On the Development of Swear Words

욕설의 형성과정에 관한 소고

Examining swear words found in Korean and English, we aim to answer the following two questions: (i) 'What words develop into swear words?' and (ii) 'Why they do?' The utility of a swear word is frequently recognized as intimidation directed towards an opponent, emotional catharsis, and solidarity building among in-group members (Jay 1992, 2000, Kim 1997). We seek to go beyond this simple enumeration of possible functions of swearing and suggest an underlying mechanism at work to explain how these functions are achieved and why only certain types of words are employed in this pursuit. A close examination reveals that a swear word must contain either taboo or sadism as an essential component. Sexual pleasure adds another dimension to the basic components. Thus, if an expression contains a subset of the component set {taboo, sadism, sex} in its semantics, it becomes available for swearing (one of the underlined components must be included in the set). For example, many religiously sacred expressions and words for excretion are common swear words as they violate social and religious taboo. On the other hand, words referring to social minorities are a convenient target for sadism. Furthermore, words describing sexual activity contain all three components, violating social taboo, evoking sadism, and giving the initiator guilty sexual pleasure. A combination of the components can produce an emotional effect called catharsis for the initiator. When directed towards others, these components, especially taboo and sadism, can be exploited as a verbal attack, an intimidation, preceding or replacing a physical attack. However, solidarity building is analyzed as a secondary function of swearing, achieved by sharing a sense of accomplice when in-group members behave badly together, such as violating social taboo and committing sadism.