I'd like to present an abstract from one of my
works I wrote on my first faculty. It is connected with some language issues
that I am interested in and I reminded myself about it after reading of the
Krzysztof Varga's feuilleton "Polski język czyli lubię to, kurwa!" (Duży Format 1.03.2012.)
I hope you'd like it and pardon my French ^_^
The loss
of the rude meaning of some rude
expressions in the Polish current language.
The
problem of foul language has been described in details by many linguists but one of the recent phenomenon
as the loss of the rude meaning of some vulgar expressions has not been yet
widely brought up. The background for this linguistic issue is the constantly changing and modifying language of young people. This
particular change is connected with the need of the youth to make their
language more expressive and intense.
The
contemporary Polish language belongs to numerous variants of the language and
depends on communication situation of the participants of the language act. Contemporary
language of young people is especially focused on expressing emotions both
positive and negative. Sometimes to express their feelings young people use
foul expressions. There is a great word family of words derived from ‘jebać’
that refer to negative and, surprisingly, positive feelings and events as well.
Especially words like ‘zajebiście’ and ‘zajebiaszczo’ are so common that young
people started to lose the sense of rude meaning of these two words. They
stopped to use less rude synonyms like ’ekstra’, ‘świetnie’, ‘super’ or more
expressive ‘zarąbiście’. Now saying: “Wyglądasz zajebiście” or “Było
zajebiaszczo” is no longer rude.
I believe that the reason for the loss of the rude meaning lies in
common use of those expressions. ‘Zajebisty’ is heard on the street and
television, used by pop idols and even politicians. Such behaviours surprise
because the rude meaning of other related words such as ‘zajebać’ and ‘jebać’
is still visible. Why then the adverb and adjective are no longer seen as foul
language? The answer to that question is connected with contemporary language
and its domination in communication in present-day culture. All these aspects
gathered together induce that phenomenon.
In
conclusion, the loss of rude meaning of some vulgar expressions is caused both
by the need of stressing emotional aspect of some events and the present
fashion of using colloquial language in every communication situation. If some foul
phrases start to be used in everyday-life language they lose their rude meaning
and become just some emotional expressions of the contemporary language.
You probably still need to be careful not to use such words with your grandmother, I guess ;) There is some regional variation in the use of words like this, too. For example in and around Poznań "pierdoły" is nothing else than "a lot of nonsense", while in other places the word would be very offensive.
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