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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 405

Part of Session 102: Swearing and linguistic impoliteness in social interaction (Other abstracts in this session)

English-language swearing in Swedish-language comic strips

Authors: Beers Fägersten, Kristy
Submitted by: Beers Fägersten, Kristy (Södertörns högskola, Sweden)

In this paper, I investigate the use of English-language swear words in Swedish-language comic strips. Swear words have traditionally been associated with insults and vulgarity, and they can commonly be used in social interaction to offend. The relationship between swearing and impoliteness is thus predictable, at least superficially. However, swearing has also been shown to be a common feature of social interaction among friends and intimates (Beers Fägersten 2007; Jay 1992; Stapleton 2003), which, assuming a relationship between swearing and impoliteness, is in line with Leech’s (1983) conclusion that impoliteness can actually be an indication of or a contributor to social intimacy.

Swearing in English in the context of Swedish-language comic strips is approached as an example of mock or surface impoliteness (Culpeper 1996). The paper includes examples of singular, but wide-spread usage of English-language swear words throughout a variety of Swedish comic strips. English-language swearing signals or establishes intimacy among the Swedish readership, both by exploiting a lack of intimacy among the comic strip characters and simultaneously by capitalizing on the lack of emotional investment among Swedes (as non-native speakers; cf. Dewaele 2004, Jay & Janschewitz 2008) with regards to English-language swear words. The featured comic strips show interaction between strangers or interlocutors who are socially distant. The impoliteness resulting from the use of swear words is presumably evident to the non-native readership, since it serves as the main source of humor. It is mock impoliteness in that, in the social context specific to the comic strip, the swearing was not meant to offend. On the contrary, swearing is used as an overt move towards intimacy, in the belief (albeit inaccurate) that it constitutes an appropriate speech style for the given context. In mock impoliteness, it is the awareness of potential rudeness that makes a ‘wrong’ utterance right. In the Swedish comic strips, it is conversely the belief that the swearing utterances are ‘right’ which makes them wrong.

The use of English swear words appeals to the Swedish readership by assuming the readers’ recognition of the words as taboo, inappropriate or offensive in native speaker contexts. Using English-language swear words capitalizes on the readers’ recognition of their own pleasurable right to use English-language swear words with impunity, by virtue of their non-native status. Ultimately, this phenomenon can be seen to challenge (im)politeness theories to account for intent, accident and even enjoyment in non-native language use.

References:

Beers Fägersten, K. 2007. A sociolinguistic analysis of swear word offensiveness. Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics (SWPL) 1: 14-37.

Culpeper, J. 1996. Towards an anatomy of impoliteness. Journal of Pragmatics 25: 349-367.

 Dewaele, J-M. 2004. The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 25: 204–22.

Jay, T. 1992.  Cursing in America.  Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Jay, T. & Janschewitz, K. 2008.The pragmatics of swearing. Journal of Politeness Research 4: 267-288.

Leech, G. 1983. Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.

Stapleton, K. 2003. Gender and swearing: A community practice. Women and Language 26(2), 22-33.