Many Taboo Words |
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Introduction What is a taboo word? And what can we use instead? Many
Taboo Words New Words
Using Taboo Terms
To Sum It Up |
Now,
aside from all the different taboos themselves, we can see that there
are two
kinds of taboo themes and taboo words. First the ones
which exist a
priori. Those taboos are permanent and are based in
tradition, culture, and the psychological disposition of individuals or
speaker groups. Second, there are those that are based in society and
follow its development. They are temporary, relative to time,
geographical areas, social status and cultural traditions. Over time
changes in society result in an adjusted standard variety and adapted
replacements for taboo terms. The
first kind of taboo terms have long traditions. They are a fixed and
permanent part of the
society in which they occur. The latter kind may change within years.
Sudden events can change the perception of words and their usage, which
might lead up to the banning of those terms. One
can speculate about the future impact of other sudden events, such as
the terrorist attack in New York City on September 11th 2001.
This started a linguistic development and has a certain impact on the
language. The events already resulted in a numerical euphemism. Nine
eleven designates more than September 11th. Had the attack
occurred one day before or one day after the 11th, it is
unlikely that nine ten or nine twelve would have become common usage, since
nine eleven is the standard emergency telephone number all across the
United States. Also the terms terrorism, the terms good
and bad or the term rogue may in future times be used in a
different way because they now have different connotations assigned. But
not only the end of slavery and the civil rights movement has changed
yesterday's vocuabulary into the word stock we use today.
A
person with whom one had a steady extramarital sexual relationship in
the 19th century was called a paramour. In the 20th
century, the euphemism of to make love for to copulate became
predominant and thus the term paramour has been replaced with the
term lover. The younger term derives from the euphemistic expression to make
love to describe copulation, which, just as the French term did,
associates sex with love (French: par amour meaning by the way
of love[2]).[3] Also
the scarcity of women during the early days of the US gave them the
power to influence the language of the men courting them and through
them the language of society.[4]
The prudery of this time had an effect on the language. The word leg
was considered of vulgar and sexual in nature. The euphemistic term limb
had to be used instead. This was generalized to the degree that even the
legs of a table were to be talked about as limbs. This
taboo of using the word leg extended the sexual connotation of
the term leg to the point where interior design began covering
the limbs of tables with cloth.
We can see now that we are able to draw conclusions about comparable
social structures or changes and situations within societies when we
looks at the language in those cultures. Changes are evident if euphemisms jump
geographical or political borders and exist in more than one
country at the same time, cease to exist in two
countries at the same time or are included in the national varieties of
one country but are abandoned in another.[5]
In
the United States the main influences on language morals are still
marked by residual characteristics of the Puritan settlers, which –
from the 17th century on – developed considerable caution
regarding their choice of words, resulting in the development of
euphemisms. For this group, religion was of the highest priority and
sexuality was a strong taboo. So it evolved that a vast number of
euphemisms replaced sexual terms.[6]
Sexuality itself has been suppressed as a topic in English texts until
fairly recently. The term itself appears 1800 for the first time in written
form.[7]
So we can perceive that up to about the nineteenth century, sexuality
might have been talked about, but seldom appeared as a topic in print. The
relatively recent evolution of a more liberal mindset concerning
sexuality in general and a more open dialogue about it (which gained a
boost after the social changes that occurred in many western countries
in the second half of the 20th century) led to
communication about sexuality and a discussion on a more direct basis. Directness started
to be the norm where before elaborate euphemisms and various complicated
replacements had been used - if there was any discussion of those taboo topics
at all that is. If a speaker group usually avoids talking about a touchy subject,
but sees a need to change that, new terms will be created and a new vocabulary
will develop because of that necessity. Since the late 1980s
the immune illness AIDS made it necessary to develop a vocabulary to
express oneself concerning sexuality without changing to a slang,
colloquial or even vulgar level of language which would not be
appropriate in all situations and not suitable to all speakers. Hence
certain words and terms had to be created to develop this special
vocabulary and along with it a special etiquette to deal with a strongly
emotional topic, often interwoven with psychological factors, traditions,
superstitions, strong biases, social conventions, etc. The situation we find here is only an example for the way changes in society change the language of society. Still today each year hundreds of publications listing new words are printed to try and keep up with the linguistic development, not only relating to sexuality, but rather to any topic. The steady evolution of the media also create new terms each year. Some words are dropped, some are accepted into the standard variety, some are not accepted but are used anyway until they are common enough to be accepted. The
word fuck can be seen as an example of expansion of meaning and a
steady familiarization with a taboo word represented in many new terms
containing the taboo word. “For
centuries, and still by the greater majority, regarded as a taboo-word;
until recent times not often recorded in print but frequent in coarse
speech.”[8]
Not only is it a rather old taboo word (the OED gives 1535 as the
earliest record), but it also has a wide variety of usages. It is, as a
verb (transitive and intransitive), first of all referring to the act of
copulation. As an exclamation it is a coarse equivalent for damn.
As a construction with various adverbs, it drastically expands it’s
meaning beyond the purely sexual. To fuck off means `to go away´,
to fuck up means `to ruin, spoil or mess up´. Fucking is
also used as a mere intensive. It is referring to a person in a sexual
context (a fuck) and, in the form of fucker, can describe
either a specific individual or be used as a general term of abuse. There
is also a big difference as to the dates the word in its many meanings
first appears. They vary from 1535 (fuck as a verb) to 1960 (fuck-all,
meaning nothing).[9] Euphemisms
indeed change in various ways. They can stay the same but change in the
context in which they are applied.
To
take something can stand for `drinking an intoxicant´ or for `using
a narcotic´.[10]
Though the term itself has remained unchanged, the indicated substance
and the situationin which it is consumed have changed over time. Another
example here would be the term tramp, originally naming a female
prostitute.[11]
Today, however, in American English, it has broadened into a
disapproving name for any promiscuous or slovenly woman, including a far
larger group of persons than it originally did.
The
word gay also has a very diverse history. In the 19th
century, the gay life meant `prostitution´, to gay it was
to `go with a prostitute´, a gay house was a `brothel´, where
the prostitutes, the gay ladies would work. In the 20th
century, the use of gay transferred from the heterosexual to the
homosexual community. For previous centuries the now very long and
complicated seeming expression love that dare not speak its name
had been the euphemistic term for `male homosexuality´.[12]
There are also changes of euphemisms without a change of the meaning.
The term lesbian, applying to a female homosexual, replaced the
most widely used term, namely Sappho
who lived on the island of Lesbos. The two terms Sappho
and lesbian appeared around the same time in the late 1920s. But
now, instead of associating the sexual preference with the person Sappho, it is associated with the island she lived on and
specifically its inhabitants, the Lesbians.[13] [1]
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. S.v. [2]
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. S.v. [3]
Holder, R.W. (1987): A Dictionary of American
and British Euphemisms. S.v. Bath. [4]
Marckwadt, American English, 1971. 123. [5]
This of course is also a result of the separate national histories
of the countries and the separate events it experiences. [6]
For a more complete list of euphemisms, see Holden: „A Dictionary
of American and British Euphemisms“ [8]
The Oxford English Dictionary.
S.v. [9]
The Oxford English Dictionary.
S.v. [10]
Holder, R.W. (1987): A Dictionary of American
and British Euphemisms. Bath. S.v. [11]
Holder, R.W. (1987): A Dictionary of American
and British Euphemisms. Bath. S.v. [12]
Holder, R.W. (1987): A Dictionary of American
and British Euphemisms. Bath. S.v. [13]
Holder, R.W. (1987): A Dictionary of American
and British Euphemisms. Bath. S.v. |