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PERCEPTION OF SPANISH INSULTS BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT GENDERS AND NATIONALITIES

Авторы:
Город:
Москва
ВУЗ:
Дата:
19 апреля 2018г.
Abstract

The present paper deals with the differences in perception of Spanish insults by native speakers and foreigners learning the target language and participating in European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (ERASMUS) programme; and examines the impact of gender factor on this process in order to take a more precise look in the current matter.

Key words: language acquisition. insults, gender, sociolinguistics.

Profanity is a diverting and controversial topic in an intricate modern world. It is considered to be a problem by a big part of population; nevertheless, there are no apparent ways to prevent people from cursing, swearing and using insults. They are part of each culture which is of particular importance concerning the acquisition of taboo status by words. It is not their forms or meanings that impart offensive tone to them but associations with certain domains which are acknowledged as taboo ones. Thus, one of the factors which turn a word into an insult is negative references (Jay, 2000, p. 154). Allan and Burridge (2006) define this phenomenon in the following way: "To insult someone verbally is to abuse them by assailing them with contemptuous, perhaps insolent, language that include an element of bragging" (p. 78). An insult is supposed to belittle the person to the referent named since in most cases it is addressed directly to the hearer or used to describe the third party. "Deciding what words are taboo is out of the speaker's control because curse words are culturally defined, based on cultural beliefs and attitudes about life itself" (Jay, 2000, p. 153). Consequently, insulting speech differs from culture to culture, what may have a certain impact on the acquisition of swear words by foreign speakers. Furthermore, Allan and Burridge (2006) emphasized several aspects that become a possible source of abuse. “Insults typically pick on and debase a person's physical appearance, mental ability, character, behaviour, beliefs and/or familial and social relations. Thus insults are sourced in the target's supposed ugliness, skin colour and/or complexion, over- or undersize, perceived physical defects, slovenliness, dirtiness, smelliness, tartiness, stupidity, untruthfulness, unreliability, unpunctuality, incompetence, incontinence, greediness, meanness, sexual laxness or perversion, sexual persuasion, social or economic status, and social ineptitude. And additionally, supposed inadequacies on any of the grounds just listed among the target's family and acquaintances”. (Allan and Burridge p.79)

However, not all the abuses aim to offend and hurt the hearer. The level of offensiveness depends on the context in which they are applied. Thus, the notions of ritual insults (Allan and Burridge, 2006, p. 87) and in-group identity markers (Brown and Levinson, 1987) emerge. Ritual insults are used during the communication between the members of certain groups who maintain close friendly relationship. Consequently, it acquires a form of competitive game or teasing which conveys an intention opposite to insulting a person, it demonstrates acceptance of him/her by the members of the group despite the fact that those insults may not differ from the ones that are used for belittling other people and are based on the same negative references with taboo domains.

In view of the fact that "some of the first words that non-native speakers want to know when learning a foreign language are the taboo, dirty, and obscene words in the language" (Jay, 2000, p. 154) the primary scope of the current research is to identify whether Spanish swear words are perceived differently be native speakers and by foreign learners of Spanish. Despite the fact that such aspect of foreign language as insults are normally avoided by teachers due to the delicacy of the topic it is a significant matter for foreign students who participate in international exchange programmes to be aware of. In order to communicate and survive in an alien surrounding successfully they need to be able to understand the degree of offensiveness of the insults directed to them and to be able to apply these words in a right way anticipating the impact that they are going to produce on the hearer.

Moreover, not only the level of offensiveness of a word and the intention of the speaker should be taken into account but the gender factor as well. It was stated by many researches and by now acknowledged as a fact that language is used and understood differently by speakers of different genders, which means that insulting words are going to have diverse affects on men and women. It is claimed in one of the studies that males swear about three times more often than females and that they use stronger obscenities (Allan and Burridge, 2006, p. 78). That is the reason why this research project deals not only with the belonging of participants to native or non-native speakers groups but also with the gender factor. John Edwards (2009) suggests that "women's speech tends to be more conservative, more "standard" and more "polite" than men's speech" (2009, p. 134). In the same work the author briefly touches upon the subject lying in the area of the current research. He makes a reference to Hughes (2006:195) quoting the following idea: women "lag significantly behind men in using terms for the genitalia". Thus, it can be presupposed that female respondents will put higher rates to such word as gilipollas due to its reference to a tabooed bodily part.

Altogether 60 students responded to the survey. They were selected in accordance with the following criteria: age, gender, country of origin and certain level of proficiency in the Spanish language. Thus, the age of participants varies from 20 to 25 years old. The number of male and female students who took part in the survey is equal and accounts for 30 individuals of each gender. Furthermore, half of them are native Spanish speakers while the other half consists of representatives of 8 different countries: Russia (3 males and 3 females), France (3 females), Germany (3 males), Finland (3 males), United Kingdom (3 males and 3 females), Austria (3 females), Switzerland (3 females), and Italy (3 males). Moreover, the level of proficiency in Spanish for foreign students ranges from B2 to C1 and the average period of the target language learning is 2, 5 years while the period of stay in Spain varies from 2 months to 1 year.

The survey consisted of seven questions six of which requested information concerning country of origin, gender, period of stay in Spain and learning the target language, while the last one was presented in a form of a chart. The participants were required to rate suggested words on a scale of 1 (Neutral) to 4 (Highly Offensive) taking into consideration the given element of the context stating that supposed interlocutors are relative strangers. "I don't know" variant was included in case some of the words appear to be unfamiliar to participants of the study. The list of swear words for this survey was provided by native Spanish speakers, who made a contribution to the current research project, on basis of high frequency of their usage in everyday speech. Thus, the list of the following 13 words was compiled. Furthermore, relying on the definitions and the division proposed by Allan and Burridge (2006) the target words were subdivided into two groups:

a)   Depending on the target:

1. Directed only to males: maricón. 2. Directed only to females: puta and zorra.

3. Directed both to males and females: cabrón/a, payaso/a, hijo/a de puta, tonto/a, estúpido/a, retrasado/a, imbécil, idiota, capullo/a, and gilipollas

b)   Depending on the domain of meaning:

1. Insults derived from tabooed bodily organs and/or describing sexual behaviours: maricón, puta, zorra, hijo/a de puta, gilipollas. 2. Insults invoking mental subnormality or derangement: tonto/a, estúpido/a, retrasado/a, imbécil, idiota, capullo, gilipollas. 3. Insults that invoke slurs on the target's character/behaviour: payaso/a, cabrón/a.

Basing on the results of computation it was made possible to state that the difference in rating the words by the degree of their offensiveness by native Spanish speakers and learners of Spanish is not particularly wide in general terms. Nevertheless, there are several cases which deserve close attention. Firstly, it is important to emphasize those insults that appeared to be most and least offensive for both groups. Thus, according to Spaniards the most contumelious word is hijo/a de puta, while foreign students allocated zorra in this category. As for the least offensive, tonto/a received similar estimation from both groups: 1,3 from native speakers and 1,4 from the non- native ones. Secondly, 8 of 13 words appeared to have a more abusive effect on foreign students than on Spanish ones. The most striking differences can be observed in relation to the words cabrón, retrasado/a and idiota where the gap between the rates varies from 0,5 to 0,95.

There are several possible ways to explain why the word cabrón bares a more offensive meaning for learners of Spanish rather than for native speakers. In the first place it should be noted that the on-line version of the dictionary Real Academia Española provides this word with 8 definitions. One of them is said to be vulgar (se dice del hombre al que su mujer es infiel, y en especial si lo consiente) and one is stated as colloquial (dicho de una persona, de un animal o de una cosa: Que hace malas pasadas o resulta molesto). Therefore, considering the fact that native speakers are likely to be aware of various shades of meaning of words in their language it is difficult to identify which of them was employed during the process of estimation. Furthermore, taking into consideration Brown and Levinson's Politeness theory it can be assumed that some insults and slang words are used primary by native speakers as in-group identity markers which are aimed at conveying in-group membership, claiming the common ground (1987, p. 107).

Concerning the words idiota and retrasado/a it should be pointed out that the dictionary Real Academia Española does not identify any vulgar meaning of the former one; it provides us with a colloquial definition (tonto, corto de entendimiento) whereas, according to the aforementioned source, the latter word does not possess any colloquial or vulgar meanings at all. The abusive shade that is perceived by foreign learners of Spanish may originate in their mother tongue or emerge due to the incorrectness of translation into it.

The results of the survey show that insults derived from tabooed bodily organs and/or describing sexual behaviours received higher rates from both Spaniards and foreigners. Insults which are aimed at the target's character are generally considered to be more offensive Spaniards, while those that mention mental abilities were located as conveying a lower level of abuse by both groups.

The following aspect to examine was the influence of gender factor on the estimation of Spanish insults. In this section the results of Spanish and foreign students were analyzed separately. The following subsections contain discussion of the findings which are depicted on the diagrams presented in the end of each of them.

The proposition that rates of female respondents will result to be higher than those of male respondents resulted to be incorrect. However, the heterogeneity of rates given to insult of different categories requires a more detailed examination. Firstly, the most and the least offensive words for each gender were elicited. Thus, female Spaniards ranked hijo/a de puta and zorra as bearing the highest level of abuse, whereas for male Spaniards the most opprobrious word was zorra. Among the least offensive words, tonto/a got a rate of 1,2 from female respondents and 1,4 from male ones.

However, an intriguing finding was made concerning the second word that was rated by female speakers of Spanish with a mark of 1,2 payaso/a; male respondents assessed it with a rate of 3, which is quite high. One of the possible explanations of this phenomenon is that the meaning of the word payaso contradicts a generally accepted model of male behaviour in Western culture, according to which a man is supposed to be powerful, dominant and serious. Therefore, it can be stated that male Spanish respondents, whose gender identity was constructed under the influence of their culture and society, found it humiliating to be called payaso, while women, who are subjected to different pressures concerning their gender role, located it as one of the least offensive words.

Furthermore, paying attention to the words which are directed only to males or females the following observation appears: female respondents found male-directed insult, maricón, more abusive than men did; and vice versa, male respondents gave the female-directed insult, puta, higher rate than women did.

Insults which are referred to bodily parts appear to be more offensive for women than for men as it was proposed in the introduction part of the current research project; while male participants gave higher rates to the words connected with the description of character and behavior.

The first observation, which appears instantly, is that the results of men are considerably higher than that of women. Consequently, male students from foreign countries are more sensitive towards Spanish insults than female ones. This observation not only does not support the initial proposition but also proves it to be wrong. Paying attention to each word in particular it can be stated that the most offensive words for male foreigners are zorra and maricón, the latter one is elicited by females as the most abusive one as well with a close rate of 3,8. As for the least offensive words, for male it is tonto/a and for females it is payaso/a.

The biggest differences between the rates appeared in the means of such words as retrasado/a, imbécil and capullo. According to the division B all these words are in the group B insults invoking mental subnormality or derangement. Consequently, it can be inferred that foreign male students are preoccupied with the idea of being mentally adequate more than female students.

It is worth noticing that, concerning directed only to males and females, insults foreigners singled out as most offensive those that are used to belittle members of their gender. Thus, it can be presupposed that Spaniards tend to think of the application of the current words to other people while foreigners perceive them as possible abuse towards themselves.

The analysis indicated that there are particular differences in a way Spanish swear words are perceived by native speakers and learners of the Spanish language who study in the country of the target language. Moreover, gender of respondents affected the results of the survey in both groups (Spaniards and foreigners) provoking different divergences of opinions.



Список литературы

 

1.        Allan, K. Burridge K. Forbidden Words. Taboo and the Censoring of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

2.        Brown, P. Levinson S.C.      Politeness. Some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

3.        Edwards, John. Language and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

4.        Jay, Timothy Why we curse : a neuro-psycho-social theory of speech. Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co.,2000.