The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of counselor profanity on subjects' perceptions of counselor credibility and client satisfaction.

This essay presents a study on gender differences with a focus on mild and strong swearwords and their pre-modifying adjectives when describing a person, based on findings from the BNC2014. Previous research implies that men and women use different types of swearwords, suggesting that men tend to use stronger language than women. The aim of this study is to investigate the usage of strong versus mild swearwords to analyze if there are differences in frequency and use of pre-modifying adjectives across gender. A set of mild swearwords (cow, git) and strong swearwords (dick, cunt) from Ofcom’s scale of offensiveness (Ofcom, 2016) was used to manually compare how men and women tend to differ in the way they use these words. Previous research on swearing in connection to gender, offensiveness, and pre-modifying adjectives is presented as well as a definition of the swearwords. The results show that the usage of mild and strong language is equally used in male and female speakers and that negative and other pre-modifying adjectives are most used together with these words. Hopefully, the findings in this study could shed more light on the topic of gender differences and swearing.

This thesis examines how clauses containing variants of fuck are translated to Swedish subtitles in HBO’s The Wire. The aim is to explore what words are used in the translations, as well as to discern whether or not any discrepancies occur between the source language and target language clauses. The main tool to discern the differences between the original and translated clauses is Appraisal Theory, with a focus on the subsystems Attitude and Graduation. Appraisal Theory aids in this case to discern in what way the discrepancies between the source language clause, and the target language clause, manifest themselves. To deepen the examination of the discrepancies, offensiveness is also considered in the analysissince fuck is a swear word. The analysis shows that most discrepancies occur when fuck is used figuratively either as a verb or an adjective. The clearest discrepancy of the two is shownin clauses containing the adjective fucking, due to the number of cases when the target language clause did not feature an adjective, and thus, did not feature a corresponding swear word. Aspects of either attitude, graduation or offensiveness are at times sacrificed to maintain semantics, as well as to stay within the logistical limitations of audiovisual translation.

<p>All languages have words that are considered taboo – words that are not supposed to be said or used. Taboo words, or swearwords, can be used in many different ways and they can have different meanings depending on what context they appear in. Another aspect of taboo words is the euphemisms that are used in order to avoid obscene speech. This paper will focus on x-words, words like the f-word or the c-word, which replace the words fuck or cunt, but as the study will show they also have other meanings and usages.</p><p>The purpose of this paper is also to investigate the significance of taboo words and their usage in English, as well as research on how they are used, or not used, in media. The aim is to examine how x-words are used in the British newspapers the Guardian and the Observer by using corpus searches.</p><p>The results show that there are several ways of using x-words, and that using them in order to show that a word either is taboo, or has become taboo in a certain context, is the most common way. It is also clear that x-words can represent many different words, and not only words that are generally considered taboo.</p>

This volume is a tribute to our friend and colleague Philip Shaw, Professor of English linguistics at the Department of English, Stockholm University, on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The 22 contributions to this volume by friends and colleagues worldwide bear witness to Philip’s academic versatility as well as his interests beyond academia. The first paper, ‘Narratives of Nature in English and Swedish: Butterfly books and the case of Argynnis paphia’, a genre study by Annelie Ädel and John Swales, is illustrated by Philip devoting himself to one of his favourite activities. It is followed by four other genre analyses, based on very different texts: Trine Dahl, ‘Telling it Like it Is or Strategic Writing? A portrait of the economist writer’, Paul Gillaerts, ‘Move Analysis of Abstracts from a Diachronic Perspective: A case study’, Maurizio Gotti, ‘Investigating the Generic Structure of Mediation Processes’, and Nils-Lennart Johannesson, ‘Orrmulum: Genre membership and text organisation’. The following five papers all relate to Philip’s work in the fields of English as a Second Language (ESL), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). The ESL study by Britt Erman and Margareta Lewis is titled ‘Vocabulary in Advanced L2 English Speech’, and ELF is represented by Beyza Björkman’s ‘Peer Assessment of Spoken Lingua Franca English in Tertiary Education in Sweden: Criterion-referenced versus norm-referenced assessment’. The three following papers relate to Philip’s work on academic writing: Magnus Gustafsson &amp; Hans Malmström, ‘Master Level Writing in Engineering and Productive Vocabulary: What does measuring academic vocabulary levels tell us?’, Akiko Okamura, ‘Philip Shaw’s Writing Expertise in Academic Discourse’, and Diane Pecorari, ‘Additional Reasons for the Correlation of Voice, Tense and Sentence Function’. The three papers to follow address issues within the fields of dialectology and sociolinguistics, representing different speech communities in the English-speaking world: Joan C. Beal, ‘Tourism and the Commodification of Language’, Peter Sundkvist, ‘“Ridiculously Country”: The representation of Appalachian English in the Deliverance screenplay’, and Sandra Jansen, ‘“I don’t sound like a Geordie!”: Phonological and morphosyntactic aspects of Carlisle English’. This naturally leads on to studies on World Englishes, represented by papers by Kingsley Bolton, ‘World Englishes, Globalisation, and Language Worlds’, Gunnel Melchers, ‘The North Wind and the Sun: A classic text as data for World Englishes’, Christiane Meierkord &amp; Bridget Fonkeu, ‘Of Birds and the Human Species – Communication in Migration Contexts: English in the Cameroonian migrant community in the Ruhr area’, and Augustin Simo Bobda, ‘The Emergence of a Standardizing Cameroon Francophone English Pronunciation in Cameroon’. The five final papers deal with a variety of linguistic topics all close to Philip’s heart but not so easily accommodated into the above sections. They are: Maria Kuteeva, ‘Tolkien and Lewis on Language in their Scholarly Work’, Karin Aijmer and Anna Elgemark, ‘The Pragmatic Markers Look and Listen in a Cross-linguistic Perspective’, Magnus Ljung, ‘Goddamn: From curse to byname’, Christina Alm-Arvius, ‘Opposites Attract’, and Erik Smitterberg, ‘Non-correlative Commas between Subjects and Verbs in Nineteenth-century Newspaper English’.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

This study investigates four women’s use of typically male linguistic features in casual same-sex conversation. The aim of the study is to see whether and how this group of women use the linguistic features; swearing, interrupting, disagreeing and ignoring, questions and monologues (‘playing the expert’) which are all more common in male conversation and often part of a competitive communication style. I will also attempt to answer if these women’s linguistic behavior is typically female or male. The four women were tape recorded during a planned conversation in a casual setting and the recording was transcribed. The transcription was analyzed by using definitions of the linguistic features above made by, for example, Jennifer Coates (2004). The results show that these four women were neither typically female nor male, but a mix of the two; a hybrid.

Στην παρούσα μεταπτυχιακή εργασία, αρχικά, γίνεται λόγος για τα γενικά τυπικά χαρακτηριστικά που διέπουν το άσεμνο λεξιλόγιο, κυρίως της Ελληνικής. Στη συνέχεια, επιχειρείται μια μορφολογική ανάλυση των συστατικών που χρησιμοποιούνται για τον σχηματισμό των λέξεων του άσεμνου λεξιλογίου. Ωστόσο, βασικός στόχος είναι η διερεύνηση των σημασιολογικών και πραγματολογικών χαρακτηριστικών που διέπουν αυτό το ιδιαίτερα ενδιαφέρον τμήμα του λεξιλογίου μας. Παράλληλα, ασχολούμαι με περιπτώσεις υποκορισμού ή μεγέθυνσης μέσα στο άσεμνο λεξιλόγιο, με τους μηχανισμούς δανεισμού, με φαινόμενα ευφημισμού και δυσφημισμού και άλλα. Αναλυτικότερα, στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο, το οποίο λειτουργεί ως εναρκτήριο στάδιο ένταξης στο αντικείμενο μελέτης της εργασίας, παρουσιάζω τα περιθωριακά ιδιώματα της ελληνικής καθώς και τη δομή και λειτουργία των ειδικών λεξιλογίων στα οποία εντάσσεται και το προς εξέταση λεξιλόγιο. Στο τέλος του κεφαλαίου εξετάζω τις διαδικασίες και τους μηχανισμούς δανεισμού που υιοθετούνται για την εισαγωγή νέων λέξεων στην Ελληνική από άλλες γλώσσες, οι οποίες επηρέασαν και εμπλούτισαν με αυτόν τον τρόπο το άσεμνο λεξιλόγιο. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο ασχολούμαι με τις διαδικασίες σχηματισμού των λημμάτων του άσεμνου λεξιλογίου. Μορφολογικές διαδικασίες σχηματισμού λέξεων όπως είναι η παραγωγή και η σύνθεση, αλλά και δομές όπως οι συμφυρμοί, λεξικοποιημένες εκφράσεις κ. ά, θα με απασχολήσουν ιδιαίτερα στο κεφάλαιο αυτό. Το τρίτο κεφάλαιο είναι αφιερωμένο στις εννοιακές σχέσεις, στις σχέσεις δηλαδή των λέξεων με άλλες λέξεις, με τις οποίες σχετίζονται. Το βασικό θεωρητικό πρότυπο πάνω στο οποίο θα βασιστώ για την ανάλυση της λεξικής σημασιολογίας είναι αυτό που προτείνεται από τον Cruse (1986, 2004). Εννοιακές σχέσεις, όπως αυτή της πολυσημίας, της συνωνυμίας, της μετωνυμίας, της μερωνυμίας και της μεταφοράς θα με απασχολήσουν ιδιαίτερα. Στη συνέχεια, στο τελευταίο κεφάλαιο με τίτλο «Άσεμνο λεξιλόγιο και Πραγματολογία» αφού αναφερθώ στα κίνητρα που ωθούν στην χρήση αυτού του λεξιλογίου, θα εξετάσω τις λειτουργίες και τη χρήση των λέξεων αυτών μέσα σε συγκεκριμένα εκφωνήματα. Το περιβάλλον μέσα στο οποίο εμφανίζονται οι λέξεις αυτές αλλά και οι διαφορετικοί πολιτισμοί και η νοοτροπία των ομιλητών, όπως θα δούμε στο κεφάλαιο αυτό παίζει πολύ σημαντικό ρόλο. Ολοκληρώνοντας, θα επικεντρωθώ σε λέξεις που χαρακτηρίζονται ως άσεμνες και μπορούν να θεωρηθούν, με βάση πραγματολογικές μελέτες (μεταξύ αυτών Fraser, 2008) ότι λειτουργούν ως δείκτες οργάνωσης λόγου και συγκεκριμένα ως δείκτες προσοχής (attention markers). / Words are extremely important to people. They constitute a means of communication. It is through them that we express our thoughts, feelings and emotions. They are an integral part of our everyday life and they are with us wherever we go. Every word, of any kind, deserves our full attention and needs to be studied, no matter what kind of vocabulary it may be part of. The present thesis is about a very vibrant and expressive part of our language. It concerns “obscene vocabulary”, a domain on which very few scientific studies have been carried out to date. In this thesis I decided to examine the morphological, semantic and pragmatic aspects of the “obscene vocabulary” of the Modern Greek language. In the first chapter, I present the “marginal” jargons of the Modern Greek language, of which “obscene vocabulary” constitutes a part, based on the existing literature so far. Moreover, I propose an appropriate classification of the Greek data, based on Jay (1997). I also look into cases of euphemisms and calumny, and the way they are used in Modern Greek. In addition, I present some cases of loans concerning not only words, but expressions and even affixes coming from other languages as well. Loans and calques seem to constitute a great part of the Greek “obscene vocabulary”, most of them coming from Italian, French and Turkish. The second chapter is about the way that words and expressions of the “obscene vocabulary” are formed. It seems that this kind of vocabulary is highly productive in compound words. What is more, some prefixes and suffixes of the “purist Greek” which are not very productive in the Modern Greek common vocabulary, combined with popular words, they are frequently used to form “obscene” words, resulting in funny word formations. It should be noted here, that the formation of such words is subject to the same constraints as the rest of the vocabulary of the Modern Greek language. Finally, I look into compound expressions, lexicalized phrases, blends and the diminutive and augmentative suffixes and prefixes which are used in order to make a word sound less offensive, more familiar and even positive. The third chapter consists of a semantic analysis of the “obscene vocabulary” of the Modern Greek language, based on Cruse (1986, 2004) and Veloudis (2005). I look into polysemous and synonymous pairs of words and also into notions such as meronymy, metonymy and metaphors, concerning mostly parts of the human body. Finally, I try to analyze the pragmatic aspects of the Greek “obscene vocabulary” This field concerns the circumstances in which this kind of vocabulary is used, human communication, the intonation and the gestures that accompany the use of “obscene vocabulary” and every possible kind of social and psychological reasons, as well as the motives that make someone use this kind of vocabulary. Different languages reflect different cultures and have a different degree and way of using “obscene vocabulary”.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-08-25T11:00:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 3044439 bytes, checksum: 6b60355b6db30d425cc3768f536b5a5d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-25T11:00:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 3044439 bytes, checksum: 6b60355b6db30d425cc3768f536b5a5d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-22 / There is nothing new about the use of swearwords in human language. In fact, it is believed that swearing is as old as language itself. Studies about swearing, as well as personal experience, show us that this type of language produces a emotional impact that can have both positive and negative effects. Despite its ubiquitous presence in the speech of Brazilians, few linguistic studies have been produced on the subject. Therefore, the present work aims at mapping out the attitudes of college students that frequent Praça da Alegria in regards to swearwords and the influence that social, conversational, emotional, as well as identity factors have in their day-to-day use. According to the existing literature on language attitudes, it is not unusual to encounter gaps or inconsistencies in relation to the language attitudes professed by individuals and what they actually do when they speak (language behavior). Studies show that this contradiction result from the influence of external factors such as context, interlocutor type, place, etc., as well as internal factors such as beliefs, emotions, intentions, etc. Thus, in order to understand the relation between attitudes held about swearwords and swearing in day-to-day social interaction, we have conducted this sociolinguistic research. The present study is of a qualitative nature and is based primarily on an Interactional Sociolinguistic and Ethnography of Communication framework. The corpus used is comprised of data collected from 29 college students at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba (the Federal University of Paraíba) in a recreational area known as Praça da Alegria, using three methods: questionnaires, direct (non-participant) observation and semi-structured interviews. After that, the data was analysed in accordance to the concepts found in Language Attitude theory, as well as Accommodation Theory; and then triangulated in order to guarantee more precise and reliable results. As a result, it was found that: 1) the idea of the meaning of the term swearword, in fact, varied from person to person, nevertheless, there was, in general, a difference between the meaning of the terms swearword and offensive word; 2) the degree of offensiveness of a word is subject to individual opinion; 3) the more offensive a word was considered to be, the less frequently it was said to get used; and 4) social, conversational, emotional and identity factors, in fact, influenced considerably the individuals decision to use or not use this type of language. / O uso de palavrões não é algo novo no comportamento linguístico humano. Na verdade, acredita-se que eles são tão antigos quanto a própria linguagem. Estudos mostram que esse tipo de linguagem produz um forte impacto emocional que pode gerar tanto efeitos positivos, quanto negativos. Apesar de sua ubíqua presença na fala dos brasileiros, poucos estudos linguísticos foram produzidos sobre o assunto no Brasil. Portanto, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo mapear as atitudes dos estudantes universitários frequentadores da Praça da Alegria relacionadas a palavrões e à influência que os fatores sociais, conversacionais, emocionais e de identidade exercem no seu uso cotidiano. De acordo com a literatura existente sobre atitudes linguísticas, não é incomum que constatemos uma lacuna no que diz respeito às atitudes professadas pelos indivíduos sobre certas línguas ou aspectos da linguagem, e o seu uso propriamente dito (comportamento linguístico). Estudos mostram que essa incoerência resulta da influência de fatores externos tais como contexto, tipo de interlocutor, local, etc., bem como fatores internos tais como crenças, emoções, intenções, etc. Assim sendo, a fim de melhor entender a relação entre atitudes sobre palavrões e o seu uso em interações sociais do dia-a-dia, realizamos essa investigação sociolinguística. O presente estudo é predominantemente qualitativo e foi fundamentado principalmente no aporte teórico da Sociolinguística Interacional e da Etnografia da Comunicação. O corpus utilizado foi composto de dados coletados entre 29 estudantes universitários em uma área de lazer conhecida como Praça da Alegria, situada na Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB), por meio de três métodos: questionário, observação não-participante e entrevista semiestruturada. Posteriormente, foram analisados os dados relacionados aos conceitos referentes as atitudes linguísticas e a Teoria da Acomodação, que por fim foram triangulados no intuito de garantir resultados mais precisos e confiáveis. Como resultado dessa pesquisa, foi constatado que: 1) a noção do significado do termo palavrão, de fato, varia de pessoa para pessoa, não obstante, existe, de modo geral, uma diferença entre a noção dos termos palavrão e palavra ofensiva; 2) o grau de ofensividade de uma palavra é sujeito à opinião do indivíduo; 3) quanto mais ofensiva uma palavra, menos usada ela é; e 4) os fatores sociais, conversacionais, emocionais e de identidade, de fato, influenciam consideravelmente na decisão do indivíduo de usar (ou não) esse tipo de linguajar.

So far little research has been done on the term bitch exclusively. The aim of this essay is to find a pattern of teenagers’ uses of the word bitch in various contexts and in different grammatical forms. A further question is whether bitch can be considered a swearword or not. The investigation was carried out by using two different corpora which is COLT (The Bergen Corpus of London Teenage Language) and Webcorp as the primary sources out of which concordance lines were extracted. These were in turn categorized into different word classes and analyzed in detail. The results show that there were several word classes in which bitch appeared such as noun, verb and adjective and the most common word class is nouns. The results also show that teenagers mainly use the term as a swearword with which they address their peers. In conclusion even though the term bitch did not originally belong to taboo language, however, due to the fact that the word has developed a more negative meaning it can be seen a swearword.