Cursing for Laughs: the Pragmatic Functions of Swearing in L1 and L2 English stand-up Comedy

Swearing is a linguistic tool with complex social and pragmatic functions, yet its use in real-world situations remains understudied. Previous research has argued that swearing may serve as a marker of identity, humor, and social bonding, but that these functions and listener interpretation vary gre...

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Published in:Corpus pragmatics : international journal of corpus linguistics and pragmatics Vol. 10; no. 1
Main Author: Holmberg, Alexander John
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.12.2026
Subjects:
Computational Linguistics
Computer Appl. in Arts and Humanities
Linguistics
Original Paper
Pragmatics
Semantics
Social Sciences
Corpus-based analysis
Stand-up comedy
Swearing
Humor
Pragmatics
ISSN:2509-9507, 2509-9515
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Abstract Swearing is a linguistic tool with complex social and pragmatic functions, yet its use in real-world situations remains understudied. Previous research has argued that swearing may serve as a marker of identity, humor, and social bonding, but that these functions and listener interpretation vary greatly depending on appropriateness and context . To investigate these functions within a controlled context, this study examined how L1 and L2 English speakers used swear words in stand-up comedy performances. A corpus of stand-up routines from YouTube was compiled, totaling over 220,000 words from 42 comedians (19 L1, 24 L2). Swear words were identified using Love’s (Text & Talk 41(5–6):739–762, 2021) list of 16 ‘pure’ swear words and analyzed using Stockton’s (2010) four-function framework: expressing emotion, reinforcing social bonds, creating humor, and constructing identity. The analysis revealed 664 total instances (tokens) of swearing across 10 unique swear word types, with L1 comedians producing 515 instances and L2 comedians producing 149. L1 comedians swore nearly three times more frequently than L2 comedians and used a wider variety of swear words with greater contextual flexibility. Both groups primarily used swearing to create humor, but L2 comedians more often used it to express emotion, suggesting a reliance on more formulaic constructions. L1 comedians more frequently employed swearing to construct identity and reinforce nuanced audience alignment. These findings suggested that while both groups used swearing strategically, L1 comedians exhibited greater functional range in their use of taboo language in performative contexts.
AbstractList Swearing is a linguistic tool with complex social and pragmatic functions, yet its use in real-world situations remains understudied. Previous research has argued that swearing may serve as a marker of identity, humor, and social bonding, but that these functions and listener interpretation vary greatly depending on appropriateness and context . To investigate these functions within a controlled context, this study examined how L1 and L2 English speakers used swear words in stand-up comedy performances. A corpus of stand-up routines from YouTube was compiled, totaling over 220,000 words from 42 comedians (19 L1, 24 L2). Swear words were identified using Love’s (Text & Talk 41(5–6):739–762, 2021) list of 16 ‘pure’ swear words and analyzed using Stockton’s (2010) four-function framework: expressing emotion, reinforcing social bonds, creating humor, and constructing identity. The analysis revealed 664 total instances (tokens) of swearing across 10 unique swear word types, with L1 comedians producing 515 instances and L2 comedians producing 149. L1 comedians swore nearly three times more frequently than L2 comedians and used a wider variety of swear words with greater contextual flexibility. Both groups primarily used swearing to create humor, but L2 comedians more often used it to express emotion, suggesting a reliance on more formulaic constructions. L1 comedians more frequently employed swearing to construct identity and reinforce nuanced audience alignment. These findings suggested that while both groups used swearing strategically, L1 comedians exhibited greater functional range in their use of taboo language in performative contexts.
ArticleNumber 2
Author Holmberg, Alexander John
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Keywords Corpus-based analysis
Stand-up comedy
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Humor
Pragmatics
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SubjectTerms Computational Linguistics
Computer Appl. in Arts and Humanities
Linguistics
Original Paper
Pragmatics
Semantics
Social Sciences
Title Cursing for Laughs: the Pragmatic Functions of Swearing in L1 and L2 English stand-up Comedy
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