Cover not available

Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 6:3 (2015) ► pp.421–443

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Identity construction patterns via swearing:

Evidence from Greek teenage storytelling

Published online: 28 September 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.6.3.05kar
In this paper we analyze the use of swearwords in Greek teenage storytelling. Our research is based on the analysis of conversational narratives that occurred in two conversations between male adolescents who belong to different social groups. Our analysis shows that the use of swearing in the story performances enables the narrators (1) to construct for themselves the identity of the powerful members of a group who share strong friendship bonds and challenge authorities in the first conversation, and (2) to project the identity of individuals who conform to mainstream values in the second conversation. Therefore, we suggest that swearing can be an effective linguistic tool for the construction and negotiation of diverse youth identities, i.e. the acceptance of or the departure from social norms, in the unfolding of narrative speech.
References (45)
Ameka, Felix. 1992. “Interjections: The Universal yet Neglected Part of Speech.” Journal of Pragmatics181: 101–118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Androutsopoulos, Jannis, and Alexandra Georgakopoulou. 2003. “Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities: Introduction.” InDiscourse Constructions of Youth Identities, ed. byJannis Androutsopoulos and Alexandra Georgakopoulou, 1–25. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antaki, Charles, and Sue Widdicombe. 1998. “Identity as an Achievement and as a Tool.” InIdentities in Talk, ed. byCharles Antaki and Sue Widdicombe, 1–14. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Archakis, Argiris, and Sofia Lampropoulou. 2009. “Talking Different Heterosexualities: The Permissive, the Normative and the Moralistic Perspective: Evidence from Greek Youth Storytelling.” Discourse and Society201: 307–326. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Archakis, Argiris, and Villy Tsakona. 2005. “Analysing Conversational Data in GTVH Terms: A New Approach to the Construction of Identity via Humor.” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research18 (1): 41–68. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Babiniotis, Giorgos. 2005. Dictionary of Modern Greek Language. Athens: Centre of Lexicology.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bamberg, Michael G.W. 1997. “Positioning between Structure and Performance.” Journal of Narrative and Life History7 (1–4): 335–342. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Beers-Fägersten, Kristy. 2007. “Swear Word Offensiveness.” Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics11: 14–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cuenca, Maria Josep. 2000. “Defining the Indefinable? Interjections.” Syntaxis31: 29–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan. 1996. “Towards an Anatomy of Impoliteness.” Journal of Pragmatics251: 349–367. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Impoliteness. Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Klerk, Vivian. 1997. “The Role of Expletives in the Construction of Masculinity.” InLanguage and Masculinity, ed. bySally Johnson and Ulrike Hanna Meinhof, 145–158. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf. 2007. “Using the Other for Oneself. Conversational Practices of Representing Out-group Members among Adolescents.” InSelves and Identities in Narrative and Discourse, ed. byMichael Bamberg, Anna De Fina, and Deborah Schiffrin, 273–300. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek. 1999. Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Institute of Modern Greek Studies [Manolis Triantaphyllidis Foundation].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eckert, Penelope, and Sally McConnell-Ginet. 1999. “New Generalizations and Explanations in Language and Gender Research.” Language in Society281: 185–201. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Small Stories, Interaction and Identities. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jay, Timothy, and Kristin Janschewitz. 2008. “The Pragmatics of Swearing.” Journal of Politeness Research41: 267–288. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Joseph, Brian D. 1997. “Methodological Issues in the History of the Balkan Lexicon: The Case of Greek vré/ré and its Relatives.” Balkanistica101: 255–277.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karachaliou, Rania, and Argiris Archakis. 2012. “To ρε ως δείκτης του απροσδόκητου. Ανάλυση δεδομένων από συνομιλιακές αφηγήσεις [The Greek particle re as a marker of unexpectedness: Evidence from the analysis of conversational narratives].” In Studies in Greek Linguistics. Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki , 172–183, Thessaloniki: Institute for Modern Greek Studies.
. 2014. “Surprise in Teenage Storytelling: The Case of the Greek Marker re .” In Analyzing Greek Talk-in-Interaction, ed. by Maria Christodoulidou, 10–36. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Labov, William. 1972. Language in the Inner City. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lampropoulou, Sofia. 2007. Forms and Functions of Direct Speech in Greek Adolescents’ Storytelling: Identity Construction through Direct Speech. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. “Having a Say. Direct Speech Representation in Greek Youth Storytelling.” Journal of Pragmatics441: 1206–1218.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Direct Speech, Self-Representation and Communities of Practice. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey N. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ljung, Magnus. 1986. Om Svordomar. Stockholm: Akademilitteratur.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Swearing: A Cross-Cultural Linguistic Study. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McEnery, Tony. 2006. Swearing in English. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moulinou, Ifigenia. 2012. “Συνοικοδόμηση ταυτοτήτων από ανηλίκους παραβατικούς: Συνομιλιακός χειρισμός, γλωσσικά μέσα και κοινωνικές συνέπειες [Co-construction of juvenile delinquents’ identity in Greek rehabilitation centres: linguistic and discursive devices and their social impact].” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Faculty of English Language and Literature, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
. 2009. “Interjections as Pragmatic Markers.” Journal of Pragmatics411: 866–891. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavlidou, Theodossia. 1997. “The Last Five Turns: Preliminary Remarks on Closings in Greek and German Telephone Calls.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language1261: 145–162. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sams, Jessie. 2007. “Quoting the Unspoken: An Analysis of Quotations in Spoken Discourse.” Colorado Research in Linguistics201: 1–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Semino, Elena, and Mike Short. 2004. Corpus Stylistics: Speech, Writing and Thought Presentation in a Corpus of English Writing. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stapleton, Karyn. 2003. “Gender and Swearing: A Community Practice.” Women and Language26 (2): 22–33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010. “Swearing”. InInterpersonal Pragmatics, ed. byMiriam A. Locher and Sage L. Graham, 289–306. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stenström, Anna-Brita, Gisle Andersen, and Ingrid Kristine Hasund. 2002. Trends in Teenage Talk. Corpus Compilation, Analysis and Findings. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sunderland, Jane, and Lia Litosseliti. 2002. “Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations.” InGender Identity and Discourse Analysis, ed. byLia Litosseliti and Jane Sunderland, 1–39. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vergis, Nikos, and Marina Terkourafi. 2015. “The M-word: A Greek collocation between solidarity and insult.” In Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Im/politeness, ed. by Marina Terkourafi, 47–70. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Wenger, Etienne. 1998. Communities of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Ifantidou, Elly & Lemonia Tsavdaridou
2023. Mirative evidentials, relevance and non‑propositional meaning. Pragmatics & Cognition 30:1 ► pp. 59 ff. DOI logo
Beers Fägersten, Kristy & Karyn Stapleton
2022. Swearing. In Handbook of Pragmatics [Handbook of Pragmatics, ], ► pp. 129 ff. DOI logo
Beers Fägersten, Kristy & Karyn Stapleton
2023. Everybody swears on Only Murders in the Building: The interpersonal functions of scripted television swearing. Journal of Pragmatics 216 ► pp. 93 ff. DOI logo
Georgalidou, Marianthi, Katerina T. Frantzi & Giorgos Giakoumakis
2020. Aggression in media-sharing websites in the context of Greek political/parliamentary discourse in the years of the economic crisis. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 8:2 ► pp. 321 ff. DOI logo
Linares Bernabéu, Esther
2019. La conceptualización lingüística del tabú en el discurso humorístico subversivo. e-Scripta Romanica 7 ► pp. 79 ff. DOI logo
Linares Bernabéu, Esther
2023. Co-constructing humour and gender identity in live stand-up comedy. In The Pragmatics of Humour in Interactive Contexts [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 335], ► pp. 200 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue