Fuckin' A, man: Translating swear words in The Big Lebowski

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND Philosophical Faculty

School of Humanities

Foreign Languages and Translation Studies English Language and Translation

Pauli Eino Ilmari Koponen

FUCKIN’ A, MAN: TRANSLATING SWEAR WORDS IN THE BIG LEBOWSKI

MA thesis May 2018

ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Tiedekunta – Faculty Philosophical Faculty

Osasto – School School of Humanities Tekijät – Author

Pauli Eino Ilmari Koponen Työn nimi – Title

Fuckin’ A, man: Translating swear words in The Big Lebowski

Pääaine – Main subject Työn laji – Level Päivämäärä – Date

Sivumäärä – Number of pages

English Language and Translation

Pro gradu -tutkielma x

23.5.2018 76 pages + Appendices Sivuainetutkielma

Kandidaatin tutkielma Aineopintojen tutkielma Tiivistelmä – Abstract

The topic of this thesis is the translation of swear words in subtitles. The aim is to study the translation strategies used when translating swear words in movie subtitles, i.e. whether the swear words are toned down, strengthened, translated into words of the same strength or whether the swear words are left out altogether. This particular topic intrigued me because nowadays, as the success of Netflix has resulted in the number of both subtitles and their viewers increasing, I have heard more and more people commenting on the quality of subtitles, and, from my experience, it is especially the translation of swear words that has been a common subject of criticism. This is what sparked my interest in studying how swear words are translated in subtitles and what factors influence these choices.

The Big Lebowski was chosen as the material for the study since it contains swear words in abundance, and I also found three Finnish subtitles from different releases of the movie, which made it possible to compare the different subtitles in terms of translating swear words. The subtitles are from a TV showing, a DVD release and the Netflix release of the movie. The swear words were divided into five categories in terms of their strength: very mild, mild, moderate, strong and very strong. To categorise the swear words, I conducted two questionnaire surveys, one for English swear words and one for Finnish swear words. The questionnaires were posted online; the English questionnaire received 382 responses and the Finnish questionnaire 1837 responses. Using the strength

categorisations, the swear words found in the movie were compared with the ones found in its subtitles, thus making it possible to study the translation strategies used in the subtitles.

The five translation strategies in the thesis are based on strategies presented by Venäläinen (1992) in her thesis. The translation strategies are as follows: 1) swear word translated as a weaker swear word, 2) swear word translated as a stronger swear word, 3) swear word translated as a swear word of the same strength, 4) swear word left out (either by omission or using a non-swear word) and 5) whole sentence containing swear word left out. The hypothesis, based on the theoretical background (e.g. Díaz Cintas & Remael 2007, Gottlieb 1992, Smith 1996 and Vertanen 2007), was that most of the swear words would be left out and of the swear words that were retained in the subtitles, most would be toned down. The most likely reasons for omitting and toning down swear words in subtitles are time and space restrictions, which force the subtitler to omit information that is deemed less relevant, as well as the notion that swear words appear stronger in written form than when heard aloud.

The results were, for the most part, in agreement with the hypothesis. The most common strategy was leaving the swear word out, as, on average, nearly half of the swear words found in the movie were left out in the subtitles. The second most common strategy was, indeed, toning down the swear word, the next most common strategies being translating the word as a swear word of the same strength and leaving out the whole sentence containing the swear word. As expected, strengthening the swear word was the least common strategy. There were some differences between the subtitles, as the Netflix subtitles contained significantly more swear words, and stronger ones, than the other subtitles. The DVD subtitles contained the smallest number of swear words, although there was not a large difference between the TV and DVD subtitles in this regard.

Avainsanat – Keywords

Swear words, offensive language, audiovisual translation, subtitles

ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO – UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Tiedekunta – Faculty Filosofinen tiedekunta

Osasto – School Humanistinen osasto Tekijät – Author

Pauli Eino Ilmari Koponen Työn nimi – Title

Fuckin’ A, man: Translating swear words in The Big Lebowski

Pääaine – Main subject Työn laji – Level Päivämäärä – Date

Sivumäärä – Number of pages

Englannin kieli ja kääntäminen

Pro gradu -tutkielma x

23.5.2018 76 sivua + Liitteet Sivuainetutkielma

Kandidaatin tutkielma Aineopintojen tutkielma Tiivistelmä – Abstract

Tämän tutkielman aiheena on kirosanojen kääntäminen tekstityksissä. Tavoitteena on tutkia, mitä strategioita on käytetty kirosanojen kääntämisessä elokuvatekstityksissä, eli onko kirosanat käännetty vahvemmiksi, lievemmiksi vai saman vahvuisiksi kirosanoiksi vaiko kenties jätetty kokonaan pois. Aihe on kiintoisa siksi, että varsinkin Netflixin myötä sekä tekstitysten että niiden yleisön määrän kasvettua olen kuullut yhä enemmän kommentteja tekstitysten laadusta, ja nimenomaan kirosanat ovat kokemukseni perusteella olleet yksi yleisimmistä kritisoinnin aiheista. Tästä lähti mielenkiinto tutkia, miten kirosanoja käännetään tekstityksissä ja mitkä seikat näihin

käännösvalintoihin vaikuttavat.

Tutkielman materiaaliksi valikoitui elokuva The Big Lebowski, sillä se sisältää hyvin paljon kirosanoja ja elokuvan eri julkaisuista löytyi kolme suomenkielistä tekstitystä, joita voitiin myös siis vertailla keskenään kirosanojen kääntämisen osalta. Tekstitykset ovat peräisin elokuvan TV-esityksestä, DVD-julkaisusta sekä Netflix-versiosta.

Kirosanat luokiteltiin viiteen vahvuusluokkaan: erittäin lievä, lievä, kohtalainen, vahva ja erittäin vahva.

Vahvuusluokittelua varten tein englannin- ja suomenkielisille kirosanoille vahvuuskyselyt, jotka jaoin internetiin vastattavaksi. Vastauksia tuli englanninkielisten sanojen kyselyyn 382 ja suomenkielisten sanojen kyselyyn 1837.

Vahvuusluokittelujen avulla pystyttiin vertailemaan elokuvasta löydettyjä kirosanoja ja niiden käännöksiä, eli siis tutkimaan, mitä käännösstrategioita tekstityksissä on käytetty.

Tutkielman viisi käännösstrategiaa perustuvat Venäläisen (1992) tutkielmassaan esittelemiin strategioihin.

Käännösstrategiat ovat seuraavat: 1) kirosana käännetty lievemmäksi kirosanaksi, 2) kirosana käännetty vahvemmaksi kirosanaksi, 3) kirosana käännetty saman vahvuiseksi kirosanaksi, 4) kirosana jätetty pois (joko suoraan pois jättämällä tai kääntämällä kirosana ei-kirosanaksi) ja 5) koko kirosanan sisältävä lause jätetty pois.

Hypoteesina oli teoriapohjan (mm. Díaz Cintas & Remael 2007, Gottlieb 1992, Smith 1996 ja Vertanen 2007) perusteella, että suurin osa kirosanoista olisi jätetty pois ja käännetyistä kirosanoista suurin osa olisi lievennetty.

Todennäköisimmät syyt kirosanojen pois jättämiselle ja lieventämiselle ovat tekstitysten tila- ja aikarajoitukset, joiden takia vähemmän relevanttia tietoa joudutaan jättämään pois, sekä olettamus, jonka mukaan kirosanat vaikuttavat vahvemmilta kirjoitetussa muodossa kuin kuultuna.

Tulokset olivat pitkälti hypoteesin mukaisia. Kirosanan pois jättäminen oli yleisin strategia, sillä lähes puolet elokuvan kirosanoista oli jätetty pois. Seuraavaksi yleisin strategia oli kuin olikin kirosanan lieventäminen, minkä jälkeen tulivat saman vahvuiseksi käännetyt kirosanat ja koko kirosanan sisältävän lauseen pois jättäminen.

Kirosanan vahventaminen oli odotetusti vähiten käytetty strategia. Tekstitysten välillä oli joitain eroja, sillä Netflixin tekstitykset sisälsivät runsaasti enemmän ja vahvempia kirosanoja kuin muut tekstitykset. DVD-tekstitykset sisälsivät vähiten kirosanoja, vaikka TV- ja DVD-tekstitysten välillä ei ollutkaan tässä suhteessa suurta eroa.

Avainsanat – Keywords

Kirosanat, loukkaava kieli, audiovisuaalinen kääntäminen, tekstitys

Contents

1 Introduction ... 1

1.1 My BA thesis ... 4

1.2 Aim and scope of research ... 5

2 Subtitling ... 7

2.1 Characteristics of subtitles and subtitling ... 8

2.2 Conventions and restrictions ... 10

2.3 Translation strategies in subtitling ... 12

2.4 External factors influencing subtitlers’ work ... 15

2.5 Subtitling vs dubbing ... 17

3 Swear words ... 19

3.1 Categories of swear words ... 21

3.2 Functions of swear words ... 24

3.3 Swearing in movies ... 25

3.4 Categorisations for strength ... 26

3.4.1 Strength categorisations for English words ... 27

3.4.2 Strength categorisations for Finnish words ... 30

3.5 Limitations of subtitling in terms of swear words ... 32

4 Material ... 35

5 Method ... 40

5.1 Survey for English swear words ... 43

5.2 Survey for Finnish swear words ... 46

6 Results ... 50

6.1 Swear words in the movie and its subtitles ... 50

6.2 Translation of swear words: general results ... 53

6.3 Translation strategies ... 55

6.3.1 Swear word left out ... 59

6.3.2 Swear word toned down ... 63

6.3.3 Swear word translated as a swear word of same strength ... 64

6.3.4 Whole sentence left out ... 67

6.3.5 Swear word strengthened ... 69

7 Discussion and conclusion ... 71

References ... 74

Appendix 1: Questionnaire for English swear words ... 77

Appendix 2: Questionnaire for Finnish swear words ... 84

Appendix 3: List of swear words found in the movie ... 90

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1 Introduction

My MA thesis analyses the translation of swear words in terms of their strength in Finnish subtitles. The material consists of three different subtitles for the movie The Big Lebowski. In this thesis, I use the term swear word as denoting words that can be deemed offensive in any formal or casual conversation and, as such, are often marked separately in, for instance, dictionaries, as being vulgar. This definition pertains mostly to what most people, in everyday speech, would call swear words but also includes some blasphemous, homophobic, racist and sexist words, mostly in forms of insults. Thus, the words studied in this thesis can broadly be divided into swear words and insults, since the more detailed semantic and linguistic categorisations of swear words are not particularly relative to the scope of this thesis, as the focus will be more on the strength i.e. offensiveness of the words.

Translating swear words in subtitles is a challenge for translators: viewers may be offended if there are many swear words in subtitles, whereas omitting or toning down swear words might alter the effectiveness or style of the movie or program (Hjort 2009). In addition, a swear word is deemed more powerful i.e. having a stronger impact in subtitles than in the movie/program itself because of the fact that, in subtitles, it is in a written form instead of being spoken aloud (Hjort 2006:78).

Conversely, taking into account the fact that subtitles are confined to the bottom of a screen and are only visible for several seconds per line, and should thus be in a very compact and easily readable form, a large number of swear words in the subtitles may take up space from other, perhaps what one might consider to be more important, information. Thus, it may sometimes be necessary to omit swear words because of these constricting limitations that come with the format of subtitles (Vertanen 2007).

In addition to being a major source of translation problems for translators, swear words in subtitles has been an intriguing area of study for me personally. I have for a long time been very interested in subtitling and planned on, or rather dreamed of, working as a subtitler, and although I have not yet made any definite decisions concerning my future work plans, I still tend to find myself evaluating the translation choices made by the translator whenever I watch a movie or a TV show with subtitles. With regard to swear words, my friends and I have,

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through the years, very often discussed the subject of translating them, especially in subtitles.

Thus, the subject is of great interest to me personally, as I have witnessed very differing opinions on whether swear words should be retained in subtitle translations and to what extent their strength should be modified, if at all.

I have also received, on behalf of many translators, countless complaints from my friends, knowing that I study translation, as they have felt that the translators have made, in their opinion, very questionable choices concerning swear words. Most often this critique has been directed towards the subtitler having omitted or severely toned down swear words, as my friends have complained about these translation strategies “watering down” the movie in question, as the theoretical background also suggests. This is one of the factors as to why the translation of swear words in subtitles has piqued my interest, as these complaints have encouraged me to look into the conventions and norms regarding swear words in subtitling and, perhaps also on a wider scale, all translation. This, in turn, would allow me to provide my friends, and others who may not have such insight on translation and subtitling norms and guidelines, with plausible answers and explanations as to why certain translation strategies have been chosen over other alternatives and possibly, to some extent, also help them understand the restrictions and problems that translators and especially subtitlers might face in their day-to-day work.

The complaints addressed to me have, in the last couple of years, only increased in number, which I contribute especially to the rise in popularity of online streaming services which support subtitles, particularly Netflix. I have lost count as to how many times I have been, for the lack of a better word, bombarded with questions and statements such as “where do they get their translators from?” and “even I could translate better!”, most of which concern subtitles in Netflix. Netflix has, in a few years, become immensely popular all over the world and its popularity shows no signs of waning. I rarely come into contact with anyone who does not regularly use, let alone has not heard of Netflix, and even my parents, who are not the most technology-savvy people, watch Netflix on a regular basis.

Considering its popularity and the fact that it offers a vast variety of TV shows and movies that are all available for its users with just a few clicks of a mouse or presses of a button, one can deduce that Netflix must have a huge impact on how people receive and evaluate subtitles. Services such as Netflix also greatly facilitates the circulation of subtitles, as

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viewers do not have to pay separately for movies, which certainly increases the number of movies or other similar products consumed by a regular viewer. Therefore, when I saw that The Big Lebowski was available on Netflix, I wanted to include its Netflix subtitles in this thesis, as this would provide a refreshing juxtaposition between DVD and TV subtitles and, as some might argue, their successor, Netflix subtitles, albeit limited to the topic of this thesis, i.e. the translation of swear words. The general impact of Netflix on subtitling would indeed provide a very interesting basis for research, but for the purpose of this thesis, I will not delve further into how Netflix might have changed attitudes towards subtitling or affected the actual work of translators. One must also keep in mind that, in this thesis, even though I will also compare the translation strategies used in DVD, TV and Netflix subtitles, it is strictly related to how the swear words are translated in each of the subtitles and should not be taken as being indicative of the overall quality of the subtitles from different sources.

In this MA thesis, I look at which translation strategies were used in the subtitles i.e. whether the strength of the swear words changed in the translation or if the swear words were left out and how the subtitles differ from each other in this regard. There were 5 translation strategies analysed in this thesis: 1. The swear word is toned down 2. The swear word is strengthened 3.

The swear word remains of roughly the same strength (i.e. belongs to the same category of strength as the original word) 4. The swear word is omitted (either by leaving the swear word out completely or translating the swear word to a non-swear word/euphemism) 5. The whole sentence/utterance containing the swear word is omitted. These translation strategies are based, with some alterations which will be explained in section 5, on those found by Venäläinen (1992: 51–52) in her study of translating swear words in subtitles, which, in turn, will be presented in more detail in section 3.4.2. This is an interesting subject to look at, since the movie in question, The Big Lebowski, contains a considerably large number of swear words. In addition, swearing seems to be a very integral part of the style and characterisation of the movie. Thus, considerable differences in the use of swearing between the source material and its subtitles may perhaps be considered as being detrimental (Díaz Cintas &

Remael 2007: 196–197), while not necessarily for the understandability, but for the intended style, effectiveness, atmosphere, humor and perhaps even shock value of the movie.

This study is a continuation of my BA thesis, on which I will provide more information in the next section by describing the study and the changes that I have made for this MA thesis.

After the detailed introduction to my BA thesis, I will briefly introduce the aim and scope of

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the study in section 1.2, after which I will go through the theoretical background for the study in sections 2 and 3. After the necessary theoretical material has been presented, I will concentrate on describing the material and methods that were used in the study in sections 4 and 5, respectively. Finally, in section 6, I will present the results of the study and provide a detailed analysis and my own insights on the results.

1.1 My BA thesis

My BA thesis (Koponen 2012) looked at the translation of swear words in two different subtitles of the movie The Big Lebowski (1998). The aim of the study was to examine the translation strategies used in translating swear words in two Finnish subtitles of the movie.

The subtitles were from two DVDs of the movie published by Scanbox Entertainment and Universal Pictures. The translation strategies were categorised into five types on the basis of Venäläinen (1992: 51–52): whether the swear words were (1) toned down, (2) strengthened, (3) translated as swear words that are of roughly the same strength in the target culture, (4) left out completely or (5) whether the whole sentence containing the swear word was left out.

On the basis of previous research (Venäläinen 1992; Vertanen 2007), my hypothesis was that the swear words in The Big Lebowski would be mostly either toned down or left out completely in both of the subtitles.

There were 198 swear words collected in roughly the first hour of the movie, and they were categorised in terms of their strength by means of a slightly modified categorisation based on categorisations of offence and tabooness presented by McEnery (2006:36) and Jay (1992:143), respectively (see section 3.4.1). Since I did not find any categorisations for Finnish swear words, they were categorised using a categorisation developed by me on the basis of data collected from two fellow students. This was done by asking the students to place the Finnish swear words found in the subtitles into similar categories as the ones used for the English swear words. The swear words and their Finnish translations were then compared to see which of the aforementioned translation strategies were used.

The results were partly in agreement with my hypothesis. The most common strategy (used for 56% of all the swear words, average of the two subtitles) was, indeed, leaving out swear

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words. Surprisingly, the second most common strategy was translating swear words as words of the same strength, which was used for 20% of all the swear words. The third most common strategy (12%) was leaving out the whole sentence containing the swear word(s). The fourth most common strategy (9%), strengthening swear words, was used much more often in the Scanbox subtitles than the Universal ones. Finally, the least common strategy (3%) was toning down swear words. The two subtitles left out the same number of swear words (110 out of the total 198 words) but differed substantially in the strength of the words translated as swear words, as 46 percent of translated swear words were stronger than the original words in the Scanbox subtitles, whereas only 14 percent of translated swear words were stronger than the original words in the Universal subtitles.

Compared with the BA thesis, this MA thesis concentrates on the same factors, i.e. the strength of the swear words and their translations and possible differences between the subtitles in this aspect, but the material was expanded to encompass all the swear words found in the movie. In addition, several important changes were made considering the categorisations of strength with which the words will be classified to ensure that the categorisation is reliable. Thus, the BA thesis provided a basis for this MA thesis, which is more extensive.

1.2 Aim and scope of research

As mentioned before, my MA thesis will be a continuation of my BA thesis, and thus, the aim of the research will mainly be the same, i.e. to study which translation strategies were used to translate swear words in subtitles. That is, again, to see whether the strength of the words has changed, stayed the same or if the words have been left out altogether in the subtitles. In other words, my research questions are the following:

1. Are the swear words in the movie translated or left out?

2. If translated, has the strength of the words, according to the categorisations used in the study, remained the same or changed in the subtitles?

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On very general terms, however, the research question of this thesis could be defined simply as “what happens to swear words in translation in subtitles?”

As the focus of research in this thesis is on the strength of swear words, the semantic and linguistic features of these words are, for the most part, not particularly relevant for the study.

I will, however, provide an overview of these features and their classification in theoretical background to allow the reader to understand the complexity and wide variety of swear words and offensive language in general as well as their potential use and, at the same time, clearing up the definition of the term. These features would be an interesting area of further research.

My hypothesis was, taking into account the theoretical background and previous studies by, for instance, Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007), Gottlieb (1992), Smith (1996) and Vertanen (2007), and, of course, the results of my BA thesis, that most of the swear words found in the movie would be left out and that most of the swear words that are actually translated in the subtitles are toned down when compared to the ones found in the movie.

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2 Subtitling

This section will concentrate on audiovisual translation, or more particularly, subtitling. I will present some general background on subtitling and demonstrate its basic characteristics and features, describe the restrictions and challenges it entails for translators and introduce the main translation strategies that subtitlers use to deal with these challenges.

Subtitling, in some form, has been around for over a century (Ivarsson & Carroll 1998:9) and its use has rapidly increased from the 20^th century onwards. According to Ivarsson and Carroll (1998:9) and Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:26), the first instances of what could be called as subtitling trace all the way back to the 1900s with intertitles inserted into films, which were, at the time, silent, in between shots to present verbal dialogue or other information to the audience. This differs from what is nowadays usually considered as subtitling, as it did not necessarily involve actual translation. Translating foreign films was, at this time, moderately easy, as intertitles could be removed from the film and replaced with ones written in the source language.

Nowadays, the process of subtitling is much more complex and since, as we all know, films are no longer silent, there are many more challenges subtitlers must face and factors they must take into account when translating an audiovisual product with many channels of information into simple, compact text form. In this section, I will provide a brief overview of the concept and introduce the main types of audiovisual translation, and in the next few sections, I will describe the main characteristics of subtitles and subtitling and look at the state of subtitling in Finland.

The term audiovisual translation, as the name already suggests, refers to the fact that, unlike, for instance, literary translation, it takes advantage of both auditory and visual dimensions of the source material and thus, several channels of information must be paid attention to in the process (Karamitroglou 2000: 1–2). Indeed, Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:8) also note that in addition to dialogue, the translator must also take into account the visual information as well as other material found in the soundtrack. Karamitroglou (2000:1–2) defined audiovisual translation, quite appropriately, as the translation of recorded audiovisual material.

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The view of which kinds of activities regarding language transfer can be construed as audiovisual translation varies slightly from scholar to scholar especially in terms of whether simultaneous interpreting should be considered as part of audiovisual translation, but all of them include different types of subtitling (which will be presented in the next section) and dubbing as the main types of audiovisual translation (Karamitroglou 2000:4). Gambier (2012:49–51) identifies several types of activities that can be considered as audiovisual translation, which include the following:

 Intralingual subtitling

 Interlingual subtitling

 Bilingual subtitling

 Dubbing

 Free commentary

 Interpreting

 Voice-over

 Surtitling

Out of these categories, only subtitles and dubbing are directly related to movie translation and out of these two, only the former (interlingual subtitling, to be exact) is relevant to this thesis, since the movie in question is, as is usual for movies targeted at adult audiences in Finland, subtitled and not dubbed. Thus, the other categories will not be examined or defined here. I will, however, provide a brief comparison of subtitling and dubbing in section 2.5 as it relates to the current state of movie translation.

2.1 Characteristics of subtitles and subtitling

Defined in simple terms, subtitling is the practice of translating spoken and/or written audiovisual source material into the target language text which is then inserted, usually on the bottom of the screen, in the visual presentation of the source material (Karamitroglou 2000:9).

To elaborate this definition, one can examine the five factors that separate subtitling from other types of translation, presented by Gottlieb (1992:163). Gottlieb suggests that, when

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compared with other translation, what makes subtitling unique is that it is written, additive, immediate, synchronous and polymedial. A short description for each factor is presented in the following.

1. Written: subtitles are in a written form, unlike other practices of audiovisual translation.

2. Additive: rather than replacing the source material, subtitling adds the translation into it and thus retains the source language material.

3. Immediate: the immediateness of subtitling stems from the fact that movies etc. feed information in a constant flow which is not controlled by the viewer.

4. Synchronous: subtitling is synchronous because the source material, e.g. a movie, is presented synchronously with the actual translation i.e. the subtitles.

5. Polymedial: the polymedial aspect of subtitling refers to the fact that the source material makes use of several channels of information to present its message to the viewer, for instance, by using both auditory and visual information.

As mentioned in the previous section, there are different types of subtitling in terms of their linguistic and technical features. They are briefly described in the next few paragraphs.

Gottlieb (1992:163) presents two types of subtitling based on linguistic terms, namely interlingual and intralingual subtitling, to which Gambier (2012:51) adds a third one, i.e.

bilingual subtitling.

1. Interlingual subtitling: the most common type of subtitling, used in television, DVDs etc. In interlingual subtitling, the source material is translated into a different language.

2. Bilingual subtitling: used in bilingual countries, bilingual subtitling offers subtitles in two different languages simultaneously. This can be seen, for instance, in the cinema in Finland, where the subtitles are presented in both Finnish and Swedish.

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3. Intralingual subtitling: intralingual subtitling offers subtitles in the same language as the source material, usually presented for the hard of hearing.¹

Of these three types, it is interlingual subtitling that is relevant to this thesis.

Gottlieb (1992:163), Gambier (2012:49) as well as Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:21) also distinguish two different types of subtitling in terms of their technical form, which are the following.

1. Open subtitles: open subtitles are integrated in the actual source material and thus cannot be removed, as is the case in the cinema and VHS videos.

2. Closed subtitles: closed subtitles are not part of the source material, but are, if needed, added to it with the possibility of providing translations in different languages. This is a feature which can be seen in DVDs, blu-rays and Netflix, where the viewer can choose between subtitles in different languages, as well as, in some cases, television.

The subtitles that are analysed in this thesis are all closed subtitles, which means that they are not an integral part of the source material and can thus be turned off or changed into subtitles in other languages at will.

2.2 Conventions and restrictions

A subtitle usually consists of two rows of text on the bottom of the screen at a time, both of which have the capacity of approximately 33 characters (34 in commercial TV channels in Finland and up to 40 in cinemas) and if the translation of what is said in a movie does not fit into these two rows, it must be either shortened or divided into the next subtitle or even further (Vertanen 2007:151–154). Hartama (2007:192), however, estimates that the capacity of each subtitle row in Finnish TV and video subtitles is usually 30–35 characters. Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:24) also note that the capacity of a subtitle row may vary according

1 In my opinion, it could be argued that intralingual subtitling is not necessarily translating, but rather transcribing as it occurs in the confines of one single language and thus does not involve language transfer.

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to the medium in which it is published, with cinema and DVD releases having more characters than subtitles on television, which has to do with, for instance, bigger screens and fewer distractions in cinema and the fact that one can rewatch subtitles at will on DVD, as these can be considered factors that facilitate the reading of subtitles.

According to Vertanen (2007:151), a subtitle with two rows of text should be visible from four to five seconds, and one with only one row should be visible from two to three seconds.

Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:23), on the other hand, introduce what is often called “the six- second rule”, which suggests that a subtitle with two rows of text is, on average, read and processed by the viewer in six seconds. However, this refers to subtitles with 35 or 37 characters per row, which is more than Vertanen suggested is usual in Finnish subtitles. In addition, Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:24) point out that the average reading speed for television subtitles is slower than for subtitles in other media, since the target audience for television is much wider and varied and the subtitles should be suitable for all. Nevertheless, Vertanen (2007:151) also notes that a subtitle should be visible precisely as long as the line spoken aloud, which contributes to the fact that a subtitle should be very compact.

Additionally, as Hartama (2007:189) argues, the fact that Finnish words are more than often rather long and sentences can have several suffixes makes subtitling in Finnish very challenging, especially when compared to other less complex languages. Thankfully, however, as Vertanen (2007:154) suggests, Finnish does not have a fixed word order, and thus, subtitlers can alter the word order of a sentence, which may help them avoid omitting important information.

Smith (1996:146) mentions that according to experience, viewers are annoyed if no there is no subtitle visible, even though something is clearly being said aloud in the movie. This suggests that while so called filler words or phrases in long sentences can be omitted to preserve space, it may not be appropriate to omit single, separate occurrences of these words or phrases. In this thesis, there are separate translation strategies for leaving out swear words in sentences and for leaving out whole sentences containing swear words. It can thus be construed that the latter strategy should be used very cautiously, since, as previously mentioned, this can irritate viewers, who, especially if they have limited skills in the source language, might be left wondering what exactly it is that they missed when a whole sentence is heard in the movie but missing from the subtitles.

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Smith (1996:146) also suggests that while repeated utterances, for instance, in the case where the speaker pauses, can also be repeated in the subtitles, two or more successive subtitles should not be identical, as this could confuse the viewer into thinking there might be a technological error, especially if the subtitles are presented back-to-back without frames in between. In The Big Lebowski, there are several scenes where characters repeat sentences, talk on top of each other or stutter. This, combined with the great number of swear words in the movie, surely provides the translator with many challenges as to how to fit necessary information into subtitle lines.

2.3 Translation strategies in subtitling

As described in the previous section, time and space restrictions in subtitles force subtitlers to balance between the restrictions and content which should provide the viewer with as much information as possible within the limits of the limited space and time. Thus, it is understandable that subtitlers use several different strategies when facing the various translation problems that emerge when translating even a single movie. In this section, I will briefly present different translation strategies that can be used in subtitles in order to provide some insight on how subtitlers deal with translation problems, such as swear words, in subtitling.

As an experienced subtitler, Gottlieb (1992:166) lists ten translation strategies that he finds illustrate the process of translating pieces of dialogue etc. into compact subtitle lines. The strategies are as follows:

1. Expansion: Translator adds information to make the source material understandable to the target culture.

2. Paraphrase: Translator slightly alters the source material but remains faithful to the original message.

3. Transfer: Translator translates the source material as a nearly identical message in the target language.

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4. Imitation: Translator retains words or phrases (for instance, proper nouns) from the source material.

5. Transcription: Translator retains abnormal elements found in the source material, such as in dialects.

6. Dislocation: Translator alters the expression and content so that the intended style or effect of the source material is retained.

7. Condensation: Translator condenses the source material but retains the intended message.

8. Decimation: Translator shortens the source material and part of the intended message of the source material is also lost.

9. Deletion: Translator omits parts of the source material.

10. Resignation: Translator is not able to translate the source material.

Gottlieb (1992:166) argues that strategy number 7 i.e. condensation is usually considered to be the most typical strategy for subtitling, as it does exactly what the translator should aim for, that is, the use of condensation allows the translation to retain both the meaning and, at least partly, the style of the source material while reducing the message into a compact line. It can thus be argued that, in cases where the source material cannot, for time or space reasons, be ‘directly’ translated, one can expect to find condensation to be the most common strategy.

Gottlieb adds that strategies 5 to 9 are ones that are, for the most part, exclusive to subtitling, with numbers 8 and 9 i.e. decimation and deletion being strategies that lose some meaning or content of the source material and thus should be avoided, even though, as a whole, the most essential parts of the message of the original can be understood with the help of the audiovisual source material being present. Since this thesis focuses on the strength of swear words rather than all possible translation strategies that can be used in subtitling, I will not use the strategies presented by Gottlieb in analysing the material.

Vertanen (2007:152) agrees with what can be construed from the categories and descriptions by Gottlieb. According to Vertanen, in the case where the dialogue is too dense to fit all information into the subtitle line, the subtitler must indeed condense the dialogue so that the subtitle line includes everything that is relevant to the plot etc. by attempting to remove less important information or information that the viewer already knows. Indeed, as Díaz Cintas

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and Remael also suggest, “subtitlers must become experts in distinguishing what is essential from what is ancillary” (2007:162). Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:163) continue by comparing omissions at word level and sentence level. Omissions at word level have more to do with information that can be perceived as either redundant or non-relevant in terms of understanding what is happening in the source material, whereas omissions at sentence level, while not preferable, are sometimes made in cases where there is simply too much information coming from different sources, such as when characters are speaking simultaneously or are simply rephrasing information that other characters have already said.

There are many examples of the kind of information that can usually be omitted on the basis of viewers either already knowing or, through previous scenes or visual clues, having gained knowledge of it. I will present them briefly in the next few paragraphs.

According to Vertanen (2007:152), material that can, for the most part, be safely omitted often includes leading phrases such as ‘I think that’ and ‘In my opinion’ as they do not, by themselves, provide any relevant information. This is also true for names and titles but only if they are repeated often in the source material, as the repetitions do not add any new information, especially in Finland, where, in typical conversation, names are not repeated nearly as much as, for example, in the USA. These names also include place names, if they are not relevant to the plot. According to Vertanen (2007:153), swear words are also often omitted from subtitles in order to save space for more important information, and also because they can appear stronger in written form. The translation of swear words in subtitles, since it naturally is the most relevant of these for this thesis, is discussed in more detail in its own section i.e. Section 3.5.

Vertanen (2007:153) also mentions that using slang or accent in subtitles may be quite risky since the readability of the subtitles might suffer if the text is very accented or contains a lot of slang words. Since subtitles must be simple enough for the viewers to be able to read at a glance, it is preferable to merely hint at a different kind of speech or accent in the subtitles, so that the lines are still understandable to everyone, unless, of course, indecipherability is the exact intention of the source material. Vertanen adds that if the subtitler chooses to use slang or accents, their use must be consistent in the subtitles, as otherwise it may confuse the viewer. Conversely, Díaz Cintas and Remael (2007:194) note that while accents or accented speech can be difficult to retain in subtitles, they can be rather important, as they can, for

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instance, convey humor or crucial differences between characters and for instance, their social status. In subtitles, accented speech should be adapted to fit the target language to give an appearance of, for instance, a foreign accent.

The choice of these translation strategies depends, for the most part, on translators themselves as well as their abilities and preferences. However, there are some external factors beyond the translator’s reach or influence that also affect, often in a negative way, the translator’s ability to make well-advised decisions when faced with translation problems such as swear words.

Some of these factors will now be briefly discussed in the next section, as they do place some restrictions on the daily work of subtitlers and, thus, may have also played a part in influencing the choices made by the translators of the subtitles studied in this thesis.

2.4 External factors influencing subtitlers’ work

The technical restrictions of subtitling as a form of translation described in the previous section are not usually the only difficulties that a subtitler has to face in day-to-day work, as there are also external factors that may have an effect on the decisions a translator makes and, thus, possibly even on the quality of the subtitles.

In recent years, subtitling has become a field where private translation companies thrive while driving the prices of subtitles down (Laine 2007:265–266). In Finland, companies such as Broadcast Text, SDI Media Finland and Pre-Text are responsible for most subtitles on TV and DVD. The first two of these are large, multinational companies, and can thus offer very cheap subtitles for clients such as film companies, importers and TV channels. This has made it very difficult for other possible suppliers to get in on the market, as they cannot compete with the low prices and fast delivery times offered by these large companies (Laine 2007:266).

However, this situation is problematic for subtitlers, as they are more than often hired as freelancers rather than having steady jobs (Laine 2007:266). As Abdallah (2007:277) argues, this has made the discussion about the quality of subtitles very product-centric, as the main concern for the companies is the actual finished product, which needs to be produced as cheaply and quickly as possible. Indeed, as Laine (2007:268) adds, it is not at all unusual that

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clients demand subtitles in very short time limits and this, in turn, results in translation companies pushing translators to work as quickly as possible, thus more than likely sacrificing quality in favor of time and cost.

In addition to tightened deadlines, this situation has resulted in substantially lowered fees for translators, which forces them to work even harder and faster to ensure an adequate pay check (Laine 2007:268). Indeed, Abdallah (2007:276) paints a somewhat disheartening picture of possible working conditions of a subtitler in the private sector by likening them to those of

“sweatshops” and arguing that subtitlers in private companies are forced to work for much lower fees and tighter deadlines than those in the public sector, sometimes even without scripts or video to aid them. Fortunately, matters have been improving as of late and a collective agreement for audiovisual translators has been signed with most of the translation agencies in audiovisual translation², including Broadcast Text International, which was the translation agency responsible for two of the subtitles analysed in this thesis.

Nevertheless, all of this may have resulted in subtitlers having had little to no time to revise their translations or to put more serious thought in and extensively work on possible individual translation problems they may face (Laine 2007:268). However, it would, of course, be incorrect to claim that this directly results in subtitles that are of bad quality³ or full of mistakes. After all, translators are trained professionals, and speed and precision are not always mutually exclusive.

I will not delve further into the situation with subtitlers, their working conditions and translation companies, as this subject is far outside the scope of this study and is not directly related to this thesis. However, it is, in my opinion, rather important to even briefly cover this subject, as it may indeed play a part in the choices that the subtitlers have made in the subtitles studied in this very thesis, and I myself have noticed that many people are quick to judge translators for the choices they have made without giving a thought on the conditions and restrictions under which the translations have been made.

2 News of this can be read at https://journalistiliitto.fi/fi/av-kaannosalalle-vihdoin-tyoehtosopimus-yksi-toimisto- jai-ulos/ and the collective agreement can be read at http://www.av-kaantajat.fi/ammattilaiselle/av-

kaannostoimistojen-tyoehtosop/.

3 The question of the ”quality” of subtitles or translations in general and how it is measured is, altogether, a difficult one, and will not be discussed further here.

17 2.5 Subtitling vs dubbing

As mentioned above, subtitling and dubbing are the main forms of audiovisual translation that are associated with movies. In dubbing, the audio track from the source material is replaced with an audio track translated to the target language (Munday 2012:271; Karamitroglou 2000:5), i.e. a new text spoken in the target language is recorded to cover the spoken source text. Dubbing aims to retain the illusion that the characters in the movies themselves speak the newly translated dialogue, and thus, the script must be translated with the lip movements in mind, so that the new audio track can be lip-synched to the visual channel of the source material (Ivarsson & Carroll 1998:10). This, if well executed, may allow for a very immersive experience, as it may actually seem like the characters speak the target language, made stronger by the fact that dubbing does not affect the visual channel of the source material in any way, unlike subtitles, which may disrupt the visual information and draw attention away from the actual picture.

However, unlike subtitling, dubbing loses the original audio track of the source material and thus sacrifices some authenticity as well as the possibility to evaluate the translation. In addition, in case of possible translation errors in dubbing, one can only resort to the visual information to make sense of the message, whereas subtitles allow the viewer to hear the original script spoken aloud and thus it is easier to correct any misunderstandings relating to the translation (Ivarsson & Carroll 1998:34–36). This is why subtitles are also beneficial for viewers who want to learn the source language, as they can hear the original soundtrack and see the translation simultaneously. Furthermore, another advantage of subtitling over dubbing is that the reading of subtitles from an early age on has been suggested to be beneficial for literacy as well as learning foreign languages (Ivarsson & Carroll 1998: 35). This may very well also be true in Finland, where children are exposed to subtitles in television from an early age on for most of their lives.

Interestingly, especially in Europe, there seems to be a division between so-called subtitle countries and dubbing countries, based on the convention of each country to mainly use either subtitles or dubbing for movies and TV. Dubbing is commonly used in, for instance, France, Germany and Italy, while subtitle countries include Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands and especially Scandinavian countries, and, of course, Finland, where the number of subtitled

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material in both television and cinema is very substantial, as nearly every foreign TV program or movie has been subtitled (Vertanen 2007:149–150; Ivarsson & Carroll 1998:5–6). As can thus be seen, dubbing is used in countries with a high population, as it is, compared to subtitling, much more expensive and time-consuming a process. It is thus understandably much easier and affordable for smaller countries to rely on the less complicated process of subtitling.

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3 Swear words

This section will focus on swear words, for which different categories based on both their semantic use and strength will be introduced, and functions thereof, in real life as well as in movies, will be discussed. Finally, the last few sections will examine the two main subjects, i.e. subtitling and swear words, combined, as they will present findings on how swear words are, according to theoretical material and guidelines, expected to be translated in subtitles, and factors that contribute to the strategies used in translating swear words in subtitles.

Swear words seem to have a remarkable effect on people, although they do not differ from other words in terms of length or phonology (McEnery 2006:1). The power or effect that these words have on people results from the offence that the words evoke in people’s minds.

In fact, McEnery (2006:2) defines, as he calls it, “bad language” as follows:

[…] any word or phrase which, when used in what one might call polite conversation, is likely to cause offence.

Allan and Burridge (2006:40) come to a similar conclusion, stating that language that contains

“dirty words” is a “breach of etiquette”.

As mentioned before, in this MA thesis, I will use the term ‘swear words’ as referring to McEnery’s definition of bad language above, i.e. words (or phrases) that might cause offence in normal conversation, usually even regardless of context⁴. Therefore, in this thesis, the term

‘swear words’ covers several categories of what may be called bad, dirty or offensive language, which will be presented in the next section. In broad terms, one could say that the term ‘swear words’ in this thesis is, indeed, quite identical to what most people would refer to as swear words. It could be argued that the main term in this thesis, rather than having a clear- cut definition that is independent of subjective reasoning, relies on the effect that the words (may) have on people i.e. evoking at least some amount of offence in a polite conversation, regardless of context. However, for the purposes of this thesis, words that I considered as swear words are those that are well established as swear words in terms of the frequency of their use and how they are used. These words can often be found in dictionaries as being

4 There are, of course, exceptions where some words may not be offensive in some contexts or jargon, such as in the case of the word bitch as described in the following page, but here, the context-centric view is not applicable as the definition refers to normal, polite conversation and not any particular context or jargon.

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defined as swear words or otherwise strong words. This denotes that, for instance, euphemisms such as ottaa suihin, which was found in the subtitles analysed in this thesis, were not considered as swear words.

In addition to being offensive, swear words are usually considered taboo, i.e. something that people do not want to discuss, let alone use. As Tammi (2007:8) argues, this “tabooness” has long been one of the cornerstones of swearing, as using taboo words has very much to do with the sense of danger and defiance and “showing off one’s power”. Spears (1998:ix) agrees with this view, listing the characteristics of offensive language as the following:

1. the exercise of total freedom 2. spontaneous customizing 3. shock

4. transgression against social custom 5. innovation. (Spears 1998:ix)

Spears (1998:ix) follows this by noting that defining particular patterns in the use of swear words is difficult, since this sort of language itself, in effect, aims to break rules. However, Jay (1992:9) argues that, since swear words do have meaning and intent and they are centred around human experience, there is a logic and purpose in their use.

Indeed, according to Jay (1992:13), the use of swear words is highly context-related or, perhaps more appropriately, context-restricted. Swear words are, in fact, the most contextually influenced words in modern English (Jay 1992:13). The influence of context on swear words results in the fact that speakers must assess several factors before deciding whether to use swear words or not. According to Timothy Jay (1992:12–13), the factors to assess include physical location, social event, the relationship of the speakers to each other and the intent of the speaker. Spears (1998:ix) agrees with this concept, claiming that the intended as well as the actual realized effect that swear words have depends on similar factors, listing examples which, for the most part, overlap with Jay’s, while adding a few more factors, such as point of view, age and sex of the speaker as well as the person spoken to and tone of voice.

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Thus, swear words do not themselves dictate the effect or purpose of their use, but rather, the main factors lie in the context of the situation where the words are used⁵. In human interactions, all of these factors contribute to the decision of either restraining from using swear words or using them (and to what extent). An example of the context-relatedness of swear words is using the word bitch, which would be appropriate and not considered a swear word when talking to a dog breeder but might be highly inappropriate if used when talking to female friends. Another example would be restricting swear word usage when being in the presence of children (Jay 1992:13), which Tammi (2007:9) also agrees with by stating that it is very sensible to “soften your language” when conversing with, for instance, children, one’s grandmother or a priest. Restricting the use of swear words is also very common in subtitles for several reasons, as will be discussed in section 3.5.

3.1 Categories of swear words

As mentioned in the previous section, the main term in this study, swear word, is an umbrella term for several categories of language that can be deemed offensive. In this section, I will provide two categorisations of swear words based on their use or semantic differences.

However, these categories will be not implemented in the actual analysis, categorisation and comparison of the swear words, as the main priority of this thesis is the strength of the words.

Thus, the purpose of this section relates more to defining the main term used in this thesis and providing insight on what features constitute swearing. It would, however, be possible to study, for instance, whether the semantic categories of the words have changed in the subtitles or which translation strategy is most often used with each category.

Jay (1992:2–9) classifies the terms with which “dirty words” can be described into ten categories in terms of their use and the needs and intentions behind it. The classification is as follows:

1. Cursing – “The intent of cursing is to invoke harm on another person through the use of certain words or phrases” (Jay 1992:2). Examples: damn you, eat shit and die

5 One must, yet again, bear in mind that in this thesis, swear words are defined in relation to their

strength/offensiveness in normal and polite conversation, and not in any particular context as this could result in some fluctuation in their offensiveness.

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2. Profanity – “To be profane means to be ignorant or intolerant of the guidelines of a particular religious order [i.e.] employing religious terminology in a profane, secular, or indifferent manner” (Jay 1992:3). Examples: For the love of Christ, get off the phone! Does the Pope shit in the woods?⁶

3. Blasphemy – “A blasphemy is an attack on religion or religious doctrine. While profanity is related to the secular or indifferent (to religion), blasphemy aims directly at the church” (Jay 1992:3–4). Examples: Screw the Pope! Shit on what it says in the Bible!

4. Taboo – “A taboo operates to suppress or inhibit certain behavior, thoughts, or in this case, speech. [-] The function of the taboo is to prohibit the behavior of a speaker and preserve social cohesion” (Jay 1992:4).

5. Obscenity – “To call a word obscene means that it cannot be used freely; it is subject to restriction; and to use such speech is to risk sanctioning from the courts. While taboo restricts what speakers do, obscenity functions to protect listeners from harmful language. Obscenity laws control the content of books and the content of broadcasts” (Jay 1992:5). Examples: fuck, motherfucker, cunt as universally obscene words.

6. Vulgarity – “Vulgarity means the language of the common person, “the person in the street”, or the unsophisticated, unsocialized, or under-educated. Vulgarity does not serve any particular need or function beyond the normal communication demands of the common human” (Jay 1992:6). Examples: snot, bloody, up yours, booger, slut.

7. Slang – “Slang is a vocabulary that is developed in certain sub-groups [-] for ease of communication. The slang code serves to identify members of the group, while misuse or ignorance of it identifies non-members, which may be especially important in illegal transactions” (Jay 1992:6–7). Examples: pimp, cherry, dweeb, bennies.

8. Epithets – “Epithets are brief but forceful bursts of emotional language. They are powerful in presentation (loudness or duration) and in offensiveness than other types of cursing, for example, joking. The epithet is uttered from frustration, as when you hit your hand with a hammer” (Jay 1992:7). Example: shit, damn, hell, son of a bitch.

9. Insults and slurs – “Insults and slurs are verbal attacks on other people. These words are spoken to harm the other person by the word alone” (Jay 1992:8). Examples: bitch, bastard, fag, spic, nigger.

10. Scatology – “Scatological terms refer to human waste products and processes” (Jay 1992:6).

Examples: crap, shit, piss.

Jay points out that there is overlapping between these categories, and some words or expressions can be grouped in several categories, such as son of a bitch, which could be an insult or an epithet. It is indeed evident how some of the categories, such as profanity and blasphemy, seem to be difficult to distinguish from each other. Jay’s categories are extensive, but some of the categories, such as vulgarity or slang, are, in my opinion, not automatically quite what I’d consider as particularly offensive or “dirty” as, according to the definition given by Jay, they seem to have more to do with who is speaking rather than what is said and, thus, cannot necessarily be considered offensive as such.

6 Interestingly, this exact phrase presented as an example by Jay, does the Pope shit in the woods?, is actually found in the movie studied in this study.

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Another categorisation, concentrating more on the actual use of words in a certain situation than the underlying needs in general, is based on McEnery’s (2006:30) work on the Lancaster Corpus of Abuse, which contains a large number of examples⁷ of “bad language” use.

McEnery (2006:30) broadly groups the bad language words found in the corpus into six different categories in terms of their subject matter. The categories are the following:

1. Swear words (e.g. fuck, piss, shit)

2. Animal terms of abuse (e.g. pig, cow, bitch) 3. Sexist terms of abuse (e.g. bitch, whore, slut)

4. Intellect-based terms of abuse (e.g. idiot, prat, imbecile) 5. Racist terms of abuse (e.g. paki, nigger, chink)

6. Homophobic terms of abuse (e.g. queer). (McEnery 2006:30)

With regard to these categories, in my opinion, the ones that definitely belong under the term

‘swear words’ as it is used in this study, are, indeed, swear words⁸, as well as sexist terms of abuse, as they are quite clearly offensive regardless of context. As for the rest of the categories, it would, in my opinion, be better to look at each word separately and determine whether they can be considered strong enough to cause enough offence for them to be classified as swear words. For instance, in the second category, pig and cow are, in my opinion, not strong enough to be considered swear words in a normal context per se, whereas bitch, despite, as also mentioned in the previous section, being also used to refer to a female dog, does evoke feelings of offence when heard aloud.

The categories above could roughly be divided into swear words and strong insults, although this would be a very broad division. Tammi (2003, 2007), however, does separate swear words from insults, as evidenced in the fact that he published two separate dictionaries, one for swear words and another only for insults. His thoughts on swearing and insulting will be presented in the next section, which deals with the purposes for which swear words are used.

Hjort (2007b) also suggests that in Finnish, swear words and insults are separate notions, whereas in the English language, insults are usually considered as a sub-category of swear

7 According to McEnery (2006:30), the corpus contains 8,284 separate examples of “bad language” usage where the age, sex and social class of the speaker are known.

8 As can be seen here, McEnery views the term ‘swear words’ as merely one category of all offensive language, whereas, in this study, the same term can be considered an umbrella term, encompassing a wide range of offensive language use.

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words. In this thesis, strong insults such as asshole are considered as swear words, whereas milder insults such as idiot are not.

As can thus be seen, the term swear word, as used in this study, can refer to various kinds of words that may cause offence. I will present a list of the words collected from the movie that were, according to the definition used in this thesis, considered as swear words, in the method section.

3.2 Functions of swear words

According to Jay (1992:2, 10–11), swear words are most often used to convey one’s feelings (especially anger) or make sentences stronger, i.e. strengthening the impact of what is said, which can, for instance, make a joke seem funnier to some people. Swear words can also be used for trying to make an emotional impact on others (Jay 1992:11). Indeed, Tammi (2007:8) simply notes that swear words are “affect words” (affektisanoja, my translation) as they are used for expressing both negative feelings, such as anger or disappointment, and positive feelings, such as admiration.

As mentioned in the previous section, Tammi (2003:7) separates swearing and insulting, stating that swearing is used especially to convey feelings of disappointment or agony usually in an impersonal way, i.e. without an object, whereas insulting is much more personal as it is usually directed at an object or a person. He also mentions that insulting, on the one hand, can include what he calls “friendly teasing” and thus be used with one’s loved ones in an almost affectionate way, but, on the other hand, be a very aggressive, forward and offensive expression of one’s feelings of discontent or anger, even towards strangers. An example of this is provided by Jay (1992:8), who explains that while the word nigger may be used jokingly or affectionately between African American people, when used by someone outside the ethnic group, the same word is likely to be considered highly inappropriate and offensive.

Blake (2007:44) agrees with Tammi and Jay, suggesting that insults are indeed often used for humorous purposes between groups or individuals, usually between close relatives or partners. Humorous insults, according to Blake, date all the way back to ancient Greece and Rome with their jesters and have since spread throughout cultures, becoming perhaps nearly