Level of Formality in Speech

15 Jay also interprets religious taboos in his profanity and blasphemy category. There is an assumption that profanity and blasphemy mean the same thing but if one examine the intent of each speech form, he will see that they are different. According to Jay 1992, 3 profanity is related to the secular or indifferent to religion. Thus, to be profane means to be secular or behaving outside the customs of religious belief and to be ignorant or intolerant of the guidelines of a particular religious order. An example of profanity would be a word or phrase which seeks not to denigrate God, religion or holy affairs but would be based more on ignorance of or indifference to these matters. The examples are like “Jesus Christ, I’m hungry” and “For the love of Christ, get off the phone ” Whereas, blasphemy aims directly at the church and obtains scorn via the power of the church. Therefore, blasphemy would appear as a direct attack on religious figures re religious authority. The examples of blasphemy are “Screw the Pope ” and “Shit on what it says in the Bible” However, most theories do not make distinction between these two. Another category proposed by Jay is taboo. Jay 1992, p. 4 argues that a taboo operates to suppress or inhibit certain behavior, thoughts, or in this case, speech. Thus, taboo words are sanctioned or restricted on both institutional and individual levels under the assumption that some harm will occur if a taboo word is spoken Jay, 2009, p. 153. Further, Jay 2009, p. 154 describes that taboos in English are placed primarily on sexual references blow job, cunt and on those that are considered profane or blasphemous goddamn, Jesus Christ. Taboo extend to scatological referents and disgusting objects shit, crap, douche bag; 16 some animal names bitch, pig, ass; ethnic-racial-gender slurs nigger, fag, dago; insulting references to perceived psychological, physical, or social deviations retard, wimp, lard ass; ancestral allusions son of a bitch, bastard; substandard vulgar terms fart face, on the rag; and offensive slang cluster fuck, tit run. Jay 1992, p. 10-15 explains that taboo words are used for their emotional impact on people rather than for their literal or denotative interpretation. In messages, taboo words are more likely to be interpreted connotatively by listeners, rather than denotatively. For example, most listeners would interpret the utterance “My job is fucked up” as there was something wrong with the work. The next category is obscenity. According to Jay 1992, p. 5, the definition of obscenity is not fixed but dynamic because the law changes or evolves over time in response to changes in society and the courts’ decision. Another expert, Henderson 1991, p. 2 defines obscenity as “verbal reference to areas of human activity or parts of the human body that are protected by certain taboos agreed upon by prevailing social custom and subject to emotional aversion or inhibition”. Thus, in Henderson’s view obscenity is related to sexual and excremental areas. To call a word obscene means that it cannot be used freely as it is subject to restriction. In order to be obscene, Henderson idem explains that such reference must be made by an explicit expression that is itself subject to the same inhibitions as the thing it describes. Jay idem notes that taboo restricts what speakers do, obscenity functions to protect listeners from harmful language. 17 Obscene words are considered the most offensive and are rarely used in public media. The examples are fuck, motherfucker, cocksucker, cunt, or tits that have gained universal restriction. The obscene word “fuck” although restricted in media is one of the most frequently recorded dirty words in public, especially in the form of an expletive. The category of vulgarity in Jay’s view is rather general. In his opinion, v ulgarity means the language of the common person, “the person in the street”, or the unsophisticated, unsocialized, or under-educated so that it do not necessarily have to be obscene or taboo but just reflect the crudeness of street language. Words such as snot, slut, crap, kiss my ass, puke are not really offensive but maybe considered impolite or inappropriate. Another category proposed by Jay is slang. According Jay 1992, p. 6, slang is a vocabulary that is developed in certain sub-groups teenagers, musicians, soldiers, drug users, or athletes for ease of communication. Swan 1996, p. 22 defines slang as a word, expressions or special use of language found mainly in very informal speech, especially in the usage of particular groups of people. Thus, slang code serves to identify members of the group, while misuse or ignorance of it identifies non-members, which may be especially important in illegal transactions Jay, idem. Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, and Harnish 2010, p. 303 state that slang is sometimes referred to as vernacular and some forms of slang fall under the term colloquialism, referring to informal conversational styles of language. However, as noted by Eble 1996, p. 19 slang must be distinguished from regionalism or