Taboo Language as a Means of the Category of Impoliteness in the English Language

Abstract

The article considers means of the linguistic category of impoliteness, and the research is based on the pragmatic approach in linguistics. Impoliteness is associated with the so-called communicative sabotage, behavior violating communicative norms. To interpret the speaker’s verbal behavior one should judge not only by the wording, but take into consideration the communicative situation, which, in some cases, is of paramount importance. In the research, impoliteness is understood as a language used to offend or / and is perceived as offensive. But the analysis touches upon the instances with marked vocabulary, which cause damage to the addressee. All the tabooed words in English are classified into four big semantic groups. The first group includes the semes related to the Christian religion that used to be associated with blasphemy but now have lost their initial capacity, especially among teenagers. The second group embraces roots with the meaning ‘sexual relations,’ ‘excretion’ but nowadays they lack their original status in most contexts and mostly perform the function of catharsis. The third group is mentioned as zoovocatives and, according to the research, are used to diminish the addressee’s importance, to rise in the estimation of the public. The last group comprises the words with the seme ‘blood’ which no longer refers to Jesus’s blood and has undergone desemantization. It mostly performs expletive function – emphasizes the speaker’s negative emotions.