Table 1
Examples of swear words from the corpus.
| TABOO CATEGORIES | SWEAR WORDS IN THE ENGLISH SUBCORPUS | SWEAR WORDS IN THE FRENCH SUBCORPUS |
|---|---|---|
| Sexuality | Fuck (and variants), to come, to finger, to suck dick | Baiser, branler, enfiler, foutre, doigter, putain, enculer, bordel |
| Scatology | Shit (and variants), piss, fart | Merde (and variants), chier, foirer |
| Religion | God, Jesus Christ, damn, goddamn, hell | Bon Dieu, Bon sang, Nom de Dieu |
| Terms of abuse | Bitch, cunt, scumbag, fucker, dickhead | Enculé, enfoiré, salaud, salope, pétasse, connasse, con(ne) |
| Body parts | Ass, dick, tit, asshole, cunt, twat, cock, pussy | Cul, bite, nichon, trou de balle, chatte, couille |
| Cross-categorized instances | Holy shit, holy fuck | Bordel à queue, bordel de merde, putain de merde |
Figure 1
Relative frequencies of swear words by semantic categories in the two subcorpora.
Table 2
Absolute frequencies of swear words by semantic categories in the corpus.
| SEMANTIC CATEGORIES | INSTANCES IN THE ENGLISH SUBCORPUS | INSTANCES IN THE FRENCH SUBCORPUS |
|---|---|---|
| Sexuality | 431 | 195 |
| Scatology | 295 | 187 |
| Religion | 190 | 109 |
| Terms of abuse | 168 | 146 |
| Body parts | 125 | 85 |
| Cross-categorized instances | 17 | 10 |
| Total | 1,226 | 732 |
Figure 2
Frequencies of swear word forms in the whole corpus.
Table 3
Forms of fuck in the English subcorpus.
| USE | EXAMPLES | FREQUENCIES | RELATIVE FREQUENCIES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fucking (Adj.) – Intensifier | These women are fucking criminals. | 104 | 24.41 |
| Fucking (Adv.) – Intensifier | Who knew you were so fucking thoughtful? | 72 | 16.67 |
| The fuck (N.) – Wh-word+the fuck – Intensifier | Who the fuck told you there was a chicken in my yard? | 47 | 11.03 |
| To fuck (V.) – Literal meaning | I mean, I could have accidentally fucked her, right? | 35 | 8.22 |
| Fuck (V.) in imprecatory and exclamatory phrases | Fuck pizza, we’re gonna have Tuesday tacos. | 30 | 7.04 |
| Fuck (Int.) | Fuck! My glasses fell off. | 24 | 5.63 |
| Motherfucker (N.) | I want that motherfucker taken out. | 20 | 4.69 |
| The fuck (N.) – V.+the fuck+prep. – Intensifier | Get the fuck out of here. | 14 | 3.29 |
| Fucked-up (Adj.) | You got some fucked-up priorities. | 12 | 2.82 |
| To fuck with (V.) | Don’t fuck with my cooking shows. T! | 11 | 2.58 |
| To fuck up (V.) | You wanna fuck that up, that’s on you. | 7 | 1.64 |
| Fuck (Int.) – Before yes/no – Emphasis | Fuck no, you don’t care about the money. | 6 | 1.41 |
| Motherfucking (Adj.) | Take off your motherfucking shoes! | 5 | 1.17 |
| Fuck off (V.) – In Imperative | I got cake from Red, so fuck off. | 4 | 0.94 |
| Fucking (Infixed) | We are just funda-fucking-mentally different people, at a DNA level! | 4 | 0.94 |
| Miscellaneous (3 ࣙ instances) | – | 32 | 7.51 |
| Total | 426 | 100 |
Table 4
Forms of shit in the English subcorpus.
| USE | EXAMPLES | FREQUENCIES | RELATIVE FREQUENCIES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shit (N.) – “thing” | We did some illegal shit […]. | 86 | 30.07 |
| Shit (Int.) | Shit. I’m sorry. | 52 | 18.18 |
| Bullshit (N.) – “nonsense,” “lies” | Your fiancé might buy this bullshit […]. | 29 | 10.14 |
| Shit (N.) – Idiomatic set phrase (16) | You cannot lose your shit, okay? | 26 | 9.09 |
| And/or shit (N.) – General extender | Man, new bunkie’s trying to lay down all these rules and shit. | 18 | 6.29 |
| Holy shit (Int.) | Holy shit! | 12 | 4.20 |
| Shit (N.) – “a bad, difficult, or unpleasant situation; problems” | We all have our shit, Nicky. | 12 | 4.20 |
| Shitty (Adj.) | We’re all allowed to feel shitty about things in our lives that are shitty. | 9 | 3.15 |
| Shit (N.) – “nothing,” “anything” | But I can’t do shit with “I’m sorry.” | 7 | 2.45 |
| Shit (N.) – “drug” | My cousin paid you for that shit. | 6 | 2.10 |
| To shit (V.) – Literal meaning | I’m gonna have to shit it out. | 6 | 2.10 |
| Shit (N.) – “rubbish, trash; something regarded as worthless” | Oh, you saw that shit? | 4 | 1.40 |
| Shit (N.) – “trivial, insincere, or untruthful talk or writing; nonsense; lies” | […] What makes you think I would’ve fallen for your shit? | 4 | 1.40 |
| Like shit (“pronominal” form) – “very badly; awful, horrible” | You look like shit. | 3 | 1.05 |
| Shit (N.) – Literal meaning | And the rat shit dust. | 3 | 1.05 |
| Miscellaneous (3 ࣙ instances) | - | 9 | 3.15 |
| Total | 286 | 100 |
Table 5
Examples of the omission strategy.
| ST | TT | BackTr |
|---|---|---|
| Shit, I’m in! | Ø Je suis partante ! | Ø I’m in! |
| She’s fucking dangerous! | Elle est Ø dangereuse ! | She’s Ø dangerous! |
| No, I tried that shit. | Non, j’ai déjà essayé Ø. | No, I’ve already tried Ø. |
Table 6
Examples of the standardization strategy.
| ST | TT | BackTr |
|---|---|---|
| Shit’s changing around here. | Les choses changent ici. | Things are changing around hee. |
| You’re a fucking waitress. | T’es qu’une serveuse. | You’re just a waitress. |
| I love you and I fucking… hate you. | Je t’aime et je te hais… de tout mon cœur. | I love you and I hate you… with all my heart. |
Table 7
Examples of the euphemism strategy.
| ST | TT | BackTr |
|---|---|---|
| I have no fuckin’ idea what that means… | Je pige que dalle à ce que tu racontes… | I ain’t getting a [thing] of what you’re saying. |
| Now go get your fucking sneakers. | Va récupérer tes grolles. | Go get your [shoes]. |
| Dude fucking loves me. | Il me kiffe. | He digs me. |
Table 8
Examples of the pragmatic softening strategy.
| ENGLISH OV | FRENCH ST | BackTr |
|---|---|---|
| We can’t even fill a fucking basement anymore. | On ne pourrait même plus remplir un pauvre sous-sol. | We couldn’t even fill a miserable basement anymore. |
| It’s fucking depressing. | C’est carrément déprimant. | It’s downright depressing. |
| So if that’s what you want, just try that shit again. | Si c’est ce que vous voulez, recommencez ce cirque. | If that’s what you want, start that circus again. |
Table 9
Examples of the direct compensation strategy.
| ST | TT | BackTr |
|---|---|---|
| She’s issued a fucking fatwa against me. | Elle m’a collé une Ø fatwa au cul. | She stuck a fatwa on my ass. |
| Bennett, it’s not fucking working again. | Bennett, cette saloperie a encore planté. | Bennett, that bitch has crashed again. |
| That shit is horrible. | C’est de la merde. | It is shit. |
Table 10
Examples of the maintenance strategy.
| ST | TT | BackTr |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, shit. I just got uninvited to the most depressing party ever. | Merde. Je suis plus invitée à la fête la plus déprimante au monde. | Shit, I’m no longer invited to the most depressing party ever. |
| Fucking Mendez. | Enfoiré de Mendez. | That asshole, Mendez. |
| This fucking election. | Putain d’élection. | Fucking election. |
Figure 3
Overall translation strategies in the corpus.
Table 11
Absolute frequencies of strategies in the corpus.
| SHIT (Int.) | FUCK (Int.) | FUCKING (Adj.) | FUCKING (Adv.) | SHIT (N.) – “THING” | ABSOLUTE FREQUENCIES | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omission | 12 | 2 | 39 | 25 | 7 | 85 |
| Standardization | 0 | 0 | 9 | 10 | 59 | 78 |
| Euphemism | 0 | 0 | 13 | 18 | 8 | 39 |
| Pragmatic softening | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 11 | 21 |
| Direct compensation | 0 | 0 | 13 | 11 | 1 | 25 |
| Maintenance | 40 | 22 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 90 |
| Total of instances | 52 | 24 | 104 | 72 | 86 | 338 |
Figure 4
Frequencies of translation strategies by form of swear word.