Psiholingvistični pristop k tabu besedam v slovenščini

Kos, Julija (author), Manouilidou, Christina (mentor)

Kljub temu da tabu besede uporabljamo vsakodnevno, žal ne vemo veliko o slovenskih tabu besedah s psiholingvističnega vidika, saj se večino raziskav izvaja na angleško govoreči populaciji (Jay, 2009; Jay & Jay, 2013; Jay & Jay, 2015; Van Lacker & Cummings, 1999). To predstavlja težavo, saj tabuje definira družbeno kulturno okolje, ki pa je v majhnih študijah omejeno, kar pomeni, da je omejen tudi opis tabu besed (Sulpizio et al., 2024). Zbrali smo slovenske tabu besede, jih kategorizirali in zbrali še njihove ocene psiholingvističnih spremenljivk za mednarodni projekt. Ugotovili smo, da je inventar tabu besed podoben že zbranim besedam v literaturi (Gerčar, 2022; Jakop, 2012; Nežmah, 2009), najpogostejše tabu besede pa se pojavljajo v podobni obliki in s podobnim pomenom v sosednjih jezikih ter angleščini. Tabu besede se lahko nanašajo na različne pomenoslovne kategorije, saj se konotacije čez čas spreminjajo. Ugotovili smo tudi, da so najpogostejše spolne besede, sledijo pa jim žaljivke in žalitve. Glede na ocene psiholingvističnih spremenljivk, natančneje starost ob usvojitvi, konkretnost, vzburljivost, čustvena valenca, tabuiziranost in žaljivost, ter izračunane pozitivne korelacije med njimi sklepamo, da usvojimo najbolj tabuizirane in vzburljive besede kasneje, ter da bolj kot so besede tabuizirane, bolj so tudi vzburljive in žaljive. Negativne korelacije pa kažejo na to, da bolj kot so besede tabuizirane, žaljive in vzburljive, manj so prijetne; bolj kot so besede konkretne, manj so žaljive in hitreje jih usvojimo. Upamo, da bodo naše ugotovitve pripomogle k boljšemu razumevanju in definiciji slovenskih tabu besed. Hkrati pa so zbrani podatki odlično izhodišče za nadaljnje raziskave na psiholingvističnem področju.

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: Jezikovni tabu, psiholingvistika, tabu besede, vulgarizmi, psovke, kletvice.
• Work type: Bachelor thesis/paper
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Year: 2024
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-158245
• Publication date in RUL: 31.05.2024

Secondary language

• Language: English
• Title: A psycholinguistic approach to taboo words in Slovenian

Abstract

Despite the ubiquity of taboo words in everyday language, we do not know much about Slovenian taboo words from a psycholinguistic perspective, as most of the studies are done on English speaking population (Jay, 2009; Jay & Jay, 2013; Jay & Jay, 2015; Van Lacker & Cummings, 1999). This poses a problem since taboos are inherently defined by their sociocultural background, which is limited in most small studies, which in turn leads to a constrained description of taboo words (Sulpizio et al., 2024). We collected, categorized, and linguistically analysed Slovenian taboo words and collected their ratings of different psycholinguistic variables for an international project. We found that the inventory of Slovenian taboo words is similar to already collected taboo words in the literature (Gerčar, 2022; Jakop, 2012; Nežmah, 2009). The most frequent taboo words also occur in a similar form and with a similar meaning in other neighbouring languages and English. These words can also refer to various semantic categories as the connotations evolve with time. Additionally, we also found that the most frequent taboo words refer to sexual organs, insults, and slurs. Subsequently, I gathered ratings for different psycholinguistic variables of taboo words, namely age of acquisition, concreteness, arousal, valency, tabooness and offensiveness. The results unveiled intriguing correlations between these variables, which indicate a tendency to acquire the most tabooed and the most arousing words later in life, as well as heightened arousal of tabooed and offensive words. Negative correlations, on the other hand, indicate that tabooed and offensive words are not pleasant, that we acquire concrete, unpleasant and uncommon words later in life, and that the frequency of tabooed and offensive words diminishes in the corpus. We hope that our findings will contribute to a better understanding and definition of Slovenian taboo words. Additionally, the collected data can serve as an excellent starting point for further research in the field of psycholinguistics.

• Keywords: Taboo, swearing, psycholinguistics, linguistic taboos, taboo words.