23 Besides, Anderson and Trudgill as cited in Lindahl, 2008, p. 4 also
categorized swear words into four types. There are many types of swearing which are usually used in people‟s communication. Each type of swearing has its own
distinctive characteristics that make it different from others. They are expletive, abusive, humorous, and auxiliary swearing. Each point is described as below:
a. Expletive swearing
Expletive swearing is not directed to other people. It is used to express personal emotions, such as anger, shock, and frustration. Besides, it can also be
expressed the emotion of joy and sorrow. Expletive swearing actually does not have specific meaning. Some examples in expletive swearing are Fuck, Hell,
Shit, and Goddamn it.
b. Abusive swearing
Unlike the expletive swearing, abusive swearing is directed towards others. This type of swearing includes name calling and other cursing expressions
that are offensive and causing insult. The function is to attack the addressee verbally. Some examples of abusive swearing in this type are, You lucky bastard,
You are an asshole, and Go to the fucking hell
c. Humorous swearing
Humorous swearing is a swearing that is directed towards others, but it is not abusive. It tends to be idiomatic, playful, humorous, and not serious rather
than offensive. Besides, it is not causing insult and it is used to reduce the tension in certain condition. An example from this type is Get your ass in gear.
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d. Auxiliary swearing
Swearing can also be in a form of auxiliary. Auxiliary swearing is used to emphasize the intention through using some taboo words. In this case, the
swearwords are not addressed to other people or situations. Yet, auxiliary swearing is a way of speaking that is sometimes known as „lazy speaking‟ and
„often or always non-emphatic‟. Some examples from this type of swearing are This fucking X and The bloody Y.
Considering Jay‟s and Anderson and Trudgil‟s classification of the types
are almost similar, the researcher of this study used Anderson and Trudgil‟s
concept as the basic theory to answer the research questions about the types of swearing words because it is more relevant to the use of swear words in the
Antologi Rasa novel.
5. Motives of Using Swear Words
Swearing is generally considered to be bad use of language, an unnecessary linguistic feature that corrupts our language, sound unpleasant and
uneducated, and could well be disposed of. At the same time, however, most people seem to have difficulties living up to their high linguistic ideals regarding
swearwords, and consequently, swearing lives on . Therefore, for the reason why people swear, Andersson clasified three different motives for swearing:
psychological motives, social motives and linguistic motives as cited in Karjalainen, 2002, p. 26.
