Male and Female Attitudes towards Swear Words: A Case Study at Binus International School
Keywords:
Swear words, attitude, teenagers, gender differences
Abstract
Swear words are generally used to articulate anger, pain, excitement, frustration, or surprise. It is often imitated by children who may not really understand the meaning of the swear words. This survey-based study aims to identify the swear utterances of male and female teenagers, find out their commonly-used swear words, and investigate whether bilingual male or female students of Grade 12, Binus International School, Simprug, Jakarta, use more swear words. A combination of multiple choice and open-ended questionnaire was constructed and the analysis revealed that swearing is inevitable and becomes a part of the male and female language repertoire. Both groups of students are said to employ the use of Indonesian and English swear words in carrying-out conversations in order to release stress and express intense emotions. However, male students tend to use more swear words that are associated with sexuality.Downloads
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Harris, C .L. (2004). Bilingual speakers in the lab: Psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity. Journal of Multilingual and Multicul-tural Development, 25(2-3), 223-247. doi:10. 1080/01434630408666530.
Harris, C. L., Gleason, J.B., & Ayçiçeği, A. (2005). When is a First Language More Emotional? Psychophysiological Evidence from Bilingual Speakers. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/ psych/charris/papers/HarrisEmotionBiling.pdf.
Jay, T. (2009). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 153-161.
Jay, T., & Janschewitz, K. (2013). The science of swearing. Psychological Science. Retrieved from www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/ publications/observer/2012/may-june-12/the- science-of-swearing.htm.
Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and women’s place. Language in Society, 2(1), 45-80.
Lakoff, R. (2004). Language and woman's place: Text and commentaries. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ljung, M. (2007). Swearwords. Danmark: Nörhaven Paperback AS.
Ljung, M. (2011). Swearing: A cross-cultural linguistic study. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Montopoli, B. (2010). Biden swears at bill signing: Just biden being biden? - Political hotsheet - CBS news. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews. com/8301-503544_162-20001003-503544.html.
Pinker, S. (2008). The stuff of thought: Language as a window into human nature. London: Penguin Books.
Sollid, H. (2009). Attitudes to swear words: gender differences among native and non-native spea-kers of English. http://www.diva-portal.org/ smash/get/diva2:158456/FULLTEXT01.pdf.
Spender, D. (1980). Man made language. Ontario: Pandora Press.
Stephens, R. (2013). Swearing – the language of life and death. The Psychologist, 26(9), 650- 653.
Suyanto, A. (2010). Javanese swear words in a boarding house: The case of five Soegijapranata Catholic university students. Unpublished thesis. Soegijapranata Catholic University, Semarang.
Tannen, D. (2001). You just don’t understand: Women and men in conversation. New York: Harper Collins.
Uchida, A. (1992). When difference is dominance: A critique of anti-power-based cultural approach to sex differences. Language in Society, 21(4), 547-568.
Wang, N. (2013). An analysis of the pragmatic functions of “swearing†in interpersonal talk. Griffith Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communications, 71-79.
Published
2015-01-01
How to Cite
Nicolau, M. F. S., & Sukamto, K. (2015). Male and Female Attitudes towards Swear Words: A Case Study at Binus International School. K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Languange and Literature, 16(2), 71-76. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.9744/kata.16.2.71-76
Section
Articles
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License
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