Swearing and Cursing: Contexts and Practices in a Critical Linguistic Perspective

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Swearing and Cursing

Contexts and Practices in a Critical Linguistic Perspective

Edited by: Nico Nassenstein and Anne Storch

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2020

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This book is in the series

Volume 22 | Language and Social Life [LSL]

About this book

While most of the more recent influential work on swearing has concentrated on English and other languages from the Global North, looking at forms and functions of swear words, this contribution redirects the necessary focus onto a sociolinguistics of swearing that puts transgressive practices in non-Western languages into the focus. The transdisciplinary volume contains innovative case studies that address swearing and cursing in parts of the world characterized by consequences of colonialism and increasingly debated inequalities. Turning away from more conventional and established methodologies and theoretical approaches, the book envisages to address transgressive linguistic practices, performances and contexts in Africa, Asia, America and Europe –including individuals' creativity, subversive power and agency. Due to its interdisciplinary and non-mainstream focus, this volume is an essential addition to the field of studies.

Author / Editor information

Nico Nassenstein, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Anne Storch, Universität zu Köln.

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Frontmatter
I

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Contents
V

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Foreword
VII
Thomas Stodulka

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Part I: Othering and abjection as deep practice
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1. “I will kill you today” – Reading “bad language” and swearing through Otherness, mimesis, abjection and camp
1
Anne Storch and Nico Nassenstein
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2. Ten issues facing taboo word scholars
37
Timothy Jay
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3. “Damn your eyes!” (Not really): Imperative imprecatives, and curses as commands
53
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
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4. “Oh, bald father!”: Kinship and swearing among Datooga of Tanzania
79
Alice Mitchell
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5. Aesthetics of the obscure: Swearing as horrible play
103
Anne Storch
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6. “I sh.t in your mouth”: Areal invectives in the Lower Volta Basin (West Africa)
121
Felix K. Ameka
Part II: Cultural mobility as context of transgression
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7. The linguistics of Jamaican swearing: Forms, background and adaptations
147
Joseph T. Farquharson, Clive Forrester and Andrea Hollington
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8. ‘Don’t say it in public’: Contestations and negotiations in northern Nigerian Muslim cyberspace
165
Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim and Aliyu Yakubu Yusuf
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9. Mock Chinese in Kinshasa: On Lingala speakers’ offensive language use and verbal hostility
185
Nico Nassenstein
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10. The name of the wild man: Colonial arbiru in East Timor
209
Ricardo Roque
Part III: Disruptive and trashy performance
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11. Found and lost paradise: Bad language at a beach in Diani, Kenya
239
Angelika Mietzner
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12. The sexy banana – artifacts of gendered language in tourism
259
Janine Traber
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13. English- and Spanish-speaking teenagers’ use of rude vocatives
281
Anna-Brita Stenström
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14. “He shall not be buried in the West” – Cursing in Ancient Egypt
303
Elisabeth Steinbach-Eicke and Sven Eicke
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Afterword
327
Neal R. Norrick
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Index
333

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

April 20, 2020

eBook ISBN:

9781501511202

Hardcover published on:

April 20, 2020

Hardcover ISBN:

9781501517242

Paperback published on:

January 31, 2022

Paperback ISBN:

9781501526817

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

9

Main content:

335

Illustrations:

4

Coloured Illustrations:

18

Tables:

18

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501511202

eBook ISBN: 9781501511202

Hardcover ISBN: 9781501517242

Paperback ISBN: 9781501526817

Keywords for this book

Sociolinguistics; Anthropological Linguistics and Linguistic Anthropology; Pragmatics; Postcolonial Studies; Southern Theory

Audience(s) for this book

Researchers and Students

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Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Genthiner Straße 13
10785 Berlin
productsafety@degruyterbrill.com

Swearing and Cursing

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Topics

Table of contents

Frontmatter

Contents

Foreword

1. “I will kill you today” – Reading “bad language” and swearing through Otherness, mimesis, abjection and camp

2. Ten issues facing taboo word scholars

3. “Damn your eyes!” (Not really): Imperative imprecatives, and curses as commands

4. “Oh, bald father!”: Kinship and swearing among Datooga of Tanzania

5. Aesthetics of the obscure: Swearing as horrible play

6. “I sh.t in your mouth”: Areal invectives in the Lower Volta Basin (West Africa)

7. The linguistics of Jamaican swearing: Forms, background and adaptations

8. ‘Don’t say it in public’: Contestations and negotiations in northern Nigerian Muslim cyberspace

9. Mock Chinese in Kinshasa: On Lingala speakers’ offensive language use and verbal hostility

10. The name of the wild man: Colonial arbiru in East Timor

11. Found and lost paradise: Bad language at a beach in Diani, Kenya

12. The sexy banana – artifacts of gendered language in tourism

13. English- and Spanish-speaking teenagers’ use of rude vocatives

14. “He shall not be buried in the West” – Cursing in Ancient Egypt

Afterword

Index

Bibliographic data