To swear in Icelandic

Abstract

Swearing in Icelandic is the topic of this article. The main focus is on the grammatical aspects of swear words, i.e. their morphological and syntactic characteristics and behaviour, emphasizing how one swears rather than why. The Tagged Icelandic Corpus (MÍM), containing searchable texts from the early 21st century, is the primary source for the analysis. Even if the vocabulary of swear words is relatively small and swearing is a formulaic use of language, the results show that there can be considerable flexibility in Icelandic swearing and that there are creative means to modify and extend both the vocabulary and the syntactic constructions typical of swearing. The vocabulary extensions are partly based on word-formation (in some cases with unusual methods) and partly by borrowing, especially from English nowadays. In the syntax, certain forms of nouns used in swearing have acquired new functions, e.g. by using them adverbially, and nominal phrases can be extended by adding attributes preceeding the head-noun, adding to their diversity and effect. In such phrases, the genitive forms of swear nouns ‒ usually preceeding the head counter to genitive attributes in other nominal phrases — have been reinterpreted as adjectives allowing them to be freely coordinated in a string of attributes without conjoining them by conjunctions.