On the Development of Swear WordsYoon, Jae-HakExamining swear words found in Korean and English, we aim to answer thefollowing 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 directedtowards an opponent, emotional catharsis, and solidarity building amongin-group members (Jay 1992, 2000, Kim 1997). We seek to go beyond thissimple enumeration of possible functions of swearing and suggest an underlyingmechanism at work to explain how these functions are achieved and why onlycertain types of words are employed in this pursuit.
A close examination reveals that a swear word must contain either taboo orsadism as an essential component. Sexual pleasure adds another dimension tothe basic components. Thus, if an expression contains a subset of the componentset {taboo, sadism, sex} in its semantics, it becomes available for swearing (oneof the underlined components must be included in the set). For example, manyreligiously sacred expressions and words for excretion are common swear wordsas they violate social and religious taboo. On the other hand, words referringto social minorities are a convenient target for sadism. Furthermore, wordsdescribing 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 calledcatharsis 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 analyzedas a secondary function of swearing, achieved by sharing a sense of accomplicewhen in-group members behave badly together, such as violating social tabooand committing sadism.