A Sociological Look into Speech Act of Cursing: A comparison of Persian and English Languages

مطالعات زبان و ترجمه

Article 2, Volume 47, Issue 2, July 2014, Pages 45-71   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/lts.v47i2.35404

Authors

Reza Pishghadam^{* 1}; Fatemeh Vahidnia¹; Ailin Firoozian Pooresfahani²

¹Department of English, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

²Department of Linguistics, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Considering the reciprocal relationship between culture and language and the fact that culture finds its reflection in the language people employ, we can understand the society’s world-view through culturology of language.Hence, the current research is about to dissect and analyze the speech act of cursing in Persian and English languages. To this end, 200 movies (100 English movies and 100 Persian movies) were watched, cursing phrases were transcribed, and then scrutinized. The collected data was analyzed based on Hymes’ (1967) model of SPEAKING. The findings of this study revealed that Iranians utter curses to express anger, whereas English people mouth swear words on the same occasions. Furthermore, based on the obtained results, it was found out that females employ curses more frequently than males do.In the end, people’s intentions of cursing were examined and categorized into ten groups.

Keywords

Culture; Speech Act; Curse; Hymes’ SPEAKING Model

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