Aikuisten taitolaji – Kiroilun kasvatuksellista metadiskurssia

Authors

• Minna Hjort Helsingin yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.70484/vakki.149171

Keywords:

kansanlingvistiikka, kielikäsitys, kiroilu, kirosana

Abstract

This paper examines metalinguistic Finnish-language discourse on swearing in the context of childrearing, aiming to identify the stereotypical arguments that parents use or might use to control children’s language use. A classification suggested by Andersson (1977) and Stroh-Wollin (2010) for general arguments for or against swearing is applied and adjusted to the context. The results show that the most common metaphor in the Finnish metalanguage on swearing is an aesthetic one: most responses to the openended question analyzed here contain the Finnish equivalent to ugly (cf. for example, the common English metaphor of hygiene, dirty). It is used to refer to sound, behavior and appearance alike. As expected, the most common arguments against children swearing are socio-developmental. They include arguments related to children’s linguistic and social development, risk of face-threating behaviour and risk of emotional insensitivity towards others. Aesthetic-hygienic arguments come second and linguistic arguments third, while religious arguments are very rare. In addition, a new argument category for swearing arose: swearing as means of physical and mental release.