DOI:

72 10.9744/kata.16.2.71-76 ISSN 1411-2639 (Print), ISSNNicolau & Sukamto

2302-6294 (Online)

OPEN ACCESS
pain, surprise or annoyance. Some examples inTo this effect, this mini research stems from our
his desire to identify the swear utterances of 15 male
data are as follows (p. 79): and
American 15 female bilingual Grade 12http://kata.petra.ac.id
students from Binus
English : Son of a gun! for Son of a bitch! International School Simprug Jakarta and to find
English : Copulating inferno! for Bloody out
Male and Female Attitudes towards Swear Words: A Case
hell! the kinds of swear words commonly used by the
Study at Binus International School
French: Mortbleu! death of blue for Mort two
Dieu! Gods death gender groups. Most specifically, it aims to inves-
German : Verflucht (nochmal)! forsworn for tigate which group applies more swear words and
Maria Fe S. Nicolau Verdammt 1, Katharina
(nochmal)! Endriati Sukamto
Damn! also
2 to find out the attitude of the students
1 Binus International School Serpong. Jl. Lengkong Karya Jelupang No. 58, Lengkong Karya/Serpong
Italian: Cavolo! cabbage for Cazzo! dicktowards METHODOLOGY the
Tangerang
Portuguese15322,: fogo! fire for fodo! fuck use of swear words.
INDONESIA
2 Russian : Yaponski bog! Japanese god forParticipants
Atma Jaya Catholic Yob tvoj mat! usually
University, translated
Jl. Jenderal Sudirman 51, Jakarta 12930, INDONESIA
as fuck our mother)
e-mails: 1 nicolau@binus.edu; 2 katharina.sukamto@atmajaya.ac.id
The participants of the study are thirty students of
Spanish : Caramba! for Carajo! dick
ABSTRACT Grade 12 (15 male and 15 female) aged between
Swedish : Gstrikland! (name of a province)
17
Swear words are forgenerally
Jvlar! devils
used to articulate anger, pain, excitement, frustration, or surprise. It is often
imitated by children
and 19 years old from Binus International School,
who may not really understand the meaning of the swear Simprug, Jakarta.
words. All of themstudy
This survey-based are Indonesians
aims to identify and
Swearing
the swear does not always refer to the behavior of
speak Indonesian as their first language. As they
uneducated
utterances or low-social
of male and female class people.find
teenagers, All out their
attend an international
commonly-used swearschool,
words, and theyinvestigate
have to speak
cultures,bilingual male
whether English at school. English, thus, is their second
men
or and students
female women,of with no 12,
Grade social boundaries
Binus International areSchool,
language. Simprug, Jakarta, use more swear words. A
combination
likely of
multiple
to practice choice
this.and open-ended
Yet, it can be questionnaire
perceived that wasmenconstructed and the analysis
Research procedures revealed that swearing is
and analysis
inevitable
Keywords:
and and
Swear words; attitude; teenagers; gender
becomes a part of the male and female language repertoire. Both groups of students are said to employ the
differences
women differ in many ways. According to the A combination of multiple choice and open-ended
use of Indonesian
difference
INTRODUCTION
and English sweartheory words(among others Uchida,
in carrying-out 1992;
conversations questionnaire
Pinker (2008)
in order consisting
further
to release of
describes
stress and four items
that
express wasare five
there
intense
Tannen, 2001),
emotions. However, men and women are biologically construc- of swearing: dysphemistic swearing,
categories
different
male and tend
students so it to
is use
not more
surprising
swear that
words they
that haveted
are to allow
associated
abusive the participants
with
swearing, sexuality. to give their
idiomatic swearing, own res-
emphatic
Swearing is a natural human practice in different
different ways of speaking, although both groups ponses. The survey wasswearing.
conductedDysphemistic
on October 21,
corners of the globe. Ljung (2011, p. 4) definesswearing, and cathartic
live 2013. Informal
has a interviews were alsothatutilized to
swearing as the use of utterances containing swearing dysphemistic effect makes
in the same environment. They establish different clarify
the
taboo
relationship with the society as if each belonged responses andabout
obtain more in-depth data.Thats
words. People swear for a number of different listener think negative matter (e.g.
to a The first open-ended question in the survey (see
bull
reasons. Many people believe that uttering swear
different environment and culture and the result Appendix) is used to find out the kinds of swear
words is often times socially unacceptable, butshit!). The second category, abusive swearing, is
of words that are often used by the male and female
used
recent
which is consequently reflected in their language. participants.
to It is also
abuse or insult others used
(e.g.to Fuck
see which group
you asshole!).
studies indicate that it helps relieve stress, anger,
Lakoff (1973) and Spender (1980), on the otherThe employs more swear words. The multiple choice
and
hand, questions
third one is(no. 2, 3 and
idiomatic 4) are used
swearing, which to find theto
is used
tension (Jay 2009, Ljung 2011, Wang 2013,
see gender differences in speaking due to the arouse students attitude and the reasons
interest or to show off (e.g. Fuck, man!). behind their
Stephens
inequality of power between men and women. The swearing utterances. For the first open-ended
2013). As stated by Stephens (2013), a senior
Power, ques-
psychology lecturer at Keele University: [] fourth category, emphatic swearing, is used to
according to them, is often identified as a maleemphasize tion, the respondents
something are (e.g.asked
It was toso write five big!).
fucking
swear-
patriarchal order. In relation to swearing, LjungThe swear
ing probably
Pinker (2008)worksstatesby that
making
swearingpeople feel more(p. last one, cathartic swearing, is often used
is universal
(2007, p. 93) claimed that women seem to strive words that they commonly use. For the multiple
aggressive,
327), and that in turn settingand
the words off concepts
the fight or in when
flight
used
towards using the standard variety. This implies choice questions, they are allowed to giveis
responsemay
swearing be considered taboo (p. 328) in something
(p. 651). bad happens
A cross-cultural linguisticand study theabout
speaker swearing
that multiple
undergoing
some was
women tend to use milder and fewer swear words responses.
a negative by The analysis,
emotion therefore, is based on
cultures. He further argues that in the history of conducted Ljung (e.g.
(2011). Damn Thethis
study, coffee!).
whichIn
than men. Likewise, Edlund (2007, p. 64) states the
any
world
In the Indonesian-environmental context, the reports RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
that number of responses likelygiven by the respondents.
languages,
issue we may observe that many words case, swearing
the results of the is application
to occur of ainquestionnaire
almost any to
male conversation tends to revolve around topics cultures, and it is basically associated with letting
stay
about native speakers of different
gender differences in the use of swears This section presents the results and discussion of languages, indicates
of off
taboo
words for centuries (p. 329) but dirty words maythat
the
public concern and is focused on establishing ones emotion.
have
has turned
not been clean
widely (p. 328). For
explored. A example,
study by in despite
Suyanto study aboutthe fact
the that
swear swearing
words used is oftenby thetimesmale
status.
George
(2010), focuses on the swear words used by regarded
and
five
Sollid (2009) also reveals in her Swedish data that
Bernard
male Shaws play Pygmalion in 1914, the as an offensive
female students, andthedisrespectful
factors that behavior,
lead themittois a
Swedish men use swear words under all circum-
character
Javanese Eliza
universityDoolittle utters an expression not
sociolinguistic
swear, phenomenon that is understudied
stances than womenstudents
and theyliving utterinmore
a boarding
bloody
house likely which was considered
in Semarang. The study, which was based very rude and
the age group in which they often swear and the
offensive
offensive
on at that time. However, in My Fair Ladyis worththat
media for has
investigation
influenced(p. them3). According
to use theto swear
words when they swear.
musical play in 1956, the swearword
16 informal conversations, reveals that Javanese bloody hasLjung
words. Figure 1 below describes the choice of
lost
swear words are commonly used among peers to 71 (2011,
swear p. 79), swearing in many languages
its offensive
indicate natureand
solidarity andfriendship.
now it has been widelycontains words by the male and female students.
heard euphemistic taboo expletives that are used to
on TV and in regular conversations (p. 328). express
Male and Female Attitudes towards Swear Words 73

No. of Males No. of Females

The responses of both genders are also the same
14 14
with
9
10 10 10 regard to the use of shit. However, one of the
7 female
6
4
5
4 4 4
5
4 participants said, I use this swear word because
2 2 2 2 2 it
0 00
0 0 0
denotes that the person I am cursing is a piece of
garbage. Pragmatically, using this swear word
can
be considered as conveying the speakers
Figure 1. Swear words used by male and female In relation to theintention
communicative differenttowards
categories the of swear
interlocutor
students words
(cf.
used
Wangby the participants, the data show that the
2013).
It can be seen from the above table that the male
male
students used four Indonesian and six English
respondents use more words that are related to
swear
sexuality (fuck, ngentot, and mockerfucker) than
words, while the female respondents used only
the
two
female counterpart (fuck). Interestingly, the
Indonesian swear words and eight English swear
number of
words. The swear words anjing, fuck, and shit
swear words for the category of animals is the
came
same
out to be the top three for both male and female
for both male (anjing, bitch, bangsat) and female
respondents. Fourteen male students and nine
(anjing, bitch, pig.) However, the use of expletives
female
can be attributed more to the female respondents
students used anjing, ten male and fourteen
(shit,
female
tai, damn, asshole, what the hell, and crap) than
used fuck and ten male and female students
the
stated that
male respondents (shit, tai, dam, asshole). As
they used shit. Although there is a difference
stated
between
by Jay (2009), men are less likely to use
the male and female participants use of anjing,
euphemisms
both In relation
publicly or to the reasons
privately. Theyof useswearing, the to
obscenities
groups stated that they could express their teenaged
signal
feelings students reveal different
group membership and toreactions,
discourage as outsiders
indicated in
better in their lingua franca. They mentioned that Figure 2.
Since all the respondents in this study are from
there was a very intense emotional connection
bilingual joining the group. This was proven by two male
male female
when
speakers, it is not participants in this study who stated that they
they conveyed thesurprising
expression. if they swear in their
Moreover, 10

L1 swear
8
according 8
and L2. Harris (2004, p. 241) argues that to signal the female
swearing 6 counterparts
6 to back 7
off from
to the participants, the swear word anjing was
in the 5
tantamount to comparing a person to an animal.
L1 boys talk.
Theis considered to be more emotional if the 1
speaker
animals in this case, (e.g. anjing and pig) are
is more proficient
associated in his/her
with impurity andL1. However, when
uncleanness. anger desire to make a point pain excitement

someone acquires two languages in early

childhood, it Figure 2. What the
In answering often times leads
question What you often
to times
is likely that they elicit similar physiological swear? leads
Amusingly,
reactions (Harristhe result et al.,of the
2006, study also shows
p. 266). In this that
you to swear?, eight male and ten female
more
case, female
the students (14) used the swear word respon-
fuck
male respondents seem to have more swearingdents say that they swear due to anger, six male
than male (10).
references in their During
L1 thanthe the
informal
female interview, oneand
female
counterpart.participant disclosed: It is just a plain one female swear due to their desire to make a
expression. It does not mean anything. While point, a
male six male and five female say that it is due to pain,
paticipant stated: I heard this swear word used and
by finally eight male and seven female mention that
almost all my friends. I am influenced yet I do not it is
relate it to any bad connotation. This confirmsdue to excitement. From the four indicators, it is
Harriss (2004) claim that L2 is the language ofrevealed that anger shows the highest rate for the
emotional distance, and thus swearing in L1 is female participants. One of the female
perceived to be more forceful than swearing inparticipants
the stated that I swear when I am very angry. It
later-learned languages (p. 223). Interestingly, releases
however, both gender groups have more L2 swear my intense feelings. After that I feel a lot better.
words in their linguistic repertoire. Interestingly, another female participant revealed:
After my utterances of swear words, I say sorry. I
feel that I say bad words.
74 Nicolau & Sukamto

Seemingly, the data presented in Figure 2 shows
that
the male participants use swear words in any of
those
facets. It can be viewed that six of the male
What media has influenced your use of swear
words? is to find out the types of media that
have
influenced the students in using the swear words.
male female

participants have more desire to use swear words 11 11

than 8 8 8
female counterpart (male: 6; female: 1). While 6

eight
male and seven female participants express their
1 1
use 0 0

of swear words when they are excited, this seemstelevision internet radio movies printed materials

to
be the case to most people across cultures. Figure 4. Media influence on the use of swear
words
According
to Montopoli (2010), Joe Biden, the current ViceThe findings indicate that television and movies
President of the United States, swore due to hisare
excitement over the passing of the health carethe media that have the highest influence over
legislation on March 24, 2010 when he the use
congratulated of swear words. Eight of the male participants and
President
The question Barack
In whatObama age with
groupan outburst,
do you often Thiseleven
is of the female participants stated that they
a
swear? is to know in which age group the male learnt the use of swear words from the two types
big f***ing deal. This can be viewed that moreof
and
people are
female gradually
students utteraccepting
swear words. the fact that media which are television and movies. Internet
swearing Male Female
influence ranks the second with eight male and
is inevitable and it11becomes a part of their 11
six
linguistic female participants. Finally, both radio and printed
repertoire in carrying out conversation 7 and in materials did not show a significant difference
releasing stress and even expressing intense between male (0) and female (1) participants. It is
emotions. 4 noteworthy to mention that printed materials in
1
2 this
study include newspapers, tabloids and novels.
any age group similar gender (same age group)
mixed gender (same age group) According to a female participant, I seldom read
Figure 3 shows that the female participants swear since I have a lot of homework to do in my
Figure 3. In what age group do you often different
more
swear? in two different groups, namely any age
group subjects. I guess those are my priorities. Another
and mixed gender with same age group. The male female participant added: Once you watch a
participants, on the other hand, show a movie
predominant or television,
Based on the translation
responses of is both
also provided.
gender groups, This
swearing in similar gender with the same age the exposes me more to swear words. Further, a
group male
female group seems to be more predominantly
only. Two of the female students swear in any age participant by
influenced mentioned:
media. They I am not fond
stated that of reading.
television
group than the male counterpart (1), while in and Prefer to watch news in the television and watch
mixed movies.
movies have greater clout since they utilized their
gender with same age group, female participants visual and auditory senses every day. This
(11) confirms
swear more than the male (7) participants. In Jay & Janschewitzs (2013) finding that a greater
similar portion of people who are influenced by media to
gender with the same age group, female swear are women. This is due to a greater
participants CONCLUSION
proportion
(4) swear less than the male ones (11). In relation of women in public.
to The results obtained in this study indicate that
the mixed gender situation, a male participant Lakoffs (2004) idea concerning females are the
commented: I am not comfortable to swear inexperts at euphemisms still holds true. Despite
the the
presence of a female. Interestingly, it is revealed fact that the female participants in this study
in employ
this study that female participants do not showmore a swear words than the male counterpart,
sign female
of slowing down
Considering that with regard togeneration
the younger their use of swear participants still apply
It is also interesting to more expletives
underscore that thanboth theirmale
words in a mixed gender with same age group.and
nowadays male
As
stated
are by Jay (2009,
increasingly exposed p. 156), to the there is a tendency
media, the counterpart when they
female participants prefer converse.
to use the swear words
that
question in
men and women swear more frequently in the
presence of a group consisting only of their own
gender than in mixed-gender contexts.
Male
76 and Female Attitudes towards Swear Words Nicolau & Sukamto
75

their L1 (e.g.
Appendix: Theanjing, tai, bangsat) to exhibit a Jay, T., & Janschewitz, K. (2013). The science of
questionnaire
greater swearing. Psychological Science. Retrieved
impact
This is ainsurvey
their emotional
questionnaireresonance. On the
to discover theother from www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/
students perception towards swearing. Please
hand,
answer theasmale participants use more swear
honestly publications/observer/2012/may-june-12/the-
words that All the participants will remain anonymous
as possible. science-of-swearing.htm.
and the data given will only be applied to
are
this associated
study. with sexuality than the female Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and womens place.
counterpart.
1. What are
Likewise, thethe
usetopof 5 swear
swear words
words is that Language in Society, 2(1), 45-80.
you are using?
inevitable
1.______________________________ 4.______________________________
Lakoff, R. (2004). Language and woman's place:
when2.______________________________ 5.______________________________
the3.______________________________
speakers want to express anger, pain, Text and commentaries. New York: Oxford
excitement University Press.
and desire. Female students in this aspect swear Ljung, M. (2007). Swearwords. Danmark:
more Nrhaven
2. What
when often
they aretimes
angryleads
whileyou
the to swear?
male (You mayPaperback
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choice.)
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_____ Excitement
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_____ Desire age group
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_____ Insult New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
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(same
_____ Pain Montopoli, B. (2010). Biden swears at bill signing:
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In conclusion, swearing is inevitable and it
parts. And apparently, the impact of media like CBS news. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.
becomes a
movies and television are contributory factors for com/8301-503544_162-20001003-
part
3. In of the age
what male and female
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The
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