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A study on swearing expressions could also be considered as pragmatics study. Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning as communicated by
speaker and interpreted by a listener. It has more to do with the analysis of what people mean by their utterances than what the words or phrases in those
utterances might mean by themselves. In other words, pragmatic is the study of speaker meaning Yule, 1996, p. 3. The study on swearing would involve the
interpretation of what people mean by saying the swearing utterances and how the context influences what is said. It requires a consideration of how speakers
organize what they want to say in accordance with who they’re talking to, where, when, and under what circumstances. By this explanation, pragmatic is considered
as the study of contextual meaning Yule, 1996, p. 3. However, before going into deeper discussion about swearing, it is
considered essential to deeply understand about the concept of taboo first since swearing is derived from taboo words. Thus, this chapter will explore the
literature review about taboo, taboo words, swear words, and swearing sequentially.
2.1.1 Taboo
There are many versions of the concept of taboo proposed by several linguistic researchers who have interest in digging out about the origin of taboo.
Allan and Burridge 2006, p. 2 state that the word taboo derives from Tongan, Tahitian language, called “tabu”. This finding is in accordance with Captain
Cook’s experience which is written in his log book when he was sent to Tahiti to observe the transit of planet Venus across the Sun in 1776-1779:
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“When dinner came on table not one of my guests would sit down or eat a bit of any thing that was there.
Every one was Tabu, a word of very comprehensive meaning but in general signifies forbidden.”Cook
1967, p. 129
. . . “In this walk we met with about half a dozen Women in
one place at supper, two of the Company were fed by the others, on our asking the reason, they said Tabu
Mattee. On further enquiry, found that one of them had, two months before, washed the dead corps of a Chief,
on which account she was not to handle Victuals for five Months, the other had done the same thing to
another of inferior rank, and was under the same restriction but not for so long a time”. Cook 1967, p.
135
In this citation, Cook uses the word “tabu” to describe the behavior of the native inhabitants toward things that were not to be done or touched. Cook also
states that anything which is forbidden to be eaten are called Taboo, as when people are forbidden to eat from the flesh of human sacrifices Tangata Taboo
Cook, 1967, p. 176. For the other example related to this kind of prohibition, there are food taboos in most societies and they are mostly religion-based taboo;
the vegetarianism of Hindus; the proscription of pork in Islam; the constraints on food preparation in Judaism; fasting among Jews at Passover and Muslims during
Ramadan; the proscription of meat on Fridays among Roman Catholics Allan Burridge, 2006, p. 4.
Freud 2004, p. 3 digs out the origin of taboo by observing the ancient Aboriginal Australian’s way of life. This tribe upholds totemism as their system
of tribal life. Each clan, the smaller division of the tribe, has different symbols of totem. The totem symbolized by the clan functions as a sign to prevent incest
