영어의 저주어에 관한 고찰

Abstract

This paper aims (1) to capture some properties of swear-words in contemporary English and (2) to find out reasons why English-speaking people have been making predominant use of sexual and scatological oaths, especially since the 1960s, instead of the oaths derived mainly from religious swear-words, which were persistently uttered previous to W or1d War II. The following are what 1 have found out in this paper. With a drastic decline in authority of Christianity and of the Bible, English-speaking people, who take no longer religious oath seriously, turn to sexual and scatalogical oaths for swearing so that they may relieve their feelings with a frightful curse or may display hostile and contemptuous attitudes to the established society.