Cover not available
Part of
Handbook of Pragmatics: 25th Annual Installment
Edited by Frank Brisard, Sigurd D’hondt, Pedro Gras and Mieke Vandenbroucke
[Handbook of Pragmatics 25] 2022
► pp. 129–155

Swearing

| Södertörn University
| Ulster University
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Defining swearing
    • 2.1Criteria
  • 3.Methods of investigating swearing
    • 3.1Frequency of swearing
      • 3.1.1Frequency according to word, gender, age
    • 3.2Offensiveness of swearing
    • 3.3The Swearing Paradox
  • 4.Functions of swearing
    • 4.1Delineations, categories, and taxonomies
    • 4.2Interpersonal and pragmatic functions
      • 4.2.1Expressing emotion
      • 4.2.2Negative interpersonal and pragmatic functions
      • 4.2.3Positive interpersonal and pragmatic functions
        • 4.2.3.1Interpersonal and group relations: Affiliation and bonding
        • 4.2.3.2Message effectiveness and speaker effectiveness (including dynamism, credibility or ability to achieve a task)
        • 4.2.3.3Identity management
  • 5.Further inquiry and future directions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 18 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.25.swe1
References
Adams, Michael
2016 In Praise of Profanity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Allan, Keith
2015 “When is a slur not a slur? The use of nigger in ‘Pulp Fiction’.” Language Sciences 52: 187–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “Taboo words and language: An overview.” In The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language, edited by Keith Allan, 1–27. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Allan, Keith, and Kate Burridge
2006 Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009 “Swearing.” In Comparative Studies in Australian and New Zealand English: Grammar and Beyond, ed. by Pam Peters, Peter Collins and Adam Smith, 361–386. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ameka, Felix, and David Wilkins
2006 “Interjections.” In Handbook of Pragmatics 2006, ed. by Jan-Ola Östman and Jef Verschueren, 1–19. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Andersson, Lars-Gunnar, and Peter Trudgill
1990 Bad Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
2007 “Swearing.” In A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication, ed. by Leila Monaghan and Jane Goodman, 195–199. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ayçiçegi-Dinn, Ayse, and Catherine Caldwell-Harris
2009 “Emotion-memory effects in bilingual speakers: A levels-of-processing approach.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12: 291–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baruch, Yehuda, and Stuart Jenkins
2007 “Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture: When anti-social becomes social and incivility is acceptable.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 28: 492–507. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baruch, Yehuda, Rea Prouska, Ariane Ollier-Malaterre, and Jennifer Bunk
2017 “Swearing at work: The mixed outcomes of profanity.” Journal of Managerial Psychology 32: 149–162. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baudhuin, E. Scott
1973 “Obscene language and evaluative response: An empirical study.” Psychological Reports 32: 399–402. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bayard, Donn, and Sateesh Krishnayya
2001 “Gender, expletive use, and context: Male and female expletive use in structured and unstructured conversation among New Zealand university students.” Women and Language 24: 1–15.Google Scholar
Bednarek, Monika
2015 “ ‘Wicked’ women in contemporary pop culture: ‘Bad’ language and gender in Weeds, Nurse Jackie, and Saving Grace.” Text & Talk 35: 431–451. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beers Fägersten, Kristy
2012 Who’s Swearing Now? The Social Aspects of Conversational Swearing. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
2017a “The role of swearing in creating an online persona: The case of YouTuber PewDiePie.” Discourse, Context & Media 18: 1–10. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017b “FUCK CANCER, Fucking Åmål, Aldrig fucka upp.” In Advances in Swearing Research: New Languages and New Contexts, ed. by Kristy Beers Fägersten and Karyn Stapleton, 65–86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Beers Fägersten, Kristy, and Karyn Stapleton
2017 “Introduction: Swearing research as variations on a theme.” In Advances in Swearing Research: New Languages and New Contexts, ed. by Kristy Beers Fägersten and Karyn Stapleton, 1–16. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benwell, Bethan
2001 “Male gossip and language play in the letters pages of men’s lifestyle magazines.” Journal of Popular Culture 34: 19–33. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berger, Arthur
1970 “Swearing and society.” ETC: A Review of General Semantics 30: 283–286.Google Scholar
Bostrom, Robert, John Baseheart, and Charles Rossiter, Jr.
1973 “The effects of three types of profane language in persuasive messages.” The Journal of Communication 23: 461–475. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bowers, Jeffrey, and Christopher Pleydell-Pearce
2011 “Swearing, euphemisms, and linguistic relativity.” PloS one 6: e22341. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Briechle, Lucia, and Eva Eppler
2019 “Swearword strength in subtitled and dubbed films: A reception study.” Intercultural Pragmatics 16: 389–420. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Caldwell-Harris, Catherine
2015 “Emotionality differences between a native and foreign language: Implications for everyday life.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 24: 214–219. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cameron, Paul
1969 “Frequency and kinds of words in various social settings, or what the hell’s going on?” Pacific Sociological Review 12: 101–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cavazza, Nicoletta, and Margherita Guidetti
2014 “Swearing in political discourse: Why vulgarity works.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 33: 537–547. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheshire, Jenny
1982 Variation in an English Dialect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Christie, Christine
2013 “The relevance of taboo language: An analysis of the indexical values of swearwords.” Journal of Pragmatics 58: 152–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Coates, Jennifer
1993 Women, Men and Language. (2nd ed.) London: Longman.Google Scholar
2003 Men Talk: Stories in the Making of Masculinities. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan
2011 Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “Taboo language and impoliteness.” In The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language, ed. by Keith Allan, 28–40. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Daly, Nicola, Janet Holmes, Jonathan Newtown, and Maria Stubbe
2004 “Expletives as solidarity signals in FTAs on the factory floor.” Journal of Pragmatics 36: 945–964. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeFrank, Melanie, and Patricia Kahlbaugh
2019 “Language choice matters: When profanity affects how people are judged.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 38: 126–141. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Klerk, Vivian
1991 “Expletives: Men only?” Communication Monographs 58: 156–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1992 “How taboo are taboo words for girls?” Language in Society 21: 277–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dewaele, Jean-Marc
2004 “The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 25: 204–222. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 “Christ fucking shit merde!: Language preferences for swearing among maximally proficient multilinguals.” Sociolinguistic Studies 4: 595–614. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “Linguistic taboos in a second or foreign language.” In The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language, ed. by Keith Allan, 218–232. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Driscoll, James
1981 “Aggressiveness and frequency-of-aggressive-use ratings for pejorative epithets by Americans.” The Journal of Social Psychology 114: 111–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Drummond, Rob
2020 “Teenage swearing in the UK.” English World-Wide 41: 59–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dutton, Edward
2007 “ ‘Bog off dog breath! You’re talking pants!’ Swearing as witness evangelism in student evangelical groups.” Journal of Religion and Popular Culture 16: 2. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dynel, Marta
2012 “Swearing methodologically: The (im)politeness of expletives in anonymous commentaries on YouTube.” Journal of English Studies 10: 25–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fine, Marlene, and Fern Johnson
1984 “Female and male motives for using obscenity.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 3: 59–74. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Finkelstein, Shlomit
2018 “Swearing and the brain.” In The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language, ed. by Keith Allan, 108–139. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fjeld, Ruth E. Vatvedt, Elsa Kristiansen, Marianne Rathje, Veturlidi Oskarsson, Natalia Konstaninovskaia, Inayat Gill, and Fekede Menuta
2019 “The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word.” Intercultural Pragmatics 16: 85–111. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
French, Norman, Charles Carter, and Walter Koenig
1930 “The words and sounds of telephone conversations.” Bell Systems Technical Journal 9: 290–324. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gauthier, Michael
2021 “ ‘Eww wtf, what a dumb bitch’: A case study of similitudes inside gender-specific swearing patterns on Twitter.” Corpora 16: 31–61. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Generous, Mark, Seth Frei, and Marian Houser
2015 “When an instructor swears in class: Functions and targets of instructor swearing from college students’ retrospective accounts.” Communication Reports 28: 128–140. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Griffith, Tom
1996 “Dirty words.” Perspectives 22: 135–137.Google Scholar
Harris, Catherine
2004 “Bilingual speakers in the lab: Psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 25: 223–247. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harris, Catherine, Ayse Aycicegi, and Jean Berko Gleason
2003 “Taboo words and reprimands elicit greater autonomic reactivity in a first language than in a second language.” Applied Psycholinguistics 24: 561–579. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harris, Catherine, Jean Berko Gleason, and Ayse Ayçiçegi
2006 “When is a first language more emotional? Psychophysiological evidence from bilingual speakers.” In Bilingual Minds: Emotional Experience, Expression, and Representation, ed. by Aneta Pavlenko, 257–283. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hjort, Minna
2015 “Vittu and fuck: Tales from a literary coexistence.” In Miscommunication and Verbal Violence/Du malentendu à la violence verbale/Misskommunikation und verbale Gewalt, ed. by Ulla Tuomarla, Johani Härmä, Liisa Tiittula, Anni Sairio, Maria Paloheimo and Johanna Isosävi, 319–330. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique.Google Scholar
2017 “Affect, risk management and the translation of swearing.” Rask. International Journal of Language and Communication: 159–180.Google Scholar
Howell, Jennifer, and Traci Giuliano
2011 “The effect of expletive use and team gender perceptions of coaching effectiveness.” Journal of Sport Behavior 34: 69–81.Google Scholar
Hughes, Geoffrey
1998 Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Hughes, Susan
1992 “Expletives of lower working-class women.” Language in Society 21: 291–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Janschewitz, Kristin
2008 “Taboo, emotionally valenced, and emotionally neutral word norms.” Behavior Research Methods 40: 1065–1074. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jay, Kristin, and Timothy Jay
2013 “A child’s garden of curses: A gender, historical, and age-related evaluation of the taboo lexicon.” The American Journal of Psychology 126: 459–475. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jay, Timothy
1977 “Doing research with dirty words.” Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression 1: 234–256.Google Scholar
1978 Are you confused about dirty words? North Adams, MA: North Adams State College. (ERIC Document Number ED 158 610).Google Scholar
1980 “A frequency count of college and elementary school students’ colloquial English.” Catalogue of Selected Documents in Psychology 10: 1.Google Scholar
1986 “2,170 Obscene words: Who, what, where, when.” Presented at Eastern Psychological Association, New York.
1992 Cursing in America. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 Why We Curse: A Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory Of Speech. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009a “Do offensive words harm people?” Psychology, Public Policy, and Law 15: 81–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2009b “The utility and ubiquity of taboo words.” Perspectives on Psychological Science 4: 153–161. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018a “Swearing, moral order, and online communication.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 6: 107–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018b “The psychology of expressing and interpreting linguistic taboos.” In The Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language, ed. by Keith Allan, 77–95. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jay, Timothy, Catherine Caldwell-Harris, and Krista King
2008 “Recalling taboo and nontaboo words.” American Journal of Psychology 121: 83–103. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jay, Timothy, Krista King, and Tim Duncan
2006 “Memories of punishment for cursing.” Sex Roles 55: 123–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jay, Timothy, and Kristin Janschewitz
2008 “The pragmatics of swearing.” Journal of Politeness Research 4: 267–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Danette
2012 “Swearing by peers in the work setting: Expectancy violation valence, perceptions of message, and perceptions of speaker.” Communication Studies 63: 136–151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Danette, and Nicole Lewis
2010 “Perceptions of swearing in the work setting: An expectancy violations theory perspective.” Communication Reports 23: 106–118. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kapoor, Hansika
2016 “Swears in context: The difference between casual and abusive swearing.” Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 45: 259–274. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karachaliou, Rania, and Agiris Archakis
2015 “Identity construction patterns via swearing: Evidence from Greek teenage storytelling.” Pragmatics and Society 6: 422–444. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kwon, Hazel, and Daegon Cho
2017 “Swearing effects on citizen-to-citizen commenting online: A large-scale exploration of political versus nonpolitical online news sites.” Social Science Computer Review 35: 84–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lafreniere, Katherine C., Sarah G. Moore, and Robert J. Fisher
2022 “The power of profanity: The meaning and impact of swear words in word of mouth.” Journal of Marketing Research 59: 908–925. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ljung, Magnus
2009 “The functions of expletive interjections in spoken English.” In Corpus Linguistics: Refinements & Reassessments, ed. by Antoinette Renouf and Andrew Kehoe, 155–171. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
2010 Swearing: A Cross-cultural Linguistic Study. New York: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Love, Robbe
2021 “Swearing in informal spoken English: 1990s–2010s.” Text & Talk 41: 739–762. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mabry, Edward
1975 “A multivariate investigation of profane language.” Central States Speech Journal 26: 39–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manning, Susan, and Maria Melchiori
1974 “Words that upset urban college students: Measured with GSRs and rating scales.” The Journal of Psychology 94: 305–306.Google Scholar
McEnery, Tony
2006 Swearing in English: Bad Language, Purity and Power from 1586 to the Present. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
McEnery, Tony, and Zhonghua Xiao
2004 “Swearing in modern British English: The case of fuck in the BNC.” Language and Literature 13: 235–268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McWhorter, James
2021 Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever. New York: Avery.Google Scholar
Mehl, Matthias, and James Pennebaker
2003 “The sounds of social life: A psychometric analysis of students’ daily social environments and natural conversations.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84: 857–870. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mehl, Matthias, Simine Vazire, Nairán Ramirez-Esparza, Richard Statcher, and James Pennebaker
2007 “Are females really more talkative than males?” Science 317: 82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Montagu, Ashley
1967/2001 The Anatomy of Swearing. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Nelson, Marie
2014 “ ‘You need help as usual, do you?’: Joking and swearing for collegiality in a Swedish workplace.” Multilingua 33: 173–200.Google Scholar
Nerbonne, G. Patrick, and Nicholas Hipskind
1972 “The use of profanity in conversational speech.” Journal of Communication Disorders 5: 47–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norrick, Neal
2012 “Swearing in literary prose fiction and conversational narrative.” Narrative Inquiry 22: 24–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Driscoll, Jim
2020 Offensive Language: Taboo, Offence and Social Control. London: Bloomsbury Academic. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paradise, Louis, Barbara Cohl, and John Zweig
1980 “Effects of profane language and physical attractiveness on perceptions of counselor behavior.” Journal of Counseling Psychology 27: 620–624. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pavlenko, Aneta
2012 “Affective processing in bilingual speakers: Disembodied cognition?” International Journal of Psychology 47: 405–428. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pinker, Stephen
2007 The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Popuşoi, Simona, Grigore Havârneanu, and Corneliu Havârneanu
2018 “ ‘Get the f#∗k out of my way!’: Exploring the cathartic effect of swear words in coping with driving anger.” Transportation Research Part F 56: 215–226. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rassin, Eric, and Peter Muris
2005 “Why do women swear? An exploration of reasons for and perceived efficacy of swearing in Dutch female students.” Personality and Individual Differences 38: 1669–1674. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rassin, Eric, and Simone Van Der Heijden
2005 “Appearing credible? Swearing helps!” Psychology, Crime & Law 11: 177–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rathje, Marianne
2011 “Fuck, fandme og for pokker: Danske bandeord i tre generationers talesprog [Danish swear words in three generations of spoken language].” Språk och stil 21: 81–109.Google Scholar
Rieber, Robert, Carl Wiedemann, and Jeanette D’Amato
1979 “Obscenity: Its frequency and context of usage as compared in males, nonfeminist females, and feminist females.” Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 8: 201–223. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robbins, Megan, Elizabeth Focella, Shelley Kasle, Ana Lópes, Karen Weihs, and Matthias Mehl
2011 “Naturalistically observed swearing, emotional support, and depressive symptoms in women coping with illness.” Health Psychology 30: 789–792. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Patricia, Sverker Sikström, and Danilo Garcia
2017 “The a(ffective) b(ehavioral) c(ognitive) of taboo words in natural language: The relationship between taboo words’ intensity and frequency.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 36: 306–320. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scherer, Cory, and Brad Sagarin
2006 “Indecent influence: The positive effects of obscenity on persuasion.” Social Influence 1: 138–146. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schweinberger, Martin
2018 “Swearing in Irish English: A corpus-based quantitative analysis of the sociolinguistics of swearing.” Lingua 209: 1–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Senberg, Asne, Alexander Münchau, Thomas Münte, Christian Beste, and Veit Roessner
2021 “Swearing and coprophenomena: A multidimensional approach.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 126: 12–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shakiba, Nooshin, and Jean-Marc Dewaele
2022 “Immigrants’ language preferences for swearing in Persian and English: The effects of acculturation and socio-biographical background on language choice for swearing.” In Recent Advances in Second Language Emotion Research, ed. by Irini Mavrou, Mercedes Perez Serrano and Jean-Marc Dewaele, 191–215. Cizur Menor: Civitas Aranzadi Thomson Reuters.Google Scholar
Shakiba, Nooshin, and Karyn Stapleton
2022 “Persian immigrants’ language choice for swearing: The effects of socio-biographical variables and personality traits.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 1–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Singleton, Diskin
2009 “Unspeakable words: The taboo fringe of the lexicon.” In Advances in Discourse Analysis, ed. by Marta Dynel, 130–146. Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Stapleton, Karyn
2003 “Gender and swearing: A community practice.” Women and Language 26: 22–33.Google Scholar
2010 “Swearing.” In Interpersonal Pragmatics, ed. by Miriam Locher and Sage Graham, 289–306. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2020 “Swearing and perceptions of the speaker: A discursive approach.” Journal of Pragmatics 170: 381–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stapleton, Karyn, Kristy Beers Fägersten, Richard Stephens, and Catherine Loveday
2022 “The power of swearing: What we know and what we don’t.” Lingua 277: 1–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stenström, Anna-Brita
1991 “Expletives in the London-Lund corpus.” In English Corpus Linguistics: Studies in Honor of Jan Svartvik, ed. by Karin Aijmer and Bengt Altenberg, 230–253. Longman.Google Scholar
2006 “Taboo words in teenage talk: London and Madrid girls’ conversations compared.” Spanish in Context 3: 115–138. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 “Swearing in English and Spanish teenager talk.” In Advances in Swearing Research: New Languages and New Contexts, ed. by Kristy Beers Fägersten and Karyn Stapleton, 157–181. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stephens, Richard, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston
2009 “Swearing as a response to pain.” Neuroreport 20: 1056–1060. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stephens, Richard, and Ollie Robertson
2020 “Swearing as a response to pain: Assessing hypoalgesic effects of novel ‘swear’ words.” Frontiers in Psychology 11: 723. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stephens, Richard, David Spierer, and Emmanuel Katehis
2018 “Effect of swearing on strength and power performance.” Psychology of Sport and Exercise 35: 111–117. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stephens, Richard, and Claudia Umland
2011 “Swearing as a response to pain: Effect of daily swearing frequency.” The Journal of Pain 12: 1274–1281. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stone, Teresa, Margaret McMillan, Michael Hazelton, and Edward Clayton
2011 “Wounding words: Swearing and verbal aggression in an inpatient setting.” Perspectives in Psychiatric Care 47: 194–203. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stroh-Wollin, Ulla
2008 Dramernas svordomar: En lexikal och grammatisk studie i 300 års svensk dramatik [The swear words of drama: A lexical and grammatical study of 300 years of Swedish drama]. Uppsala: Department of Nordic Languages.Google Scholar
Thelwall, Mike
2008 “Fk Yea I Swear: Cursing and gender in a corpus of MySpace pages.” Corpora 3: 83–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Troutman, Denise
2006 “ ‘They say it’s a man’s world, but you can’t prove that by me’: African-American comediennes’ construction of voice in the public space.” In Speaking Out: The Female Voice in Public Contexts, ed. by Judith Baxter, 217–239. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vaattovaara, Johanna, and Elizabeth Peterson
2019 “Same old paska or new shit? On the stylistic boundaries and social meaning potentials of swearing loanwords in Finnish.” Ampersand 6: 1–9. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vingerhoets, Ad, Lauren Bylsma, and Cornelis De Vlam
2013 “Swearing: A biopsychosocial perspective.” Psychological Topics 22: 287–304.Google Scholar
Wajnryb, Ruth
2005 Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Wilson, Nicholas
2012 “Swearing as a leadership tool.” Paper presented at the Sociolinguistics Symposium 19 (Berlin, Germany). Accessed at [URL]
Young, Stacy
2004 “What the _ _ _ _ is your problem?: Attribution theory and perceived reasons for profanity usage during conflict.” Communication Research Reports 21: 338–347. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zenner, Eline, Tom Ruette, and Emma Devriendt
2017 “The borrowability of English swearwords.” In Advances in Swearing Research: New Languages and New Contexts, ed. by Kristy Beers Fägersten and Karyn Stapleton, 107–136. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Beers Fägersten, Kristy & Karyn Stapleton
2023. Everybody swears on Only Murders in the Building: The interpersonal functions of scripted television swearing. Journal of Pragmatics 216 ► pp. 93 ff. DOI logo
Stapleton, Karyn & Kristy Beers Fägersten
2023. Editorial: Swearing and interpersonal pragmatics. Journal of Pragmatics 218 ► pp. 147 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.