TY - JOUR
T1 - Taboo language across the globe
T2 - a multi-lab study
AU - Sulpizio, Simone
AU - Günther, Fritz
AU - Badan, Linda
AU - Basclain, Benjamin
AU - Brysbaert, Marc
AU - Chan, Yuen Lai
AU - Ciaccio, Laura Anna
AU - Dudschig, Carolin
AU - Duñabeitia, Jon Andoni
AU - Fasoli, Fabio
AU - Ferrand, Ludovic
AU - Filipović Đurđević, Dušica
AU - Guerra, Ernesto
AU - Hollis, Geoff
AU - Job, Remo
AU - Jornkokgoud, Khanitin
AU - Kahraman, Hasibe
AU - Kgolo-Lotshwao, Naledi
AU - Kinoshita, Sachiko
AU - Kos, Julija
AU - Lee, Leslie
AU - Lee, Nala H.
AU - Mackenzie, Ian Grant
AU - Manojlović, Milica
AU - Manouilidou, Christina
AU - Martinic, Mirko
AU - del Carmen Méndez, Maria
AU - Mišić, Ksenija
AU - Chiangmai, Natinee Na
AU - Nikolaev, Alexandre
AU - Oganyan, Marina
AU - Rusconi, Patrice
AU - Samo, Giuseppe
AU - Tse, Chi Shing
AU - Westbury, Chris
AU - Wongupparaj, Peera
AU - Yap, Melvin J.
AU - Marelli, Marco
N1 - Copyright the Author(s) 2024. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2024/6/1
Y1 - 2024/6/1
N2 - The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words’ tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.
AB - The use of taboo words represents one of the most common and arguably universal linguistic behaviors, fulfilling a wide range of psychological and social functions. However, in the scientific literature, taboo language is poorly characterized, and how it is realized in different languages and populations remains largely unexplored. Here we provide a database of taboo words, collected from different linguistic communities (Study 1, N = 1046), along with their speaker-centered semantic characterization (Study 2, N = 455 for each of six rating dimensions), covering 13 languages and 17 countries from all five permanently inhabited continents. Our results show that, in all languages, taboo words are mainly characterized by extremely low valence and high arousal, and very low written frequency. However, a significant amount of cross-country variability in words’ tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.
KW - best–worst scaling
KW - emotion
KW - semantics
KW - swearing
KW - taboo words
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85192533659&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6
DO - 10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 38724878
AN - SCOPUS:85192533659
SN - 1554-351X
VL - 56
SP - 3794
EP - 3813
JO - Behavior Research Methods
JF - Behavior Research Methods
IS - 4
ER -