The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word
This article documents the increasing use of the English curse word fuck worldwide, as well as its degree of adaption into the host language, its syntactic function, and its meaning and its strength as taboo. Comparing the use of fuck with a special focus on the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, an...
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ftoslouniv:oai:www.duo.uio.no:10852/67769 2023-05-15T16:51:48+02:00 The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word Fjeld, Ruth E Vatvedt Kristiansen, Elsa Rathje, Marianne Oskarsson, Veturlidi Konstaninovskaia, Natalia Gill, Inayat Menuta, Fekede 2019-02-26T08:46:03Z http://hdl.handle.net/10852/67769 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-70955 https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2019-0004 EN eng deGruyter http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-70955 Fjeld, Ruth E Vatvedt Kristiansen, Elsa Rathje, Marianne Oskarsson, Veturlidi Konstaninovskaia, Natalia Gill, Inayat Menuta, Fekede . The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word. Intercultural Pragmatics. 2019, 16(1), 85-111 http://hdl.handle.net/10852/67769 1680622 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Intercultural Pragmatics&rft.volume=16&rft.spage=85&rft.date=2019 Intercultural Pragmatics 16 1 85 111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ip-2019-0004 URN:NBN:no-70955 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/67769/1/Intercultural%2BPragmatics%2BThe%2Bworldwide%2Buse%2Band%2Bmeaning%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bf-word.pdf 1612-295X Journal article Tidsskriftartikkel Peer reviewed PublishedVersion 2019 ftoslouniv https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2019-0004 2020-06-21T08:53:18Z This article documents the increasing use of the English curse word fuck worldwide, as well as its degree of adaption into the host language, its syntactic function, and its meaning and its strength as taboo. Comparing the use of fuck with a special focus on the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, and Iceland) with its use in Eurasia and Africa (with different alphabets, namely Cyrillic in Russia, Devanāgarī in India and Ge’ez script in Ethiopia), we found some similar developmental patterns, but also differences, for example to what degree the English loan word has replaced local curses and in what ways among social groups within a country. Comparing the terms used for the same concept was challenging because some countries have better text corpora and more research on written languages and especially on taboos, and those without such resources required additional minor investigations for a baseline. Findings revealed that fuck has spread worldwide from English, and it is commonly used in Nordic languages today. In Russian fuck is also adopted into the heritage language to a relatively high degree, and it has further gained importance in the vocabulary of India, where English has become the most used language by the higher and middle classes, but less so by lower classes. In contrast, the study of Amharic language in Ethiopia shows that the f-word is rarely used at all, and only by youngsters. We found a pattern starting from the outer North with Icelandic having adapted and adopted the word fuck the most, a slight decline in use in Norwegian and Danish, with less adaption and use in Russian, even less in Indian-English or Hindi, and being more or less absent in the African language Amharic. Formally though it is used conceptually both in Hindi and Amharic. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) Indian Norway Intercultural Pragmatics 16 1 85 111 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Universitet i Oslo: Digitale utgivelser ved UiO (DUO) |
op_collection_id |
ftoslouniv |
language |
English |
description |
This article documents the increasing use of the English curse word fuck worldwide, as well as its degree of adaption into the host language, its syntactic function, and its meaning and its strength as taboo. Comparing the use of fuck with a special focus on the Nordic countries (Norway, Denmark, and Iceland) with its use in Eurasia and Africa (with different alphabets, namely Cyrillic in Russia, Devanāgarī in India and Ge’ez script in Ethiopia), we found some similar developmental patterns, but also differences, for example to what degree the English loan word has replaced local curses and in what ways among social groups within a country. Comparing the terms used for the same concept was challenging because some countries have better text corpora and more research on written languages and especially on taboos, and those without such resources required additional minor investigations for a baseline. Findings revealed that fuck has spread worldwide from English, and it is commonly used in Nordic languages today. In Russian fuck is also adopted into the heritage language to a relatively high degree, and it has further gained importance in the vocabulary of India, where English has become the most used language by the higher and middle classes, but less so by lower classes. In contrast, the study of Amharic language in Ethiopia shows that the f-word is rarely used at all, and only by youngsters. We found a pattern starting from the outer North with Icelandic having adapted and adopted the word fuck the most, a slight decline in use in Norwegian and Danish, with less adaption and use in Russian, even less in Indian-English or Hindi, and being more or less absent in the African language Amharic. Formally though it is used conceptually both in Hindi and Amharic. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fjeld, Ruth E Vatvedt Kristiansen, Elsa Rathje, Marianne Oskarsson, Veturlidi Konstaninovskaia, Natalia Gill, Inayat Menuta, Fekede |
spellingShingle |
Fjeld, Ruth E Vatvedt Kristiansen, Elsa Rathje, Marianne Oskarsson, Veturlidi Konstaninovskaia, Natalia Gill, Inayat Menuta, Fekede The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word |
author_facet |
Fjeld, Ruth E Vatvedt Kristiansen, Elsa Rathje, Marianne Oskarsson, Veturlidi Konstaninovskaia, Natalia Gill, Inayat Menuta, Fekede |
author_sort |
Fjeld, Ruth E Vatvedt |
title |
The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word |
title_short |
The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word |
title_full |
The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word |
title_fullStr |
The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word |
title_full_unstemmed |
The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word |
title_sort |
worldwide use and meaning of the f-word |
publisher |
deGruyter |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10852/67769 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-70955 https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2019-0004 |
geographic |
Indian Norway |
geographic_facet |
Indian Norway |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
1612-295X |
op_relation |
http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-70955 Fjeld, Ruth E Vatvedt Kristiansen, Elsa Rathje, Marianne Oskarsson, Veturlidi Konstaninovskaia, Natalia Gill, Inayat Menuta, Fekede . The worldwide use and meaning of the f-word. Intercultural Pragmatics. 2019, 16(1), 85-111 http://hdl.handle.net/10852/67769 1680622 info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.jtitle=Intercultural Pragmatics&rft.volume=16&rft.spage=85&rft.date=2019 Intercultural Pragmatics 16 1 85 111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ip-2019-0004 URN:NBN:no-70955 Fulltext https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/67769/1/Intercultural%2BPragmatics%2BThe%2Bworldwide%2Buse%2Band%2Bmeaning%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bf-word.pdf |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2019-0004 |
container_title |
Intercultural Pragmatics |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
85 |
op_container_end_page |
111 |
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1766041893377933312 |