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English home language

Grade 5

That sinking feeling

Module 25

Taboo language and slanguage

TABOO LANGUAGE

(Socially unacceptable language)

This is the use of expletives / use of “filthy” language.

How would you explain the meaning of “filthy” language to someone who did not understand the term?

In all societies there are certain words which are considered taboo . Taboo is a Tongan word which means “acts that are forbidden or to be avoided , or reference to these acts.” Some words are taboo because they refer to religious customs.

In our culture, taboo words or socially unacceptable language can be defined as:

  1. using the Lord’s name in vain;
  2. calling people by the names of private body parts;
  3. referring to body parts in a crude fashion;
  4. talking ‘dirty’
  5. (can you add to this list?)
  1. Who would use this type of language?
  2. When would this type of language be used?
  3. Why would people speak this way?
  4. Where/In which situations would this type of language be used?

[LO 1.7; 2.4.4; 6.5]

SLANGUAGE

(Slang language)

Almost everyone uses slang on some occasions. Slang can be defined as “one of those things that everybody can recognize and nobody can define.” The use of slang introduces many new words into the language by combining old words into new meanings, or an entirely new word. Words are ‘slang’ when they have not gained total acceptability.

An introduction to language by V Fromkin and R Rodman

  1. Do you know what the following words mean, or how they would be used?
to be spaced out to barf grass / pot to ‘split’
have a hang-up to be pooped something is cool the fuzz
  1. Slang words, after a while, can be accepted as ‘regular’ words. The following are now accepted into normal language (what do they mean?):
TV
hot-dog
belly-button
once in a blue moon
  1. You have been asked to help compile items for a new dictionary of slang. List five slang words that you know, and provide a short definition for each word:

(a) – (e)

[LO 1.3; 2.4.1; 6.5]

Spelling and Vocabulary

SHIP-WORDS!

  • Use more than one dictionary to find these answers:
  • What do we call any large sea-going vessel? (sh_ )
  • Ship-fever is also known as _
  • Ship’s biscuit can be described as a _ biscuit.
  • If you belonged to the ship’s company , you would be a member of the _
  • Somebody who constructs ships, is known as a sh_
  • If you were the shipmaster , you would be the _ of the ship.
  • If your room is neat, trim and tidy, it would be sh _
  • Another word for shipment , is _
  • The place where ships are built and repaired, is a sh_
  • The slope on which a ship is built and from which it islaunched, is called the sh_

CHALLENGE!

What animal is known as “the ship of the desert” ?

What does it mean when someone says “my ship came in / home”?

What is a “shipboard romance”?

WORDS ENDING IN -SHIP

  1. closeness, rapport, the relationship between friends f_
  2. suffering, misery, distress, unhappiness, bad luck h_
  3. wooing, liking, loving, flattering and treating someone you want to marry c_

[LO 3.11]

The really big love boat story

(by Fiona Chisholm – About the movie – TITANIC)

Read this extract taken from Arts and Entertainment, Cape Times, Friday, 19 December 1997. Some words in the extract have been left out and replaced with a number; other words have been printed in bold and underlined.

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Source:  OpenStax, English home language grade 5. OpenStax CNX. Sep 22, 2009 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10991/1.2
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