capitalism and those critical of it is now a characteristic of those concerned with social progress in general. The criticism of alternatives variously proposed could be said to follow a similar pattern. Both "sides" are comfortable with their understanding of the appropriateness of their own perspective and the dangerously misinformed inefficacy of the other -- readily extended to framing what is opposed as fundamentally "evil". The difficulty is that capitalism is effectively the dominant system which "works" to a degree. It is faced with a variety of forms of protest at its failure to address the conditions experienced by many, other than through an array of promises. These are not recognized as coming to fruition in the manner claimed or assumed. Both the assertion that it works, and any claims regarding its failure, are themselves vigorously disputed.
    [Show full text]
  • A Sociolinguistic Approach to the Usage of Fuck in the BNC and Blog Authorship Corpus Ryan Howe
    Eastern Michigan University DigitalCommons@EMU Master's Theses, and Doctoral Dissertations, and Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations Graduate Capstone Projects 2012 The seu of fuck: A sociolinguistic approach to the usage of fuck in the BNC and blog authorship corpus Ryan Howe Follow this and additional works at: http://commons.emich.edu/theses Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Howe, Ryan, "The use of fuck: A sociolinguistic approach to the usage of fuck in the BNC and blog authorship corpus" (2012). Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations. 413. http://commons.emich.edu/theses/413 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Master's Theses, and Doctoral Dissertations, and Graduate Capstone Projects at DigitalCommons@EMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@EMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Use of Fuck: A Sociolinguistic Approach to the Usage of Fuck in the BNC and Blog Authorship Corpus by Ryan Howe Thesis Submitted to the Department of English Language and Literature Eastern Michigan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in Linguistics Thesis Committee: Veronica Grondona, Ph.D., Chair Helen Aristar-Dry, Ph.D. July 15, 2012 Ypsilanti, Michigan Acknowledgments Thank you to my advisor, Veronica, for allowing me to write and research this controversial topic. Also thank you to my family for supporting me throughout my education, and my friends for providing me with support and endless examples to help me with this research.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Defining Swearing 2 a Typology of Swearing
    Notes 1 Defining Swearing 1. According to Vincent (1982: 36) a distinction was made between the sacre and blasphemy (le blasphème); while the second of these denotes conscious profa- nation of the name of God and the saints (la profanation du nom de Dieu et des Saints), the first term is reserved for thoughtless interjectional use of such names and of the names of sacred objects (l’utilisation du vocabulaire religieux à des fins interjectives). The sacres were originally part of the swearing repertory of European French but have developed new meanings and pronunciations in Canadian French, in particular in Montreal. 2. This study took place in 2005 at a school in Tensta, a Stockholm suburb with many immigrants. The participants who were aged between 14 and 17 were asked to give ten examples of typical swearing. Even if this approach encour- aged exaggeration and produced certain unlikely answers, it indicates that the swearing of young people in Tensta differs strongly from mainstream Swedish swearing. 3. In a 1978 study 38 students at the University of Texas at Austin were asked to rank 80 constructions in accordance with how typical they were as instances of American English swearing. The results indicated that taboo strength was one of the most important factors affecting their choice but not the only one. See Appendix 3 for the rank list resulting from this experiment. (The list can also be found in Ljung 1984: 117–20.) 4. The information about the use of offensive language reported on here has been taken from www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorial guidelines/a.
    [Show full text]
  • Warning: Explicit Content! a Case for Profanity Education and a Collection of Strategies Used by Sign Language Interpreters Kelly Murphy
    Journal of Interpretation Volume 19 | Issue 1 Article 3 2012 Warning: Explicit Content! A Case for Profanity Education and a Collection of Strategies used by Sign Language Interpreters Kelly Murphy Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/joi Suggested Citation Murphy, Kelly (2012) "Warning: Explicit Content! A Case for Profanity Education and a Collection of Strategies used by Sign Language Interpreters," Journal of Interpretation: Vol. 19 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: http://digitalcommons.unf.edu/joi/vol19/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by UNF Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Interpretation by an authorized editor of the JOI, on behalf of the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID). For more information, please contact [email protected]. © All Rights Reserved Murphy 70 2008 - 2009 Journal of Interpretation Warning: Explicit Content! A Case for Profanity Education and a Collection of Strategies used by sign language interpreters Kelly Murphy Abstract Sign language interpreters are language professionals who experience all aspects of life, from birth to death, of their consumers. They work with the most formal to the very intimate of registers and everything in between. One particular aspect of language that deserves further scrutiny is profanity. It is by its very nature extremely powerful, commonly misunderstood, and interpreters do not have the luxury of ignoring this class of words. It is to an interpreter’s benefit to understand this aspect of language and class of words on a more conscious level, be able to analyze his/her own filters and biases, have access to strategies for managing utterances that contain profanity, and be aware that cultural differences do exist.
    [Show full text]