Second Language Speakers’ Perception of Swearing as a Socio-Pragmatic Device

Alderson-Day, B., & Fernyhough, C. (2015). Inner speech: Development, cognitive functions, phenomenology, and neurobiology. Psychological Bulletin, 141(5), 931–965. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000021

Batson, C. D., Early, S., & Salvarani, G. (1997). Perspective taking: imagining how another feels versus imaging how you would feel. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(7), 751–758. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167297237008

Beers Fägersten, K., Stapleton, K., & Hjort, M. (2024). Censorship and Taboo Maintenance in L1 and LX Swearing. Languages, 9(4), 128. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040128

Burleson, B. R. (2010). The nature of interpersonal communication. The handbook of communication science, 1(2), 145-163.

Cameron, D. (2022). Women, civility and the language of politics: Realities and representations. The Political Quarterly, 93(1), 25-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.13050

Coats, S. (2021). ‘Bad language’in the Nordics: profanity and gender in a social media corpus. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia, 53(1), 22-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/03740463.2021.1871218

Culpeper, J. (2011). 13. Politeness and impoliteness. In G. Andersen & K. Aijmer (Eds.), Pragmatics of society (pp. 393-438). De Gruyter.

Debray, C. (2023). Swearing, identity and power in professional interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 215, 145-158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.07.002

Dewaele, J. M. (2004). The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the speech of multilinguals. Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 25(2-3), 204-222. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630408666529

Dewaele, J. M. (2010). Christ fucking shit merde!. Language preferences for swearing among maximally proficient multilinguals. Sociolinguistic Studies, 4(3), 595-614. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v4i3.595

Dewaele, J. M. (2011). Self-reported use and perception of the L1 and L2 among maximally proficient bi-and multilinguals: A quantitative and qualitative investigation. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/IJSL.2011.011

Dewaele, J. M. (2016a). Self-reported frequency of swearing in English: Do situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables have similar effects on first and foreign language users?. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 38(4), 330-345. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2016.1201092

Dewaele, J. M. (2016b). Thirty shades of offensiveness: L1 and LX English users’ understanding, perception and self-reported use of negative emotion-laden words. Journal of Pragmatics, 94, 112-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.01.009

Dewaele, J. M., (2017). “Cunt”: On the perception and handling of verbal dynamite by L1 and LX users of English. Multilingua, 37(1), 53-81. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0013

Dewaele, J. M. (2018). Linguistic taboos in a second or foreign language. In Allen, K. (ed.), The Oxford handbook of taboo words and language. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Dewaele, J. M., & Moxsom-Turnbull, P. (2020). Visual cues and perception of emotional intensity among L1 and LX users of English. International Journal of Multilingualism, 17(4), 499-515. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2019.1612902

Eilola, T. M., & Havelka, J. (2011). Behavioural and physiological responses to the emotional and taboo Stroop tasks in native and non-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 15(3), 353-369. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367006910379263

Fägersten, K. B. (2012). Who’s swearing now? The social aspects of conversational swearing. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Finn, E. (2017). Swearing: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly. Ortesol journal, 34, 17-26. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1152392

Fiske, S. T., & Tamir, D. I. (2025). Knowing the unknowable: How people perceive others’ minds. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, E. J. Finkel, & W. B. Mendes (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (6th ed.). Situational Press. https://doi.org/10.70400/VKIX7367

Gauthier, M. (2021). ‘Eww wtf, what a dumb bitch’: a case study of similitudes inside gender-specific swearing patterns on Twitter. Corpora, 16(1), 31-61. https://doi.org/10.3366/cor.2021.0208

Gauthier, M. & Guille, A. (2017). Chapter 6. Gender and age differences in swearing: A corpus study of Twitter. In K. Beers Fägersten & K. Stapleton (Ed.), Advances in Swearing Research: New languages and new contexts (pp. 137-156). John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Gutzmann, D. (2015). Use-conditional meaning: Studies in multidimensional semantics (Vol. 6). OUP Oxford.

Harris, C. L. (2004). Bilingual speakers in the lab: Psychophysiological measures of emotional reactivity. Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 25(2-3), 223-247. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434630408666530

Harris, C. L., Gleason, J. B., & Aycicegi, A. (2006). When is a first language more emotional? Psychophysiological evidence from bilingual speakers. Bilingual education and bilingualism, 56, 257.

Hijazo-Gascón, A., Gómez-Bedoya, M., & Filipović, L. (2024). Interpreting swearwords in police interviews and perceived offensiveness of insults in the UK and Spain. Applied Linguistics, 45(4), 718-737. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad060

Horan, G. (2013). ‘You taught me language; and my profit on't/Is, I know how to curse’: cursing and swearing in foreign language learning. Language and Intercultural Communication, 13(3), 283-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2013.804533

Hughes, G. (2015). An encyclopedia of swearing: The social history of oaths, profanity, foul language, and ethnic slurs in the English-speaking world. Routledge.

Imbault, C., Titone, D., Warriner, A. B., & Kuperman, V. (2021). How are words felt in a second language: Norms for 2,628 English words for valence and arousal by L2 speakers. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 24(2), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728920000474

Jay, T., & Janschewitz, K. (2008). The pragmatics of swearing. Journal of politeness research: language, behavior, culture, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.1515/JPLR.2008.013

Jay, T. (2009). The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspectives on psychological science, 4(2), 153-161. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01115.x

Jeshion, R. (2021). Varieties of pejoratives. In The Routledge handbook of social and political philosophy of language (pp. 211-231). Routledge.

Laitinen, M., Rautionaho, P., Fatemi, M., & Halonen, M. (2025). Do we swear more with friends or with acquaintances? F# ck in social networks. Lingua, 320, 103931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103931

Lakoff, R. (1973). Language and woman's place. Language in society, 2(1), 45-79. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500000051

Lev-Ari, S., & McKay, R. (2023). The sound of swearing: Are there universal patterns in profanity?. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 30(3), 1103-1114. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-022-02202-0

Ljung, M. (2010). Swearing: A cross-cultural linguistic study. Springer.

Lorette, P., & Dewaele, J. M. (2024). Interpersonal perception of emotional intensity by English first (L1) and foreign (LX) language users in audio (visual) communication. International Journal of Multilingualism, 21(2), 1116-1133. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2022.2144326

Love, R. (2021). Swearing in informal spoken English: 1990s–2010s. Text & Talk, 41(5-6), 739-762. https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2020-0051

McEnery, A., & Xiao, Z. (2004). Swearing in modern British English: The case of fuck in the BNC. Language and Literature, 13(3), 235-268. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963947004044873

McNab, N., & Mavrou, I. (2025). Emotion and moral stance in evaluations of impoliteness in L1 and L2 from video clips of workplace interactions. Lingua, 322, 103949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2025.103949

Mohammadi, A. N. (2022). Swearing in a second language: the role of emotions and perceptions. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43(7), 629–646. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2020.1755293

Muhanović, M., Babić, N., & Latić, E. (2018). An analysis of gender differences in the use of swear words on Facebook. Journal of Education and Humanities, 1(2), 89-98. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=773550

Nezakat-Alhossaini, M., & Esslami-Rasekh, A. (2013). “May Bread Run and You Run After It”: The Function of Cursing in Persian. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 517-525. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.01.089

O'Barr, W., & Atkins, B. K. (2005). “Women's language” or “powerless language”?. In Language, communication and education (pp. 202-216). Routledge.

Odhiambo, C. (2012). The name game: Using insults to illustrate the social construction of gender. College Teaching, 60(1), 25-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.2011.619015

O'Driscoll, J. (2020). Offensive language. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Robbins, M. L., Focella, E. S., Kasle, S., López, A. M., Weihs, K. L., & Mehl, M. R. (2011). Naturalistically observed swearing, emotional support, and depressive symptoms in women coping with illness. Health Psychology, 30(6), 789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2018.03.008

Schweinberger, M. (2018). Swearing in Irish English–A corpus-based quantitative analysis of the sociolinguistics of swearing. Lingua, 209, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2018.03.008

Stapleton, K. (2020). Swearing and perceptions of the speaker: A discursive approach. Journal of Pragmatics, 170, 381-395. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.001

Stapleton, K., & Fägersten, K. B. (2023). Swearing and interpersonal pragmatics. Journal of Pragmatics, 218, 147-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.10.009

Thelwall, M. (2008). Fk yea I swear: cursing and gender in MySpace. Corpora, 3(1), 83-107. https://doi.org/10.3366/E1749503208000087

Vélez-Uribe, I., & Rosselli, M. (2019). The auditory and visual appraisal of emotion-related words in Spanish–English bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22(1), 30-46. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728917000517

Vocate, D. R. (1994). Self-talk and inner speech: Understanding the uniquely human aspects of intrapersonal communication. In Intrapersonal communication (pp. 3-31). Routledge.

Weimer, A., Koniakowsky, I., Nazir, T. A., & Huckauf, A. (2022). Behavioral evidence for differences in emotional resonance during processing first and second language. International Journal of Bilingualism, 26(6), 784-798. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069211073578

Wilson, N., & Wedlock, J. (2023). Swearing as a leadership tool: The sociopragmatics of swearing in new zealand english. English World-Wide, 44(3), 323-350. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.22033.wil

Worthen, M. G., Leverso, J., Hess, C., & Hedgpeth, G. (2025). “Dude, you’re a Bitch!” Gang Members’ Internet Banging Masculinity via Bitch Discourse. Deviant Behavior, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2025.2464182

Wu, J. G., Miller, L., & Zhang, D. (2024). Beware and Swear: English-as-a-Foreign-Language Learners’ Perceptions and Experiences Regarding Swearing in English. RELC Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882241299851