A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF SWEAR WORDS IN ENGLISH AND IRAQI ARABIC
Ahmed Mohammed Salah
College of Education for Humanities - Tikrit University
Muzhda Omer Raoof
General Directorate of Education in Kirkuk
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.5.2.16
Keywords: Sociolinguistics, Swear words, Culture, Taboo, Gender, Structure and Offensive
Abstract
Language is used by humans to carry out a wide range of social activities that reflect the social standards that have been established during various periods of time. Swearing is a linguistic device that serves both personal and interpersonal functions in almost all languages. As a result, linguists and anyone interested in language should pay attention to this linguistic phenomenon, which is also accompanied by a certain amount of taboo. The current study focuses on English and Iraqi Arabic societies because they are wealthy in the use of swear words. Its aims is to define, classify, state functions, and identify the history of swear words in language and culture. Also, it highlights and analyzes the most important swear words in English and Iraqi Arabic, and concludes the most essential findings. To fulfil the above aims, it is hypothesized that swear words come in a variety of forms, some of which are more widely used than others, culture influences the use of swear words, and the connotative meaning is determined by the context in which swear words are used. To sum, a range of elements influence the communicative act of swear words, including age, gender, social and economic status, as well as the speaker-listener relationship.
