Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of Education and Social Sciences (ACCESS 2021)

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Swear Words as a Cultural Construct: How the F-Word is Not an F-Word

Authors
Thalia Qaulan Tsaqiila1, *, Kamaludin Yusra1
1Magister English Education Study Program, University of Mataram, Mataram, Indonesia
*Corresponding author. Email: thaliaqaulan@gmail.com
Corresponding Author
Thalia Qaulan Tsaqiila
Available Online 9 December 2022.
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-21-3_25How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Language; Culture; Swear Words; Cultural Construct
Abstract

The relationship between language and culture has long been an interesting object of study in the field of sociolinguistics. On one hand, culture is said to be shaped by language. On the other hand, language is stated to be constructed by culture. According to Sapir (1921), as a capability that man acquires by being a member of society, one might say that language is actually a part of culture. By this definition, hence, the nature of relationship between culture and other elements of language is self-explanatory; the elements—just like the overall language—are supposedly also interrelated to culture. Considering Sapir-Wholf’s Hypothesis of linguistic relativity—this paper aims to explore the nature of relationship between culture and an element of language, namely, swear words. The analysis of data obtained through questionnaire and observation discovers different reactions to swear words of various languages from people of different cultural backgrounds. The findings eventually lead to the conclusion that culture is mainly responsible for the construction of profanities in different languages. In light of the findings, the Sapir-Wholf’s Hypothesis is re-evaluated.

Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of Education and Social Sciences (ACCESS 2021)
Series
Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date
9 December 2022
ISBN
10.2991/978-2-494069-21-3_25
ISSN
2352-5398
DOI
10.2991/978-2-494069-21-3_25How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2023 The Author(s)
Open Access
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Cite this article

risenwbib
TY  - CONF
AU  - Thalia Qaulan Tsaqiila
AU  - Kamaludin Yusra
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/12/09
TI  - Swear Words as a Cultural Construct: How the F-Word is Not an F-Word
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd Annual Conference of Education and Social Sciences (ACCESS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 222
EP  - 231
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-21-3_25
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-494069-21-3_25
ID  - Tsaqiila2022
ER  -