Taboo Words or Swear Words Uttered Descriptively

50 utterance Carlin reminds the audiences about the existence of the word cock in the gospel. Here Carlin intentionally evoke to ambiguous reference of the word cock itself to the audiences. The word cock literally refers to “rooster” besides it is often used to connotatively refer to “penis”. Carlin deliberately tosses the audience into confusion of the word‟s reference and here he makes the joke. However, the possible appropriate reference for the word cock is rooster since there is the word “crowed” which is only possible to be performed by a rooster. Hence, the word cock in this utterance is neither taboo word nor swear word. Furthermore, this utterance has an illocutionary force. Besides, this utterance is also performative. It seems that Carlin insists the fact that there is such considered obscene word even in the bible. Thus, Carlin performs representative act by suggesting the case to the audiences. This utterance also has the perlocutionary effect toward the audiences for it can evoke their laughter. Therefore, this is not uttered in an offensive way. If it is said to be offensive, it does not meet the rules B.1, B.2, T.1, and T.2 of felicity condition. If it is uttered to offend, the act then will be misfired. 7 “Its in the Bible, cock in the Bible.” In this utterance the word cock becomes the center of the problem once more. Carlin again asserts the existence of the word in the book which is considered sacred. The case is the same: the word has its literal meaning i.e. the 51 “rooster” and is ambiguously swapped with “penis”. Yet, this word is merely taboo word and not swear word since it has no emotive function and it refers to its literal meaning. This utterance is the part of the assertion toward the previous utterance which declares that there is a cock in the holy scripture. Similar to the previous utterances, in this utterance the taboo word is used descriptively since it refers to its literal meaning and hence. Furthermore, this utterance is a performative and has an illocutionary force. It seems that Carlin insists the fact that there is such considered obscene word even in the bible. Thus, Carlin performs representative act by suggesting the case to the audiences. This utterance also has the perlocutionary effect toward the audiences for it can evoke their laughter. Therefore, this is not uttered in an offensive way. If it is said to be offensive, it does not meet the rules B.1, B.2, T.1, and T.2 of felicity condition. If it is uttered to offend, the act then will be misfired. 8 “And the first time you heard about a cock-fight, remember -- What? Huh? It aint that, are you stupid? man.” The word cock is still discussed in this utterance. But now the ambiguous interpretation is thrown into an activity which involves physical contact between animals. This case is similar to the previous one where the word cock is a taboo word and is uttered without any emotive function. Besides, there is one more word which is considered offensive i.e. the word stupid. Ljung 52 2011 classifies this word into the theme of non expletive epithet. It means that this word is not derived from taboo but it still may cause an offence p. 125. The word cock there is used as taboo word without emotive function and refers to its literal meaning. The word cock in this utterance is uttered descriptively and the word stupid is uttered abusively since there is the addressee toward whom this word is spoken. However, is this utterance, taken as a whole, really offensive? This utterance indeed has illocutionary force of which act is declarative; like baptizing i.e. giving predicate to the addressee. Actually it is potentially offensive. But the felicity of this utterance should be checked first before falling into decision that this utterance is offensive. This utterance does not qualify the rule B.1, B.2., T.1, and T.2 which means that the act of offensiveness of this utterance is misfired. It is proved by the laughter of the audiences in response of the swear words uttered by Carlin. 9 “ The word shit, uh, is an interesting kind of word in that the middle class has never really accepted it and approved it.” This utterance contains one taboo word i.e. shit. This word belongs to secular taboo and the theme is bodily effluvia. This word is highly indecent among the other taboo word with the same theme considering its degree of solidity and proximity to genital anal area Hunt, 2009. In this part Carlin discusses MCPC Middle Class Politeness Criterion by which the middle class 53 society highly avoids uttering the dysphemistic words like shithouse and tries to replace it with euphemistic words such as toilet Allan Burridge, 2006, p. 35. Yet that taboo word is not swear word since it does not have an emotive function and it refers to its literal meaning. The word shit here refers to “feces”. This utterance is performative and involves the act of representative. Carlin delivers his opinion about the word shit as the state of affair in this discussion. Actually this sentence is still continued by the next sentence which still discusses the word shit : “They use it like, crazy but its not really okay. Its still a rude, dirty, old kind of gushy word. laughter”. Although this utterance fulfills the felicity rules, the words shit here is not offensive since it contains no emotive function and also the audiences do not get angry upon hearing that word. 10 “All the animals -- Bull shit, horse shit, cow shit, rat shit, bat shit.” The word shit here refers to “feces” since here are mentioned five kinds of animal which obviously produce feces. All the word shit in this utterance are considered vulgarity with the theme of bodily effluvia. This utterance is considered constative, which means it is merely in the form of locution. This utterance also has perlocutionary effect which makes the audiences laugh upon hearing some examples of animals which produce feces. 54 11 “ Snake shit, slicker than owl shit .” In this utterance each of the word shit refers to its literal meaning. This is the same case with the previous utterance in which Carlin mentions some examples of animals which produce feces. The literal meaning becomes clearer when Carlin mentions and adjective „slicker‟ which is appropriate to be attached as an attributive adjective to that substance. The word shit refers to feces. There is an indecency in this utterance and not obscenity for the absence of the emotive function. This utterance contains taboo words and not swear words. This utterance is also constative and locution. However it has perlocutionary effect toward the audience which makes them laugh. 12 “I always try to think how that could have originated; the first guy that said that. Somebody got drunk and fell in some shit 1 , you know. Hey, Im shitface 2 . Shitface 3 , today .” In this utterance Carlin tries to present an assumption of how the word shitface might be formed. The word shit 1 is bound to its literal meaning. Its referent is feces which covers a guy‟s face when he gets drunk. It might be not a real reason of the forming of the slang shitface. It is more exactly a part of Carlin ‟s anecdote in his monologue. The word shit 2 in slang shit face might still possess its literal meaning considering its coherence with the previous sentence. The phrase shitface in this sentence means “face covered with feces” since it has been told that the drunken guy fell with his face on the feces. He then declares himself the shitface. The word shitface at the end of this utterance is considered 55 literally. The last sentence still has coherence to the previous sentences which explains the history of literal shitface. Each word shit in this utterance is taboo word and not swear word since they are still bound to their literal meaning i.e. “feces”. This utterance then is considered locution and constative considering its bound to its literal meaning shit for feces, shit face for “face covered with feces ”. Furthermore, this utterance also has perlocutionary effect which makes the audiences laugh upon hearing this utterance. 13 “The big one, the word fuck thats the one that hangs them up the most.” The word fuck in this context refers to sexual activity i.e. “having sex” or “making love” Pinker, 2007; Sheidlower, 2009; Ljung, 2011, Wajnryb, 2006. There is no emotive function in this utterance and the word fuck here is still bound to its literal meaning. This condition implies that the word fuck in this utterance is taboo word and it is not a swear word. This utterance is also considered as locution and is a constative since it does not perform an illocutionary force. This utterance has no perlocutionary effect. 14 “Its a great word, fuck, nice word, easy word, cute word, kind of. Easy word to say. One syllable, short u. Fuck .” In this utterance Carlin discusses the word fuck phonetically. The word fuck here is presumably still attached to its literal meaning. This word is included in secular taboo with the theme of sexual activity, as the literal meaning of this word suggests. This utterance is also considered as constative and locution. There is also perlocutionary effect in this utterance which makes the audience 56 murmuring after hearing such considered vulgar word being simplified this way. 15 “A little something for everyone. Fuck .Good word.” In this utterance Carlin tries to change the common paradigm about the word fuck. He insisted that fuck is a good word and he uttered the word to everyone in the spot audiences. Furthermore, this utterance is not uttered with emotive function which makes the word fuck in this utterance taboo word and is not swear word. As the word fuck in this utterance has the reference of “copulation”. This utterance is also considered as constative and locution. There is also perlocutionary effect in this utterance which makes the audience murmur after hearing such considered vulgar word being simplified this way. 16 “It would be nice to change the movies that we already have and substitute the word fuck for the word kill, wherever we could, and some of those movie cliches would change a little bit. There is only one taboo word in this sentence. This utterance is still about the word fuck which Carlin insists might means positive. It can be discerned by the utterance “it would be nice…” and the previous utterances which insist the idea that the word fuck does not always mean negative. The word fuck here is a taboo word which has association to secular taboo, theme of sexual activity and not a swear word since this utterance is lack of emotive function. The word fuck here is still bound to its literal meaning 57 which is “having sex”, “copulation”, or “making love”. The word fuck in this utterance is uttered descriptively with its literal meaning as the reference. However, this utterance is constative and locution since Carlin merely performs the act of saying. This utterance also does not have perlocutionary effect toward the audience. 17 “What does it mean? It means to make love. Right? Were going to make love, yeh, were going to fuck, yeh, were going to fuck , yeh, were going to make love.” In this utterance, it is obvious that each word fuck here refers to its literal meaning. It becomes obvious since Carlin himself explains the meaning of this word within this utterance. The word fuck here refers to sexual activity i.e. “copulation” or “making love”. Considering the bound to its literal meaning, each word fuck in this utterance is taboo word and not swear word. There is no emotive function as well in this utterance. Actually, this utterance is performative and tries to perform the illocution ary force, particularly in the utterance “Yeh, we‟re going to fuck. Yeh, we‟re going to make love.” The act done in this utterance is directive with which Carlin invites the addressee to make love the audiences. However, this act does not meet the rule T.1 and T.2 of the felicity condition. It means that Carlin does not really invite the addressee to have sex although in the next sentence Carlin continues: “were really going to fuck, yeah, were going to make love.” It, however, still does not make the T rules of felicity condition fulfilled. It can be 58 seen also that the rules B.1 and B.2 are not fulfilled as well since the audiences only respond this utterance with laughter with makes this utterance has perlocutionary effect. The act in this utterance then becomes misfired and void. It is also not to offend the addressee since the audience laugh upon hearing such utterance. 18 “ I dont give a shit. Hey, well, I dont take no shit, laughter you know what I mean? You know why I dont take no shit? []Cause I dont give a shit. If I give a shit , I would have to pack shit. But I dont pack no shit cause I dont give a shit. There is a repetition of the word shit in this utterance. It is a little bit tricky to determine the meaning of each word shit in this utterance. “I don‟t give a shit ” and “I don‟t take no shit” seems to be slang with the meaning of “do not care at all” or “pay no attention”. However, one verb changes the reference of the words shit i.e. the word “pack”. It is only the word shit as feces which is possible to be packed. Hence, it is possible that every word shit in this utterance refers to its literal meaning i.e. “feces”. Each of the word shit in this utterance then becomes taboo word and not swear word considering its bound to its literal meaning. This utterance is also constative and a locution which means that Carlin merely does the act of saying, including for the slangs. This utterance also performs the perlocutionary effect which makes the audiences laugh upon hearing the utterance. 59 19 “ You wouldnt shit me, would you?” The word shit in this utterance can be metaphorical. The possible meaning for the metaphor is “to do something harmful” Sheidlower, 2009. However, considering the next sentence “ Thats a joke when youre a kid with a worm looking out the birds ass.”, the meaning of the word shit in this utterance becomes literal refers to “an activity dealing with producing feces”. According to the context, the utterance is uttered by the worm to the bird. However, considering the literal meaning, this word is a taboo word and not a swear word. Actually this utterance is an illocution with the act of directive asking, requesting. However, it seems that this utterance does not qualify all of the rules of felicity condition. For the rules A, it is not the worm itself which utters the utterance. For the rules B, of course the audiences cannot respond appropriately since they are not in the position of the bird. For the rules T, it is obvious that Carlin does not really request the audience. This utterance then becomes misfired and void. 20 “ I found three more words that had to be put on the list of words you could never say on television, and they were fart, turd and twat , those three.” There are three new taboo words in this utterance. Two words belong to secular taboo with the theme of bodily effluvia fart and turd. One word belongs to the theme of the intimated part of the body twat. All the three words might be considered as vulgarity. These words are taboo words and not swear words since there is no emotive function detected in this sentence. The 60 references of the three taboo words are their literal meaning. This utterance is also constative and locution which means Carlin only does the act of saying. However, this utterance has perlocutionary effect toward the audiences which makes them laugh. 21 “ Fart , we talked about, its harmless Its like tits , its a cutie word, no problem.” There are two taboo words in this utterance. The word fart is secular taboo and belongs to the theme of bodily effluvia. The word tits is also secular taboo belongs to the theme of intimated part of the body. The two words are still related to their literal meaning which makes them taboo words and not swear words. There is also no emotive function in this utterance. This utterance is constative and locution. This utterance also does not perform the perlocutionary effect. 22 “ Now the word twat is an interesting word.” The word twat means the woman‟s genital and thus belongs to the theme of intimated part of the body. In this utterance again Carlin insists that the taboo word does not always mean negative. This purpose can also be seen in the next sentence in coherence: ” Twat is an interesting word because its the only one I know of, the only slang word applying to the, a part of the sexual anatomy that doesnt have another meaning to it. Like, ah, snatch, box and pussy all have other meanings, man.” There is no emotive function in this utterance either. 61 23 “ Were going to snatch that pussy and put him in a box and bring him on the airplane.” The only possible taboo word in this utterance is the word pussy which refers to woman‟s genital secular taboo, the theme of intimated part of the body. However, that is not the only literal meaning if the word pussy. The word pussy might also refer to “cat” OED which is the more appropriate meaning applied in the context of this utterance. This reference then makes the word pussy neither taboo word nor swear word. This utterance is also constative and locution. This utterance performs perlocutionary effect which causes the audiences to laugh and have a little discussion. 24 “Ah, ass is okay providing youre riding into town on a religious feast day.” This is another utterance in which Carlin puzzles the audiences with the homonymy relation of words. Ass might also refers to “donkey” Hughes, 2006. The word ass here refers to “donkey” since it is indicated by the existence of the word “riding”. The sense evoked by this utterance is about the first day of Holy Week in Roman Catholic religion which commemorates the arrival of Jesus Christ in Jerusalem by riding a donkey Holy Bible, Luke. 19.28-44. The ambiguity arises since the word ass here is presented in the monologue of which topic has relation with taboo. In the context of this utterance, the word ass does not refer “bottom” intimated part of the body as it is usually treated as taboo. There is no emotive function detected in this utterance which makes this word merely taboo word and not swear word. This utterance is also constative and a 62 locution. This utterance also performs a perlocutionary effect which makes the audiences laugh as usual. 25 “You cant say, up your ass. You can say, stuff it” “Up your ass” is actually a slang which shows a degrading activity toward the addressee as the sense Pinker, 2007, p. 221. Ljung 2011 adds that this slang might be a curse or offense toward other. However, in the context of this utterance, the word ass weirdly refers to its li teral meaning i.e. “buttock or anus”. This reference can be drawn regarding the following sentence: “You can say, stuff it” The word “stuff” in this context might refer to “have sex with for man OED ”. This utterance then has a sense of “anal sex”. The word ass here might also refer to something else. The word ass is possible to refer to “donkey” since the word “stuff” verb might mean “fill out the skin of dead animal with material to restore its or iginal shape” OED. Hence, the sense with this context might be “to erect a skin of a dead donkey and make it preserved.” The word ass here is still taboo word and not swear word for the absence of the emotive function. This utterance is also constative and locution since it is in the form of direct speech. This utterance performs the perlocutionary effect which makes the audiences laugh. There are various taboo words uttered of which references are tabooed things in this part: bitch, bastard, hell, damn, cock, fuck, ass, shit, piss, cunt, 63 cocksucker , motherfucker, tits, fart, turd and twat. All of the taboo words refer to their literal meaning, for example: bitch refers to “sensual woman”, fuck refers to “copulation”. However, there are two words, cock and pussy, which do not refer to tabooed things. The alternate references of that word might be tabooed things both of which are about the intimated part of the body men‟s and women‟s genital. However, the word cock here refers to “rooster” and the word pussy refers to “cat”, which are not taboo at all. Almost all of the utterances here are in the form of constative and locution. The utterances containing illocutionary force in this part do not fulfill the felicity condition. Thus, the offensiveness of the utterances in this sentence is doubtfully present.

4.2.2. Taboo Words or Swear Words Uttered Idiomatically

This part discusses the utterances which contain idiomatic taboo words or swear words. One important point here is that the taboo words or swear words do not refer to their literal meaning. Hence, there are some expressions, slangs, or metaphors which form a formulaic structure and have certain references or senses. The utterances which contain idiomatic taboo words or swear words are as follows: 1 “ Get that shit out of here, will ya?” In this utterance, the word shit is a swear word of which form is an expletive. The reference of this word comes separately from its literal meaning. 64 In the context of this utterance, the meaning of this word might be “something unpleasant” or “something small and unimportant” Ljung, 2011, p. 17. It is different case with the quite similar case e.g. “get the shit out of here” in which the word shit is a slot-filler. In this utterance the word shit is a noun detected from the existence of the determiner „that‟. This utterance is performative with directive illocutionary act since it can be seen from the form of the sentence. The act is „requesting or asking someone to do something‟. It is similarly offensive when the speaker utters this sentence to an addressee. Yet, the felicity of this utterance should be checked. This utterance does not qualify the rule B.1, B.2, T.1, and T.2. Rule B.1 and B.2 are not met since the addressee audiences does not respond to the request by doing something asked. It makes this utterance misfired. Considering the context of the monologue in which this utterance takes place, rule T.1 and T.2 are also not met since Carlin does not really do the act of asking from the audience. This is the part of the comedy in which Carlin imitate the context of the act. The act of requesting using swear word then becomes void. This utterance also does not perform perlocutionary effect since the audiences has not respond to this utterance and still keep listening 2 “I dont want to see that shit anymore.” The word shit in this utterance has the same case with the previous one. It is a swear word and is separated from its literal meaning. The sense of “something unpleasant” or “something small and unimportant” is still relevant 65 for the word shit in this utterance and indeed is a noun and a metaphor. This utterance is performative with directive illocutionary act although it is in form of declarative sentence. The act is „requesting or asking someone to do something‟. It is similarly offensive when the speaker utters this sentence to an addressee. Yet, the felicity of this utterance should be checked. This utterance does not qualify the rule B.1, B.2, T.1, and T.2. Rule B.1 and B.2 are not met since the addressee audiences does not respond to the request by doing something asked. It makes this utterance misfired. Considering the context of the monologue in which this utterance takes place, rule T.1 and T.2 are also not met since Carlin does not really do the act of asking from the audience. This is the part of the comedy in which Carlin imitates the context of the act. The act of requesting using swear word then becomes void. This utterance also does not perform perlocutionary effect since the audiences have not respond to this utterance yet and still keep listening. 3 “ I cant cut that shit , buddy.” In this utterance the word shit is also treated as a swear word. This word might be considered as obscenity since there is an emotive function there. The word shit here approximately refers to hair to which Carlin refers in the previous utterance: “ I can let my hair hang down now.” It is quite different case with the previous two sentences. The word shit is still used as a metaphor of something. In this context it is the hair which contains unpleasant sense. The word shit can also 66 have sense “unpleasant condition” which the speaker faces Sheidlower, 2009; Ljung 2011. By uttering this sentence Carlin probably refers to condition when he cannot grow his hair long presumably the condition before he gets the Grammy. But, Wajnryb 2006 suggests that the word shit is not exclusively negative, as seen in this utterance that the thing represented by the word shit is not always something bad or unpleasant. Yet, this sentence is constative and has no illocutionary force. 4 “ He dont know shit from Shinola.” “Shit from Shinola” is a slang meaning “completely ignorant” Painter et al., 2007. Shinola is a brand of shoe polish which was quite well known in America in the era of 1940‟s. The word shit here has formed a formulaic language in a slang combined with the wo rd “Shinola”. The word shit then is not bound to its literal meaning. However, there is no emotive function in this utterance. The meaning of the slang then cannot be deduced from each composing word in order to mean “completely ignorant”. This utterance is constative and locution since it does not indicate an act done in speaking. Actually this utterance does not solely perform a perlocutionary effect. However, this utterance is continued by laugher- stimulating utterances: “you know that? Always wondered how the Shinola people feel about that. Hi, Im the new man from Shinola. Hi, how are ya? Nice to see ya. How are ya?” Listening to this utterance, the audiences laugh and the perlocutionary effect then takes place. 67 5 “ Boy, I dont know whether to shit or wind my watch. Guess, Ill shit on my watch.” This is another utterance which contains obscenity with the word shit. The definition of the word shit here is clearly separated from its literal meaning. This word seems to be a verb and considering its relation to the word “watch”, it will not make sense if the meaning is literal. The reference of the word shit might contextually mean “get rid of” but it is uttered in a simulated difficult situation. The sense obtained from this utterance is that the speaker faces difficulty and confusion about what to do with his watch related to the degree of damage of the watch. Each word shit is uttered with emotive function and burst in a distress. This word is considered cathartic swearing since it reflects the speaker‟s feeling. It might also be considered as idiomatic swearing since the word shit here represents something which is considered unpleasant. Since then this sentence is a constative and locution since this is merely an act of saying. 6 “ Oh, the shit is going to hit the fan.” “When the shit is going to hit the fan” is a slang word meaning “when disastrous consequences of something become known. Because it is a slang it constitutes a formulaic language involving the word shit. Since then, this taboo word is boundless to its literal meaning. However, there is no emotive function found here and it implies that this utterance contains taboo word not swear word. This utterance is constative and in form of locution. However, it has