Teaching Taboo in the Classroom Georgeta Raţă; Elena-Mirela Samfira
Lucrări științifice zootehnie şi biotehnologii,
09/2023, Volume:
50, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Open access
The goal of the paper is to show how important it is to teach taboo in the classroom. The teaching of taboos is a rather new approach in education. Based on both classical (language dictionaries) and ...modern (internet sites) sources, the authors define taboo with the help of both English language dictionaries and specialised dictionaries and encyclopaedias, and provide the etymology and the typology of the word taboo (acts/actions/activities/behaviours, objects, people, places, times, and words) going from traditional to current ones. The degree of novelty of the paper is rather high. Research limitations are due to the lack of studies on this topic in Romanian literature. The implications are deep and closely related to the degree of relevance of the paper.
This study examined whether the context of acquisition of a word influences its visual recognition and subsequent processing. We utilized taboo words, whose meanings are typically acquired socially, ...to ensure that differences in processing were based on learned social taboo, rather than proficiency. American English-speaking participants made word/non-word decisions on American taboo (native dialect), British taboo (non-native dialect), positive, neutral, and pseudo- words while EEG was recorded. Taboo words were verified as taboo by both American and British English speakers in an independent norming survey. American taboo words showed a more positive amplitude of the Late Positive Complex (LPC), a neural correlate of emotionality and social processing, compared with British taboo words and all other word categories. Moreover, in an item-wise analysis, LPC amplitudes of American taboo words were positively correlated with their taboo ratings. British taboo words did not show this effect. This indicates that American participants, who had very limited social contact with British English, did not have the same perception of social threat from British taboo words as they had from American taboo words. These results point to the importance of social context of acquisition in establishing social-affective meaning in language.
Swearing, or the use of taboo language, has been repeatedly shown to induce hypoalgesia. While reliable hypoalgesic effects have been observed across studies, the mechanisms by which swearing ...influences pain and the optimal dosage of swearing remain poorly understood. Plausible mechanistic rationale for swearing’s impact on pain include sympathetic response, emotion, humor, distraction, aggression, state disinhibition, psychological flow, risky behavior, and self-confidence. It remains unknown how the intensity of the swear word, speech volume, frequency, or timing influences pain modulation. While the majority of evidence demonstrates the efficacy of swearing at attenuating acute pain responses, these studies have utilized healthy populations with controlled experiments in laboratory settings. Comparatively, less is known about how laboratory findings translate practically/clinically to diverse populations, various dosages, and different pain chronicities. A greater understanding of mechanistic underpinnings and practical implications are necessary to feasibly implement swearing as a therapeutic modality to combat pain. The purpose of the following mini-review is to provide an overview of the current evidence on swearing for the reduction of pain, speculate on plausible underlying mechanisms, and discuss the potential for optimization of swearing for real-world translation. Lastly, identifying knowledge gaps to aid in directing future research will be discussed.
Audiovisual media reflect language use in the community and the context of attitudes and stereotypes regarding different language varieties. Against this backdrop, taboo language has become a ...frequent resource for linguistic characterisation in cinema. Studies related to taboo language in audiovisual contexts suggest some functions of these words in films, though not systematically nor layered. Based on the work of Allan and Burridge (“Swearing”) on the functions of taboo language in its authentic use and Delabastita (“Great Feast of Languages”) on the extratextual functions of multilingualism in Shakespearean work, this article offers an empirical, multidisciplinary, systematic approach to the use of taboo language in films. We propose a typology of four intratextual and three extratextual functions of taboo language in audiovisual contexts. This typology will then be tested on a corpus of films via a detailed multimodal quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Researchers have argued that bilingual speakers experience less emotion in their second language. However, some studies have failed to find differences in emotionality between first and second ...language speakers. We used computer mouse tracking in an auditory lexical decision task to examine taboo effects - more efficient processing of taboo than neutral words - in first (L1) and second (L2) language speakers of American English. As predicted, we found an effect of language (L1 participants processed words more efficiently than L2 participants did) and a taboo effect (taboo words were processed more efficiently than neutral words). Interestingly, the language by taboo interaction (less emotionality in second language) emerged in number of errors and in the mouse trajectories, but it did not emerge in reaction times. We discuss how different aspects of participants' responses are likely to capture different underlying cognitive processes. We conclude, as other researchers have reported and many bilinguals experience, that language processing in second language is less emotional.
Taboo words represent a potent subset of natural language. It has been hypothesized that “tabooness” reflects an emergent property of negative valence and high physiological arousal of word ...referents. Many taboo words (e.g., dick, shit) are indeed consistent with this claim. Nevertheless, American English is also rife with negatively valenced, highly arousing words the usage of which is not socially condemned (e.g.,
cancer, abortion, welfare
). We evaluated prediction of tabooness of single words and novel taboo compound words from a combination of phonological, lexical, and semantic variables (e.g., semantic category, word length). For single words, physiological arousal and emotional valence strongly predicted tabooness with additional moderating contributions from form (phonology) and meaning (semantic category). In Experiment
2
, raters judged plausibility for combinations of common nouns with taboo words to form novel taboo compounds (e.g.,
shitgibbon
). A mixture of formal (e.g., ratio of stop consonants, length) and semantic variables (e.g., ± receptacle, ± profession) predicted the quality of novel taboo compounding. Together, these studies provide complementary evidence for interactions between word form and meaning and an algorithmic prediction of tabooness in American English. We discuss applications for models of taboo word representation.
In this paper, we consider the censorship of public swear word usage as a function of, and continued maintenance of, taboo with a focus on L1 and LX swearing and its management. In research with ...multilingual speakers, first-language swear words are consistently perceived as more taboo, and thus more emotional/powerful than equivalent words from a second or third language. While the public use of English-language swear words may be subject to censorship in Anglophone contexts, it is not censored to the same extent in LX contexts. On the other hand, L1 swear words are censored. Such perceptions of differences in strength between one’s L1 and LX languages also seem to affect the work of language professionals: translators’ tendency to self-censor may at least in part be explained by this bias. The existence of a two-tier system of swearing and censorship serves to reinvigorate L1 swear words, while diminishing the power of English swear words. We thus examine how censorship works as a means of maintaining and/or attenuating taboo, potentially moderating the power of swearing itself in cross-linguistic and multilingual contexts.
Streaming platforms have transformed series distribution and accessibility, with Spanish-language shows gaining immense popularity, notably “La casa de papel” (Money Heist). This series features a ...diverse cast of characters whose linguistic diversity extends to the use of taboo language. Previous studies have shown that linguistic immersion, such as staying abroad, significantly impacts knowledge of this kind of language. This paper aims to explore to what extent these and other individual differences affect the comprehension of swear words in TV series. To this end, 33 learners of Spanish at B2 level were asked to translate 14 taboo expressions from the series. They also completed a questionnaire on the exposure to authentic language use through extended stays abroad and TV series as well as their attitudes towards the use of taboo words. The results show that students’ positive attitudes towards taboo expressions and their multilingual status were associated with significantly better comprehension of taboo expressions. Furthermore, students with stay-abroad experience, watching the series in Spanish (with or without captions) and with higher proficiency levels in Spanish were found to perform better on the comprehension test, although no significant effects were found. Pedagogical implications and further directions for research are discussed in light of these findings.
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