Hong Kong Cantonese-speakers' attitudes towards tabooed words in the 21st century

Abstract

Tabooed language for speakers from around the world is generally understood to refer to those lexical items and expressions considered to be unlucky, indecent, immoral, obscene, etc. because saying them would violate certain sociocultural norms; but, it is for this very reason that some speakers do indeed utter them. As for the Cantonese language, this study has investigated a set of linguistic terms that its speakers have also tabooed as being inauspicious, profane, offensive, etc.

Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to and collected through contacts from 72 Cantonese speakers aged 16 to 64, with the objectives to explore speakers’ use of and attitudes towards tabooed lexical items by asking them questions on frequency of and reasons for using the terms, how acceptable and tabooed the terms are perceived to be and their habit of using the Internet. Tables of figures were constructed to consolidate speakers’ responses to the 14 tabooed linguistic terms.

Survey results primarily show that often-said tabooed terms are more readily acceptable to speakers, and that the more tabooed the terms are, the lower their acceptability would be, but lower acceptability does not necessarily mean being unacceptable, and that the Internet tends to facilitate use of tabooed language among young speakers.

Based on its findings, the study has concluded that every tabooed lexical item has a history and development of its own; and that change of speakers’ attitudes towards the types of words tabooed over time may cause changes in tabooed Cantonese lexicon which is also likely to be impacted by use of the Internet, especially among young speakers who are often at the leading edge of linguistic change. This study was conducted with a view to reveal some especially interesting but quite complex aspects of language and the opportunities for further theoretical progress in sociolinguistic research.