Introduction to Online Profanity
Almost two billion words of 600 of them swear carefully rated words, and the United States then gave the dubious honor to be at least online the most curing country in the English-speaking world. For the Australian duo behind the research, it was a surprise that the residents of their own country were not the way. This is the stereotype that Aussies are loose and relaxed in actions and words. But the Australians were only the third most common citizens who dropped a swear word online.
The Reason Behind America’s Online Profanity
The reason why America is considered more conservative and polite culture among English speakers. The most profane online community could be the anonymity of the screen, according to the co-author of the study, Martin Schweinberger, linguist. "Especially if, for example, they are not bound to what they write with their name," said Schweinberger. "There are also cultural differences in relation to what is allowed in social situations." "Different cultures have different norms when and what is allowed. It seems as if the Americans basically forgive more online," he said.
Selection of Rude Words from Billions of Words
Schweinberger and his colleague rated 1.7 billion words used in online messages, websites for companies, institutional publications, blogs, and other web sources in 20 English-language regions. They created a list of around 600 obscene words, including modified words and abbreviations, such as "WTF" and dozens of variations of the words "F" and "C" and other vulgarities. They then analyzed how often these vulgarities appeared in the documents they had found online.
Results of the Study
In their results, the Americans made the list of a curse word that appears 0.036% of cases. This corresponds to 36 curse words in a 100,000 word text. The British were next with 25 bars per 100,000 words. Then the Aussies with 22, Singapore with 21, and New Zealand with 20. Bangladeshi’s are the heights under English speaker-only seven vulgarities per 100,000 words.
Politely in the Real World, Rude Online
While a wide range of internet sources was used for the study, social media was excluded from the data set. This happened intentionally, since social platforms require more "weeds" of material that is not suitable for analysis. However, Schweinberger said that they had analyzed the use of vulgarities on social media compared to personal interactions in a separate study. The results that do not yet have to be published are very different: on social media, the New Zealanders are in front of the Irish and Australians, said Schweinberger.
The Value of Understanding Curse Words in Culture
For linguists, a data-rich analysis of the use of language online offers an insight into the behavior and interaction of humans. It is important to pursue a scientific approach to how words are used. The context in which the spokesman uses vulgarity is a useful way to not integrate locals into a new environment. "Even in this networked world, we all have our own idiosyncratic way of speaking locally," said a linguist. "If you break these patterns, do not identify yourself as one of the locals. It appeals to this idea that there are local communities, even if you have a globalized world."
Conclusion
The analysis of vulgarity is not only a valuable instrument for linguists, but also for people in all areas of life. "If we think of these bad words or this bad language, you don’t have to avoid it, it is to learn when you have to use it appropriately," said Schweinberger, "and then it can be really effective to improve your communication style and skills."
