Resumen de Immigrants’ Language Preferences forSwearing in Persian and English: The Effects of Acculturation and Socio-biographical Background
Nooshin Shakiba, Jean Marc Dewaele
The present study focuses on immigrants’ languagepreferences for swearing, linking it to acculturation and sociobiographicalbackground variables. Immigrants navigate between theirheritage and host culture social networks; as such, they use swearwordsas affirmation of their membership to both networks. The present studydraws on multilingualism research, intercultural pragmatics, and socialand cultural psychology (acculturation and emotional acculturation).A mixed methods approach was adopted combining questionnaire andinterview data. A total of 204 Persian-English multilinguals residingoutside Iran participated in this study. Results from quantitativeanalyses revealed that female immigrants reported more frequent swearing in English. Moreover, younger participants, participants whostarted learning English early in life, had reached a high level of Englishproficiency, and had lived in English-speaking countries for longertime, reported swearing more frequently in English. Semi-structuredinterviews with a subset of 11 participants shed light on the reasonsunderlying immigrants’ language choices for swearing. This study showsthat language preferences for swearing are shaped by acculturation andby socio-biographical factors.
