Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study

Simone SULPIZIO; Fritz GÜNTHER; Linda BADAN; Benjamin BASCLAIN; Marc BRYSBAERT; Yuen Lai CHAN; Laura Anna CIACCIO; Carolin DUDSCHIG; Jon Andoni DUÑABEITIA; Fabio FASOLI; Ludovic FERRAND; Dušica FILIPOVIĆ ĐURĐEVIĆ; Ernesto GUERRA; Geoff HOLLIS; Remo JOB; Khanitin JORNKOKGOUD; Hasibe KAHRAMAN; Naledi KGOLO-LOTSHWAO; Sachiko KINOSHITA; Julija KOS; Leslie LEE; Nala H. LEE; Ian Grant MACKENZIE; Milica MANOJLOVIĆ; Christina MANOUILIDOU; Mirko MARTINIC; Maria DEL CARMEN MÉNDEZ; Ksenija MIŠIĆ; Natinee Na CHIANGMAI; Alexandre Nikolaev; Marina OGANYAN; Patrice RUSCONI; Giuseppe SAMO; Chi Shing TSE; Chris WESTBURY; Peera WONGUPPARAJ; Melvin J. YAP; Marco MARELLI

doi:10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6

Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study

Simone SULPIZIO^*, Fritz GÜNTHER^*, Linda BADAN, Benjamin BASCLAIN, Marc BRYSBAERT, Yuen Lai CHAN, Laura Anna CIACCIO, Carolin DUDSCHIG, Jon Andoni DUÑABEITIA, Fabio FASOLI, Ludovic FERRAND, Dušica FILIPOVIĆ ĐURĐEVIĆ, Ernesto GUERRA, Geoff HOLLIS, Remo JOB, Khanitin JORNKOKGOUD, Hasibe KAHRAMAN, Naledi KGOLO-LOTSHWAO, Sachiko KINOSHITA, Julija KOSLeslie LEE, Nala H. LEE, Ian Grant MACKENZIE, Milica MANOJLOVIĆ, Christina MANOUILIDOU, Mirko MARTINIC, Maria DEL CARMEN MÉNDEZ, Ksenija MIŠIĆ, Natinee Na CHIANGMAI, Alexandre Nikolaev, Marina OGANYAN, Patrice RUSCONI, Giuseppe SAMO, Chi Shing TSE, Chris WESTBURY, Peera WONGUPPARAJ, Melvin J. YAP, Marco MARELLI^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3794-3813
Number of pages	20
Journal	Behavior Research Methods
Volume	56
Issue number	4
Early online date	9 May 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6
Publication status	Published - Jun 2024
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

Open access funding provided by Università degli Studi di Milano - Bicocca within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. Jon Andoni Duñabeitia was partially supported by grants PID2021126884NB-I00 from the Spanish Government, ISERIE from Ayudas Fundación BBVA a Proyectos de Investigación Científica 2021, and H2019/HUM-5705 from the Comunidad de Madrid. Dušica Filipović Đurđević was supported by Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia, Grant no. 451-03-68/2020-14/200163 (University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy). Ernesto Guerra was supported by ANID/PIA/Basal Funds for Centers of Excellence Project FB0003. Fritz Günther was supported by DFG Emmy-Noether grant “What’s in a name?” (project no. 459717703). Simone Sulpizio was partially supported by the grant PRIN nr. 2022N87CR9 from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR).

Keywords

Best–worst scaling
Emotion
Semantics
Swearing
Taboo words

Access to Document

10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6Licence: CC BY

Cite this

SULPIZIO, S., GÜNTHER, F., BADAN, L., BASCLAIN, B., BRYSBAERT, M., CHAN, Y. L., CIACCIO, L. A., DUDSCHIG, C., DUÑABEITIA, J. A., FASOLI, F., FERRAND, L., FILIPOVIĆ ĐURĐEVIĆ, D., GUERRA, E., HOLLIS, G., JOB, R., JORNKOKGOUD, K., KAHRAMAN, H., KGOLO-LOTSHWAO, N., KINOSHITA, S., ... MARELLI, M. (2024). Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study. Behavior Research Methods, 56(4), 3794-3813. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6

@article{bbcf644210b64e26bc38da51337bf73a,

title = "Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study",

abstract = "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{\textquoteright} tabooness and offensiveness proves the importance of community-specific sociocultural knowledge in the study of taboo language.",

keywords = "Best–worst scaling, Emotion, Semantics, Swearing, Taboo words",

author = "Simone SULPIZIO and Fritz G{\"U}NTHER and Linda BADAN and Benjamin BASCLAIN and Marc BRYSBAERT and CHAN, {Yuen Lai} and CIACCIO, {Laura Anna} and Carolin DUDSCHIG and DU{\~N}ABEITIA, {Jon Andoni} and Fabio FASOLI and Ludovic FERRAND and {FILIPOVI{\'C} {\D}UR{\D}EVI{\'C}}, Du{\v s}ica and Ernesto GUERRA and Geoff HOLLIS and Remo JOB and Khanitin JORNKOKGOUD and Hasibe KAHRAMAN and Naledi KGOLO-LOTSHWAO and Sachiko KINOSHITA and Julija KOS and Leslie LEE and LEE, {Nala H.} and MACKENZIE, {Ian Grant} and Milica MANOJLOVI{\'C} and Christina MANOUILIDOU and Mirko MARTINIC and {DEL CARMEN M{\'E}NDEZ}, Maria and Ksenija MI{\v S}I{\'C} and CHIANGMAI, {Natinee Na} and Alexandre Nikolaev and Marina OGANYAN and Patrice RUSCONI and Giuseppe SAMO and TSE, {Chi Shing} and Chris WESTBURY and Peera WONGUPPARAJ and YAP, {Melvin J.} and Marco MARELLI",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2024.",

year = "2024",

month = jun,

doi = "10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6",

language = "English",

volume = "56",

pages = "3794--3813",

journal = "Behavior Research Methods",

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SULPIZIO, S, GÜNTHER, F, BADAN, L, BASCLAIN, B, BRYSBAERT, M, CHAN, YL, CIACCIO, LA, DUDSCHIG, C, DUÑABEITIA, JA, FASOLI, F, FERRAND, L, FILIPOVIĆ ĐURĐEVIĆ, D, GUERRA, E, HOLLIS, G, JOB, R, JORNKOKGOUD, K, KAHRAMAN, H, KGOLO-LOTSHWAO, N, KINOSHITA, S, KOS, J, LEE, L, LEE, NH, MACKENZIE, IG, MANOJLOVIĆ, M, MANOUILIDOU, C, MARTINIC, M, DEL CARMEN MÉNDEZ, M, MIŠIĆ, K, CHIANGMAI, NN, Nikolaev, A, OGANYAN, M, RUSCONI, P, SAMO, G, TSE, CS, WESTBURY, C, WONGUPPARAJ, P, YAP, MJ & MARELLI, M 2024, 'Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study', Behavior Research Methods, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 3794-3813. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6

TY - JOUR

T1 - Taboo language across the globe: 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

PY - 2024/6

Y1 - 2024/6

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

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U2 - 10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6

DO - 10.3758/s13428-024-02376-6

M3 - Journal Article (refereed)

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 -

Taboo language across the globe: A multi-lab study

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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