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11. Why do the Dutch swear with diseases?

  • Tom Ruette
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Linguistic Taboo Revisited
This chapter is in the book Linguistic Taboo Revisited

Abstract

In this paper, we address the general problem of dealing with a complex and interwoven set of influential factors, potentially both linguistic and extralinguistic factors, behind linguistic choices. We do so by investigating the rare phenomenon of swearing with diseases in Dutch, rather than with the more common Western taboo concepts of (among others) religion and sexuality. The standing hypothesis is that swearing with diseases is related to the Calvinistic cultural background of the Dutch. Methodologically speaking, we perform a corpus- based analysis of a large database of location-specific tweets from Flanders and The Netherlands in which we observe “bad language”. Since the hypothesized influential factor of Calvinism shows an outspoken geographical pattern, we intuitively expect clear overlap of the area in which we observe a preference for disease-based swearing and the area in which Calvinism is the predominant religion. We do not find a straightforward overlap in the geography of Calvinism and disease-based swearing. Although the locations where disease-based swearing is conspicuously frequent are all within the Calvinistic area of The Netherlands, disease-based swearing is more likely in the highly-urbanized region around Amsterdam. Therefore, we can only conclude that urbanity, socio-economic factors, religious affiliation and nationality play intertwined roles in the choice for disease-based swearing versus swearing with words from other lexical domains. Consequently, we end up with a complex and interwoven set of extra-linguistic factors that influence the lexical choice for a taboo word from a specific domain for swearing.

Abstract

In this paper, we address the general problem of dealing with a complex and interwoven set of influential factors, potentially both linguistic and extralinguistic factors, behind linguistic choices. We do so by investigating the rare phenomenon of swearing with diseases in Dutch, rather than with the more common Western taboo concepts of (among others) religion and sexuality. The standing hypothesis is that swearing with diseases is related to the Calvinistic cultural background of the Dutch. Methodologically speaking, we perform a corpus- based analysis of a large database of location-specific tweets from Flanders and The Netherlands in which we observe “bad language”. Since the hypothesized influential factor of Calvinism shows an outspoken geographical pattern, we intuitively expect clear overlap of the area in which we observe a preference for disease-based swearing and the area in which Calvinism is the predominant religion. We do not find a straightforward overlap in the geography of Calvinism and disease-based swearing. Although the locations where disease-based swearing is conspicuously frequent are all within the Calvinistic area of The Netherlands, disease-based swearing is more likely in the highly-urbanized region around Amsterdam. Therefore, we can only conclude that urbanity, socio-economic factors, religious affiliation and nationality play intertwined roles in the choice for disease-based swearing versus swearing with words from other lexical domains. Consequently, we end up with a complex and interwoven set of extra-linguistic factors that influence the lexical choice for a taboo word from a specific domain for swearing.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Table of contents IX
  4. List of contributing Authors XI
  5. Introduction 1
  6. 1. Lexicon, discourse and cognition: terminological delimitations in the conceptualizations of linguistic taboo 13
  7. Part I: Construal
  8. 2. The axiological and communicative potential of homosexual-related metaphors 35
  9. 3. Metonymy-based euphemisms in war-related speeches by George W. Bush and Barack Obama 55
  10. 4. Ambiguity and vagueness as cognitive tools for euphemistic and politically correct speech 79
  11. Part II: Cultural Conceptualization
  12. 5. Old age revolution in Australian English: Rethinking a taboo concept 99
  13. 6. Taboo subjects as insult intensifiers in Egyptian Arabic 117
  14. 7. Emotion concepts in context: Figurative conceptualizations of hayâ ‘self-restraint’ in Persian 141
  15. 8. A Cognitive Linguistics approach to menstruation as a taboo in Gĩkũyũ 161
  16. 9. The socio-cognitive aspects of taboo in two cultures: A case study on Polish and British English 179
  17. 10. The influence of conceptual differences on processing taboo metaphors in the foreign language 201
  18. Part III: Cognitive Sociolinguistics
  19. 11. Why do the Dutch swear with diseases? 225
  20. 12. Calling things by their name: Exploring the social meanings in the preference for sexual (in)direct construals 245
  21. 13. The perception of the expression of taboos: a sociolinguistic study 269
  22. Part IV: Interdisciplinary Approaches
  23. 14. Scrupulosity, sexual ruminations and cleaning in Obsessive – Compulsive Disorder 293
  24. 15. Swearing as emotion acts 311
  25. Index 329
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110582758-012

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Foreword V
  3. Table of contents IX
  4. List of contributing Authors XI
  5. Introduction 1
  6. 1. Lexicon, discourse and cognition: terminological delimitations in the conceptualizations of linguistic taboo 13
  7. Part I: Construal
  8. 2. The axiological and communicative potential of homosexual-related metaphors 35
  9. 3. Metonymy-based euphemisms in war-related speeches by George W. Bush and Barack Obama 55
  10. 4. Ambiguity and vagueness as cognitive tools for euphemistic and politically correct speech 79
  11. Part II: Cultural Conceptualization
  12. 5. Old age revolution in Australian English: Rethinking a taboo concept 99
  13. 6. Taboo subjects as insult intensifiers in Egyptian Arabic 117
  14. 7. Emotion concepts in context: Figurative conceptualizations of hayâ ‘self-restraint’ in Persian 141
  15. 8. A Cognitive Linguistics approach to menstruation as a taboo in Gĩkũyũ 161
  16. 9. The socio-cognitive aspects of taboo in two cultures: A case study on Polish and British English 179
  17. 10. The influence of conceptual differences on processing taboo metaphors in the foreign language 201
  18. Part III: Cognitive Sociolinguistics
  19. 11. Why do the Dutch swear with diseases? 225
  20. 12. Calling things by their name: Exploring the social meanings in the preference for sexual (in)direct construals 245
  21. 13. The perception of the expression of taboos: a sociolinguistic study 269
  22. Part IV: Interdisciplinary Approaches
  23. 14. Scrupulosity, sexual ruminations and cleaning in Obsessive – Compulsive Disorder 293
  24. 15. Swearing as emotion acts 311
  25. Index 329
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