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In:Dutch and Contact Linguistics: The Dutch language outside the Low Countries
Edited by Christopher Joby and Nicoline van der Sijs
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 55] 2025
► pp. 314–341

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Chapter 10
Dutch taboo words adrift

ORCiD logo with link | Centre for Text Technology (CTexT) | North-West University
Published online: 4 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.55.10huy
Abstract
In this chapter, it is investigated to what extent Dutch influenced other languages’ maledicticons, i.e., taboo-language usage such as swearwords, insults, euphemisms and dysphemisms, impolite language, etc. (collectively called maledicta). The focus here is how borrowing of especially lexical maledicta motivates language change. The description is set against a general background of what we know about lexical semantic change, specifically also from a maledictological perspective. Subsequently, the chapter summarises our current knowledge about the spreading of Dutch maledicta, before delving into the analysis of a dataset extracted from Van der Sijs’ Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd (NWWW 2010). The chapter closes with suggestions for future work.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Words adrift: What do we know?
    • 1.1Thesis 1.1 — The perpetual motion of language change:
      All languages are always changing
    • 1.2Thesis 1.2 — Internal and external forces as drivers of language change: Language evolution is propelled by a combination of internal and external factors
    • 1.3Thesis 1.3 — Evolutionary patterns: Patterns of language change are predictable
    • 1.4Thesis 1.4 — Sapir’s Drift: Changes in language families evolve
      in parallel ways
    • 1.5Thesis 1.5 — The Regularity Hypothesis: Phonetic changes are predictable, barring non-phonetic factors
    • 1.6Thesis 1.6 — The role of cognitive processes: Analogisation and neoanalysis are central to language change
    • 1.7Thesis 1.7 — The law of conformity, and the law of innovation: Low-frequency words, and polysemous words tend to change faster over time
    • 1.8Thesis 1.8 — Survival traits: Short words, nouns and verbs, and uniquely-sounding words tend to change slower over time
  • 3.Taboo words adrift: What do we know?
    • 2.1Thesis 2.1 — The naturalist hypothesis: Taboo concepts give rise
      to constructions with negative valence
    • 2.2Thesis 2.2 — Volatility of the maledicticon: Some maledicta
      are prone to change
    • 2.3Thesis 2.3 — Stability of the maledicticon: Some maledicta
      are resistant to change
    • 2.4Thesis 2.4 — The Allan-Burridge law of semantic change: Bad connotations drive out good
    • 2.5Thesis 2.5 — Generally observed euphemisation strategies
  • 4.Dutch taboo words adrift: What do we know?
    • 4.1Dataset
    • 4.2Results
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • 6.Ethical matters
  • Notes
  • References
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