Article published in:
English World-Wide
Vol. 41:1 (2020) ► pp. 59–88

Teenage swearing in the UK

| Manchester Metropolitan University
This article describes the swearing practices of a group of young people aged 14–16 in the UK. The young people are in a specific context – a Pupil Referral Unit catering for pupils who have been excluded from mainstream school. The study’s narrow focus builds on existing knowledge by providing a level of precision in terms of speaker and context not usually found in swearing research. 13 key words are examined in terms of meaning, structure, frequency, and use between genders. Shit and fuck, as the most common terms, are explored in more detail, with use of the latter compared to existing accounts based on the British National Corpus. Examining the swearing practices of this group of people adds detail to our knowledge of a particular style of English, paves the way for future research into the socio-pragmatic functions of teenage swearing, and helps us to better understand the linguistic behaviour of an often-marginalised section of society.
Keywords: swearing, youth language, corpus, gender, fuck , shit
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.What is swearing?
  • 3.Swearing research
  • 4.This study
    • 4.1The context
    • 4.2The participants
  • 5.Methods
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Overall
    • 6.2The 13 key words
      • 6.2.1Shit
      • 6.2.2Arse
      • 6.2.3Piss
      • 6.2.4Dick
      • 6.2.5Bitch
      • 6.2.6Bastard
      • 6.2.7Knob
      • 6.2.8Twat
      • 6.2.9Wank
      • 6.2.10Prick
      • 6.2.11Cunt
      • 6.2.12Bloody
      • 6.2.13Fuck
  • 7.Why so much swearing?
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 February 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.00040.dru
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Love, Robbie
2021. Swearing in informal spoken English: 1990s–2010s. Text & Talk 41:5-6 ► pp. 739 ff. Crossref logo
Palacios Martínez, Ignacio M.
2021. Taboo vocatives in the language of London teenagers. Pragmatics. Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) 31:2 ► pp. 250 ff. Crossref logo

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