Adityo Prawinanto 

LET: Linguistics, Literature and Language Teaching Journal Vol. 10 No. 1 2020  

LET: Linguistics, Literature and English Teaching Journal 
||Volume||10||Issue||1||Pages||40-65||2020|| 

|P-ISSN: 20869606; E-ISSN: 25492454| 
Available online at: http://jurnal.uin-antasari.ac.id/index.php 

SWEARING AND ITS MOTIVES  

IN THE ANTOLOGI RASA NOVEL 
 

Adityo Prawinanto 

adityoprawinanto@yahoo.co.id 

Sanata Dharma University of Yogyakarta, Indonesia 

 

Hardi Prasetyo 

hardi@iastate.edu 

Iowa State University of United State 

 

Barli Bram 

barli@usd.ac.id 

Sanata Dharma University of Yogyakarta, Indonesia 

 

Article History: 

Received: 03th May 2020 

Accepted: 26th June 2020 

This paper investigated English swear words used 

in a novel. This study was urgent to conduct 

because using swear words is a natural behavior in 

communication which is indicated by the 

employment of certain swear words to express 

emotion, to reduce frustrating feeling, and to show 

solidarity to others. Two research points to resolve 

were as follows: what types of swearing which the 

main character used and what motives for swearing 

in the novel. Data, consisting of 46 swear words, 

were collected from the Antologi Rasa novel 

written by Ika Natassa and were investigated using 

content analysis. Findings showed the following: 

26 (56.5%) occurrences of auxiliary swearing, 12 

(26.1%) of expletives swearing, 4 (8.7%) of 

abusive swearing, and 4 (8.7 %) of humorous 

swearing. Three motives for the main character to 

swear were as follows: psychological motives (23 

occurrences or 50.0 %), social motives (19 or 

41.30%), and linguistic motives (4 or 8.70%). 

Corresponding Author: 

Tel.:  

hardi@iastate.edu 
 

Keywords: 

Antologi Rasa novel; 

character; swear word; 

type of swearing; motive 

of swearing 

 

INTRODUCTION 

A novel is one way of communication because in the novel the authors 

might write their idea through the stories and let the readers guess the purposes of 

the stories. Dance states “communication intentionally is a situation in which a 

source transmits a message to the receiver with conscious intent to affect the 

http://jurnal.uin-antasari.ac.id/index.php


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latter’s behavior” (as cited in Littlejohn & Foss, 2011, p. 3). In novels, the authors 

are the sources who transmit their ideas of the stories as messages to the readers 

as the receivers. The messages can affect the readers’point of view or perception 

as the latter’s behavior because the language has several functions while they are 

applied both in written or spoken. Chaika (1982, p. 2) argues that language is 

employed by individuals to expose or disguise their personality, yet they do not 

even recognize it. Moreover, people tend to utilize language variation to confirm 

their identity. Accordingly, people often employ words or language that might 

emphasize their strong feelings such as feeling upset, happy, or mad. In this case, 

several words which are thought to be bad language may be employed. In every 

culture, the use of bad language is mostly considered as inappropriate or impolite. 

However, each culture has a bad language and it must be different from one 

another. Expressing strong feelings can be noticed through the utterance of swear 

words. While swearing, people tend to use taboo words because it is considered as 

one of the strongest ways to release their emotions.  

The term taboo was taken from Tongan language, tabu. Allan and 

Burridge (2006, pp. 2-3) define the word ‘taboo’ as a prohibited utterance, object, 

or behaviour. In other words, taboo behaviours are the activities which are 

considered inappropriate to do, while taboo words are the words which are seen as 

impolite words to be uttered, depending on the community they belong to. Firman 

(2009, p. 27) argues that taboo words and taboo behaviours are connected as some 

taboo behaviours are also included in the list of taboo utterances, yet not all of 

them. One of the common examples is that the term “motherfucker” which 

represents sexual intercourse between family members. This sexual intercourse is 

considered taboo in every society. It can be seen that this example is in line with 

the statement mentioned by Firman (2009) that some taboo activities are also 

taboo words. Another example, doing sexual activity in a proper place and 

situation is not prohibited for legal marriage. However, many people still assume 

that having a conversation about sex itself is considered taboo, especially in a 

certain community. Accordingly, it can be seen that almost all of the words that 

represent taboo behaviours are mostly categorized into taboo words (Allan & 

Burridge, 2006, p. 2; see also Kristiano & Ardi, 2018; Bram & Putra, 2019).  



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People tend to use some taboo words to swear while swearing itself is also 

considered as taboo act or attitude. Related to that case, it must be underlined that 

every word used to swear is a taboo word, but not every taboo word can be used 

to swear. Besides, taboo words are often seen as unacceptable utterances, thus 

they should be avoided language users around the world. It depends on the culture 

or society they belong to because people have the right to speak everything they 

want. This is called freedom of speech. As Pinker (2007, p. 1) states, “freedom of 

speech is the foundation of democracy because without it citizens cannot share 

their observations on folly and injustice or collectively challenge the authority that 

maintains them”. However, still freedom of speech will not always be approved in 

every condition. In practice as well as in theory, the prosecution of obscene 

speech is just like a puzzle. Throughout history, some people have been killed for 

criticizing their leaders and it becomes the fate of freethinkers in many parts of the 

world (Pinker, 2007, pp. 1-2). 

In a sociolinguistic study, the use of taboo and swear words belongs to the 

language variation topic. The use of language variation discussed in 

sociolinguistics is one of the common language phenomena in society. Yule 

(2010, p. 254) states that sociolinguistics, which is included in the linguistics 

field, concerns over the relationship of language and all aspects in society, 

including norms and any social phenomena. Trudgill (2000, p. 32) also mentions 

that sociolinguistics focuses on the effects of cultural phenomena to the speaking 

behavior. In this case, it can be seen that social context is always attached while 

investigating one’s speaking behavior. Hence, the use of taboo and swear words is 

discussed in the sociolinguistic field. The language phenomenon related to the use 

of swearwords in society might be easily found in daily life, films, novels, and 

other literary works. Considering several facts that swearwords are easily found in 

the social life, it can be learned that many people assume that using swearwords in 

the real life is normal behavior as it might be used to release strong feelings 

verbally instead of physically.   

In this study, the researchers discussed the swear words collected from the 

Antologi Rasa novel. The main reason for choosing the swear words as the topic 

was because swearing is considered as a natural behavior in communication. In 



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this case, people tend to employ some taboo words while swearing. Another 

reason for the researchers chose swear words as the topic of the study was because 

the researchers found that some of the students in the English Language Education 

Study Program (ELESP), Sanata Dharma University, use English swear words in 

the daily conversation such as fuck, shit, and hell. The problem was that most 

ELESP students are non-native English speakers, but they use English swear 

words in daily communication. It has the same case as the swear words used in 

one of the Indonesian novels, Antologi Rasa. The four characters in the novel are 

also Indonesian people. In other words, they are non-native English speakers, but 

they use English swear words in a certain situation. From that case, the 

researchers intended to investigate the classification of swear words and also the 

possible reasons why people swear in English, through analyzing the swear words 

obtained in the Antologi Rasa novel, which are used by the main character. 

Considering the similarity of the context mentioned above, the researchers were 

interested to use a novel as the object of the research to discuss one of the types of 

written communication. The novel entitled Antologi Rasa, which was written by 

one of the famous novelists in Indonesia, Ika Natassa, was chosen. The main 

character was chosen because there are no differences among the swear words 

which are used by the other characters. Therefore, the main character can be 

representative of the other characters. 

This study is distinct from the previous study as the researchers used a 

printed book, namely novel. While the previous studies analyzed the use of swear 

words existing in the movies. Bram and Putra (2019) analyzed the use of swear 

words in The Wolf of Wall Street movie. The swear words that appeared in this 

movie were analysed based on Pinker’s (2007) typology. Another study 

concerning with the swear word topic was also conducted by Setiawan (2016). He 

analysed the 21st Jump Street movie and employed a discourse analysis method in 

his study. In his research, he found six types of swearing, namely cursing, 

profanity, blasphemy, taboo or obscenity, insult and slurs, and scatology. 

Setiawan (2016) also reported that there were three motives for swearing in the 

movie. The main theory used to analyse the swear words in this study were 

different from the main theory used by those two studies. Besides, the researchers 

considered that the language used in the written text, such as in the novel, is more 



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detailed and well-structured in terms of the context. Accordingly, the data 

presented in this study were more detailed and comprehensive.   

Possessing a sufficient understanding of English swearwords is needed for 

non-native English speakers, especially English learners. Both the non-native 

English speakers and English learners need to understand the classification of 

swearing utterances and the motives why some people swear while having a 

conversation. Some theories related to swear words will be discussed further in 

the literature review to support the researchers’ idea in conducting this research. 

In the Antologi Rasa novel, the examples of swear words that mostly 

appear are fuck, hell, and shit as in the following sentences, “Welcome to my 

fucked up life, darling.” (p. 18) and “What did I do wrong to be stuck in this 

shitty place?! “ (p. 19). The researchers regarded that it is weird that the non-

native English speakers employ some swearwords if they have no sufficient 

knowledge related to the reasons why some native speakers are swearing. This is 

why the researchers were interested to conduct research on swear words deeper in 

the novel so that it enables the readers of this paper and the Antologi Rasa novel 

itself to have a deeper understanding about the use and the application of swear 

words in their communication skill both in written and in spoken expression. 

In this paper, the researchers formulated two questions. First, what swear 

words are used by the main character in the Antologi Rasa novel? Second, what 

are the motives for the main character to swear in the novel? 

Types of Swearing 

 Anderson and Trudgill (as cited in Lindahl, 2008, p. 4) categorize swear 

words into four types. The types proposed by Anderson and Trudgill are the most 

frequently uttered types by many people around the world. In addition, every form 

of swear words represents its own nature as it is distinct from one another. Those 

four types are classified as follows: expletive, abusive, humorous, and auxiliary 

swearing. Every type of swearing will be elaborated further.  

Expletive swearing  

 Expletive swearing is a type of swearing which is uttered without any 

intention to hurt someone else. Expletive swearing is commonly used to release 



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strong feelings or emotions of happiness and unhappiness. This type of swearing 

has no exact meaning. The expressions such as Shit!, Damn!, Hell!, Fuck! are 

included in this swearing type. 

Abusive swearing  

 On the contrary, the abusive swearing can be considered as the opposite of 

the expletive swearing. This type of swearing is mostly delivered to other people. 

In addition, the speakers normally insert both “name-calling” and an insulting 

utterance. It could not be denied that this expression is used to allege other people 

using verbal expression. Here are some utterances that belonged to the abusive 

type: Go fuck yourself!, You are a fucking idiot!, and Fuck you!. 

Humorous swearing  

 The utterances included in the humorous swearing are generally addressed 

to other people. The main difference between humorous swearing and abusive 

swearing is the intention of the speakers who do not involve any negative 

emotions such as anger. This non-offensive swearing is employed to amuse others 

and is used in a certain community in which the members of the community have 

known one another. Furthermore, humorous swearing might bring the situation to 

be more enjoyable. One of the examples of this swearing type is “Get your ass in 

gear!”. 

Auxiliary swearing  

 This type of swearing is different from expletive, abusive, and humorous 

swearing. Auxiliary swearing is not directed to someone else. Besides, it is not 

uttered to complain about certain conditions. Emphasizing the intention is the only 

reason why people employ this swearing type. The terms such as “lazy speaking” 

and “non-emphatic way of speaking” are also frequently attached to this type of 

swearing. The phrases such as “That fucking song” and “This shitty place” are 

included in the auxiliary swearing.  

 Considering Jay’s and Anderson and Trudgil’s classification of the types 

are almost similar, the researchers of this study used Anderson and Trudgil’s 

concept as the main theory to response the first formulated research problem 



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about swearing categories as they are relevant to be implemented in investigating 

swearwords included in the novel. 

Motives of Using Swear Words 

 Some people argue that using taboo words in speaking and even swearing 

itself need to be taken into account in the daily life. The person who likes to swear 

is often seen as an uneducated person. Accordingly, the knowledge about the 

reasons why people swear must be investigated and spread out to make people 

have sufficient understanding related to this behavior. Andersson classifies three 

reasons for swearing, namely psychological motives, social motives, and 

linguistic motives (as cited in Karjalainen, 2002, p. 26). 

Psychological Motives 

 It could not be denied that in daily life, everything can always go wrong. 

Someone gets frustrated or even angry when an unexpected event occurs out of 

control. Complaining and expressing anger or emotion are the natural outcomes 

that are both consciously and unconsciously produced. The real example is that 

when someone stumbles over the rock, he/she will show reflex such as stamping 

out his/her toe. More often, someone unconsciously utters certain taboo or swear 

words at the same time. As Harran (2010, p. 3) states, swearing is one of the 

common reactions as a result of the unpredictable action to reduce tension. 

Emotion is always involved in the psychological motives, consequently, the 

physical or verbal reaction will unconsciously arise.  

 Furthermore, the impact of swearing is less harmful compared to physical 

harassment and can recover one’s feelings (Montagu, 2001). Jay (2009, p. 155) 

also argues that in releasing certain emotions either happiness or unhappiness, 

people tend to express their feelings through swearing. Therefore, from those 

perspectives, it can be concluded that any variety of emotions expressed by 

someone verbally are categorized in the psychological motives of wearing.  

Social Motives 

 Social motives of swearing are the common factors that happen, especially 

in a certain community, yet complex. While swearing, for instance, people tend to 

claim their existence by entertaining, implying intimacy, offending, and even 



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shocking. Karjalainen (2002) claims one of the most frequently used motives in 

daily life is this social reason. Most importantly, people do not ‘always’ involve 

any negative feelings while uttering swearwords for these purposes.  

 Furthermore, this social consideration is mostly connected to people’s 

interpersonal skills in a certain community. When people are having interactions, 

social contexts are always involved. Similarly, when the swearwords are 

employed by someone in his/her group, they might show different purposes 

depending on the social contexts (Holmes, 2013, p. 283). Accordingly, it can be 

concluded that there would be various reasons why someone swears while having 

interaction in a certain community regarding the social contexts involved.  

Linguistic Motives  

 In reality, there are many perspectives related to language that encompass 

dialects, accents, and norms. Similarly, people also have different perspectives 

about the use of swear words in daily conversation. Some people argue that swear 

words are not supposed to be used in any situation. However, many people argue 

that swear words are still possible to use in the proper situation. Andersson (as 

cited in Karjalainen, 2002, p. 30) claims that everyone has their right to use any 

word they understand, but, most importantly, they can deliver their intentions 

properly and correctly. Here is the example, “What a very nice rocking chair” and 

“What a fucking nice rocking chair” are two statements that are tolerable 

depending on the situation someone is dealing with. In other words, someone has 

his/her manner in the way of delivering the messages by employing any words 

and even any linguistic formations. 

 In a nutshell, one of the main concepts of linguistic motives is that how the 

speakers express the utterances which is not addressed to someone else around. 

Besides, the speakers focus more on either the linguistic aspects of the subjects or 

the emphasis of what they want to convey. The last concept of linguistic motives 

is to indicate someone’s speaking behavior in an everyday situation.  

The concept of those three motives was applied as the main theory in 

answering the second research question related to the reasons or motives for 

swearing. Furthermore, another reference was also obtained from the previous 

study which was conducted by one of ELESP students. However, the previous 



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research focused on the meanings and the offensiveness of swearing. While this 

research has a different focus, which is related to the types and the motives of 

swearing. 

METHOD 

In this study, the researchers employed a qualitative approach. Ary, Jacobs, 

and Razavieh (2002, p. 22) suggest that “Qualitative research focuses on 

understanding social phenomena from the perspective of the human participants in 

the study”. Furthermore, this approach generally offers a rich interpretation of certain 

phenomena instead of providing statistical data. Therefore, the researchers are expected to 

provide more genuine evidence considering the main objective of the qualitative approach 

itself.  

While conducting this study, the researchers also applied one of the 

qualitative techniques, namely content analysis, to analyze the data. Ary et al. 

(2002) mention that “Content Analysis is a technique that enables writers to study 

human behavior indirectly, through an analysis of their communication” (p. 472). 

Generally, the documents used in this technique encompass written documents 

such as books, novels, magazines, newspapers, articles, and even pictures. 

However, songs, videos, films, gestures, and speeches can also be analyzed.  

In this study, the data were taken from the novel which was written by Ika 

Natassa. The title of the novel is Antologi Rasa. All the swear words uttered by 

the main character of the novel were collected and used as the primary data of the 

study. The data obtained from the novel were analyzed using a content analysis 

technique to respond to the research problems, which were related to the types and 

motives of swearing. The researchers considered that content analysis was the 

most relevant technique in this study as it helped them gain insight related to one 

of the language phenomena.  

In analyzing the data, some stages were employed by the researchers. 

Firstly, read all the pages of the Antologi Rasa novel, and then, underlined the 

swear words which were used in the novel. The next step was to transcribe all the 

swear words that had been got from the novel. Then, the researchers classified the 

utterances which were used by the main character in the conversation with her 

friends or with herself (monologue). In responding to the two research problems 



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that had been formulated, the researchers searched for some theories which were 

related to the topics discussed and then matched each classification of the 

utterances of swear words to those theories. After that, the researchers analysed 

the data and drew conclusions based on the theories used.  

More importantly, the researchers had to undergo systemic research 

procedures in finalizing this research. The first step of accomplishing this research 

was choosing the novels that contain many swear word phenomena written in 

English. The novel chosen was Antologi Rasa. Next, the researchers determined 

the objectives of this research, defined some terms which were used in the 

research, restricted the analysis components, organized some relevant data such as 

synchronize the data and the theories used in this research, developed research 

background, constructed a sampling arrangement, designed coding for the 

classification, checked the reliability and validity by consulting to the linguistic 

experts, and the last one, analysed the data that had been classified and matched 

those data with some theories. After that, the researchers reported the result of the 

analysis and drew conclusions based on the analysed data. 

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 

Types of Swear Words  

This part aims at finding the answer to the RQ 1 that had been formulated by the 

researchers. The first research question is related to the classification of swear 

words based on their types, which were used by the author in her novel, Antologi 

Rasa. In analyzing the classification of swear words used in the novel, the 

researchers used Anderson and Trudgill’s theory that categorizes swear words into 

four types. Those types are expletive swearing, abusive swearing, humorous 

swearing, and auxiliary swearing. The analyzed data reveal 46 swearing 

utterances used by the main figure in the Antologi Rasa novel that appeared in 

certain pages. The swearing categories and the total number of the occurrence are 

presented in the following table. 

 

 

 



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Table 4.1 Types of Swearing 

Types of Swearing Quantity Percentage (%) 

Auxiliary Swearing (AUS) 26 56.5 % 

Expletives Swearing (ES) 12 26.1 % 

Abusive Swearing (AS) 4 8.7 % 

Humorous Swearing (HS) 4 8.7 % 

Total 46 100 % 

 

From the table above, the auxiliary swearing (AUS) type becomes the most 

frequently appeared type among the other types, and it is followed by the 

Expletives Swearing (ES) type which is often used in the novel. Besides, the 

Abusive Swearing (ABS) type and Humorous Swearing (HS) type have the same 

quantity and percentage. Those are the classification of swear words based on the 

types which are used by the main character, Keara, in the novel. Based on the 

findings related to the types of swearing above, the auxiliary swearing takes the 

first position because the main character employed the auxiliary swearing to 

intensify the things she intended.  

Motives for Swearing 

The motives for swearing used by the main character of Antologi Rasa 

novel on certain pages were classified into three reasons. Those three swearing 

reasons are psychological motives, social motives, and linguistic motives. The 

data presented in Table 4.2 shows the psychological motive has the highest 

percentage compared to the other two. Meanwhile, the linguistic motive is on the 

second and followed by social motive. Further explanation will be elaborated in 

the discussion. 

 

 

 

 



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Table 4.2 Motives for Swearing 

Motives Quantity Percentage (%) 

Psychological Motive (PM) 23 50.00 % 

Linguistic Motive (LM) 19 41.30 % 

Social Motive (SM) 4 8.70 % 

Total 46 100% 

 

Based on the table related to the motives for swearing above, it can be 

seen that the psychological motives take place in the first position because the 

main character mostly employed the swear words which were influenced by 

emotion. Besides, those psychological motives appeared in the monologue. 

Therefore, it can be seen that while the main character talked to herself 

(monologue), it tends that she was influenced by the certain feelings such as 

anger, frustration, joy, regret, sadness, and surprise. However, in the novel, the 

main character was mostly influenced by surprising things while she employed 

swearing words. 

DISCUSSION 

The main character of the Antologi Rasa novel seems to be familiar with 

swearing utterances in everyday interaction as shown in the swearing occurrences 

presented in the findings. The researchers may not say that the employment of 

swearing words in the novel is merely restricted by social status as all the 

characters are from the same social status based on the story. All characters 

employ swearwords to show that they have a closed relation. This kind of 

situation can be found easily in the novel. However, as what had been stated 

before, the researchers only analyzed the swearwords uttered by the main figure. 

In addition, swearing expressions can be uttered by or addressed to people either 

from the same or different social classes. In the Antologi Rasa novel, most of the 

characters only swear to those who are from the same social class. One of the 

evidence of this act in the novel is that Keara as the main character swears to her 

best friend, Dinda, even though they come from the upper social status. The 



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researchers might say that they are from the upper social because it is described in 

the novel that Keara and Dinda are working as bankers but in different offices. 

As mentioned before, people from any social class can use swearing 

utterances while having interaction in society. As an example, someone who is 

from a high social class might address the swearwords to those from lower-class 

for certain purposes, and vice versa. However, such a phenomenon cannot be 

found in the novel because there are only four characters in the novel and they 

come from the same social status. Accordingly, to answer RQ 1 and RQ 2, the 

researchers presented the explanation and discussion below. 

Types of Swear Words 

As presented in the research results, 46 swearing utterances used by the 

main figure were found. The researchers categorized those results following the 

main theory used in this study, namely expletive, abusive, humorous, and 

auxiliary swearing. Furthermore, in analyzing those swearing utterances, the 

context was always attached by the researchers. In this section, the researchers 

concluded that the auxiliary type is the most frequently appeared type that is used 

by Keara as the main character. Anderson and Trudgill suggest that auxiliary 

swearing indicates someone’s speaking behavior or is generally called as ‘lazy 

speaking’ (as cited in Lindahl, 2008, p. 4). This swearing type is mostly uttered 

using a non-emphatic tone. Besides, it is complementary, not addressed towards 

others. Based on this theory, Keara often uses auxiliary swearing because she uses 

those words to intensify something she is telling about. The words she uttered 

which are included in auxiliary swearing are not addressed to other characters in 

the novel. Besides, each type of swearing will be discussed below. 

Expletives Swearing 

The first swearing type that can be found in the novel is that expletive 

swearing. As stated in the literature review, Anderson and Trudgill describe that 

expletive swearing is never addressed to someone else, rather than expressing any 

feelings being experienced (as cited in Lindahl, 2008, p. 4). Here is the example 

of auxiliary swearing found in the novel.  



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Pandangan matanya yang tajam ditutupi sunglasses Tag Heuer, 

produk yang di-endorsed oleh Kimi juga, pembalap favoritnya. 

Ganteng-ganteng atletis. 

Craaaaap, I started to sound like one of his fans. Males banget. 

(Monologue) Page 36 

In the example of the monologue above, Keara is describing how Haris 

looks like. It can be seen at the end of the way she describes Haris ganteng-

ganteng atletis which means that Haris is like an athletic handsome guy. 

However, she describes it in her mind. After that, she realizes what she has done, 

If she is doing so, she is like one of Haris’s fans. It is showed at the sentence 

‘Craaaaap, I started to sound like one of his fans’. In this monologue, the word 

‘Crap’ is uttered, although it is only in her mind. In English, the word ‘crap’ has 

the same meaning as ‘shit’. This word does not have any correlation with the 

following sentence. Therefore, the word ‘crap’ in this sentence does not have any 

specific meaning. It is not even directed to Haris or other characters in the novel. 

It is just employed to express shocked emotion while realizing that she is just like 

one of Haris’s fans. 

Another example of Expletives Swearing (ES) is in a dialogue. It is one of 

the short conversation containing swear words utterances while Keara and Haris 

are having a short vacation in Singapore.  

Keara: “Oh, shiiit, Cosmopolitan-nya nendang gila.” 

Haris : “Slow down, Key.” 

(Dialogue) Page 78 

In the dialogue above, Keara and Haris had arrived in Singapore. Haris is 

also one of Keara’s best friends and at that time they were having a vacation in 

Singapore. After arrived in there, Keara was amazed by the condition of a certain 

city in Singapore. It seems so different from the situation in Indonesia. Here, the 

term ‘shit’ was uttered by Keara, as the main character of the novel, which was 

not directed to Haris or other characters in the novel. The word ‘shit’ was uttered 

by her to show that she feels amazed and shocked. In other words, joy and 



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happiness are a strong feeling that she wanted to express. She likes having a 

vacation as well in this cosmopolitan country, Singapore. 

Abusive Swearing 

The second type found in the Antologi Rasa novel was abusive swearing. 

As Anderson and Trudgill mention, abusive swearing is mostly addressed to 

someone else. Besides, this type is used to insult and offense other people due to 

several purposes. The abusive swearing generally involves “name-calling” and 

other offensive utterances (as cited in Lindahl, 2008, p. 4). The following example 

illustrates the employment of the abusive swearing found in the novel. 

“I’ve always been wanted by dozens and dozens of men, you didn’t 

want me, you son of a bitch.” 

(Monologue) Page 82 

In the monologue above, the type of abusive swearing is applied. Even 

though this is a monologue, the use of swear words, especially the type of abusive 

swearing is still possible. The phrase ‘son of a bitch’ is uttered by Keara as the 

main character to curse the man, Ruly, who she loves. In the novel, Keara falls in 

love with Ruly, however, unfortunately, Ruly does not give any special reaction 

which shows that he loves Keara. Therefore, with having full of frustrated feeling, 

she applied swear words to curse Ruly instead. However, she did not want to 

directly say so in front of Ruly. That is why she just tries to release her feeling by 

talking to herself. Here, the swear words ‘son of a bitch’ belong to abusive type, 

but it did not cause any insult. 

“This, I could get used to. … I am such as an angry yet pathetic little 

bitch, aren’t I?” 

(Monologue) Page 260 

In the monologue above, she described that she could make men fall in 

love with her easily. It was shown how easy it was to get Panji’s attraction. She 

even explained that she meets up three up to four times a week with Panji. At the 

same time, she also complained that it is only Ruly, the man who cannot fall in 

love with her. In this case, it can be seen that Keara meets up with Panji to forget 

about Ruly for a while. However, while meeting up with Panji, they did not just 



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go somewhere such as watching a movie and having dinner. They behave like 

they are in a relationship. They are kissing one another, flirting, and doing 

activities which refers to sexual activity. Therefore, she realized that she is just 

like a pathetic bitch. She calls herself a bitch. The word ‘bitch’ is said by herself 

and directed to herself. Here, the swear word which was used by Keara is a bit 

different from the previous example. Even though it is a monologue, but it caused 

insult which means that the insulted expression will affect herself.    

Humorous Swearing 

The third swear word type found in the Antologi Rasa novel is humorous 

swearing. As has been stated by Anderson and Trudgill, humorous swearing is 

expressed to amuse other people in a very fun situation (as cited in Lindahl, 2008, 

p. 4). This swearing type might be addressed to someone else, yet it is not 

offensive. Here are the examples: 

Too much politics for me. Ya kecuali dengan Dinda yang sama nggak 

mau repotnya. Just two cool bitches strutting their stuff hahaha. 

(Monologue) Page 66 

In the monologue above, Keara says that she likes going somewhere and 

doing anything with boys while she was studying in formal education. She thinks 

that having a close relation with girls is complicated, sometimes girls talks behind 

someone’s back and gossiping. However, she has one mate which happens to be a 

girl who has the same thought like her, Dinda. She often calls Dinda as a bitch, 

but in this sentence, she calls Dinda and herself as two bitches. Keara and Dinda 

do not take it as a serious problem in calling one another as a bitch because they 

have a very close relation. The word ‘bitch’ does not refer to the word ‘whore’. 

But it is uttered and expressed in a playful and humorous situation. 

 “Don’t ‘freud’ me, bitch,” kataku tertawa waktu Dinda menganalisis 

begitu. 

(Dialogue) Page 186 

In the dialogue above, Dinda is trying to find the main reason why Keara 

falls in love with Ruly. After knowing Dinda’s opinion, Keara gives very short 

comment “Don’t ‘freud’ me, bitch”. Here, the swearing term “bitch” is uttered by 



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Keara. In general, the word “bitch” is not acceptable in daily conversation in 

western culture. Somehow, it can be accepted if it is uttered towards friends in a 

certain community. The Keara’s reaction here does not offense Dinda at all and 

she does not regard Dinda as the real bitch, which means ‘whore’. Besides, she is 

laughing while giving that reaction. She does not give anger feelings while saying 

so. In this context, it seems that this is a very natural utterance between Keara and 

Dinda. It can be used to show the close relation and solidarity between Keara and 

Dinda. Therefore, after knowing Keara’s reaction, Dinda is not angry with her. 

Auxiliary Swearing 

The auxiliary swearing was also found in the Antologi Rasa novel. 

Following the theory mentioned by Anderson and Trudgill, auxiliary swearing is 

generally employed to show someone’s speaking behavior and is also considered 

as ‘lazy speaking’. The non-emphatic tone also becomes the main characteristic of 

this type (as cited in Lindahl, 2008, p. 4). The researchers presented the examples 

involved in this type that was found in the novel as follows: 

Keara: “Karena gue nggak tahu kenapa, Din, tapi gue lagi males aja 

mikirin si Ruly. I’ve got too much shit going on in my life since the 

whole Singapore thing …” 

 (Dialogue) Page 100 

This dialogue occurs between Keara and Dinda. It happens at Dinda’s 

house. At that moment, Dinda asked Keara about Ruly. She wondered why Keara 

does not tell anything about Ruly as usual. While Keara herself does not want to 

tell anything about Ruly because she has so much problem in her mind, especially 

one of the unpleasant moments when she had a short trip to Singapore with Haris. 

It can be seen in the following sentence “I’ve got to much shit going on in my 

mind…”. The swearing word ‘shit’ is uttered by Keara. This word does not use to 

curse Dinda or someone else. It is just used to substitute the case or problem she 

had faced during a vacation in Singapore. It is expressed in a non-emphatic tone. 

Another example of Auxiliary Swearing can be seen as follows: 

 



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“But isn’t it funny how the universe is playing with us? … And it’s 

fucking ESPN with a fucking soccer match on.” 

(Monologue) Page 203 

In the monologue above, Keara and Panji were having an intimate 

conversation with one another in Keara’s apartment. In this situation, Keara was 

able to forget her thought about Ruly, the man that she loves, for a while. 

Suddenly, her hand nudged the TV’s remote on the table and the TV was on. 

Then, the soccer match appeared on the TV screen. It reminded Keara’s mind 

about Ruly so that she called the soccer match as ‘fucking soccer match’. The 

swear word uttered by her in this situation did not direct to another character, but 

it was expressed in a non-emphatic tone. 

Finally, it can be concluded that the auxiliary type is commonly used by 

Keara as the main character because she uses swear words to emphasize 

something she is telling about and not to be addressed to another character. 

Motives of The Use of Swear Words 

Investigating the motives of swearing is one of the objectives in 

conducting this research. Meanwhile, it is also used to answer the RQ 2 that had 

been formulated. The researchers were able to find swearing utterances to be 

categorized based on the three motives, namely psychological, social, and 

linguistic motives. While interpreting the motives of swearing utterances found in 

the novel, the researchers always considered the contexts involved as it was an 

essential factor in the interpretation technique. For example, when the researchers 

concluded that certain utterances were involved in psychological motives, those 

swearing utterances had to include any strong emotional influence. In other 

words, the researchers were also motivated to ensure that there was no disruption 

of the other two motives such as linguistic and social motives.  

In contrast, in determining the social motives of certain utterances, the 

researchers had to take into account several social factors that might involve. 

Those social factors were mostly related to how the main character interacts with 

other figures in the story. Social motives can be indicated also by the involvement 

of intimacy, identity, and even social distance. This concept was also employed 



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by the researchers while examining the linguistic motives found in the story. The 

researchers had to analyze whether or not the influence of linguistic aspects was 

involved such as merely speaking behavior or only emphasizing the intention. 

Accordingly, it could not be denied that considering the context attached in every 

utterance is a necessary aspect to classify the swearing utterances found in the 

novel.   

In this novel, the psychological reason is the most frequently appeared 

type which is used by the main character because while she is swearing, it is 

always influenced by her feelings such as anger, frustration, and happiness. 

Anderson (in Karjalainen, 2002, p. 26) stated that psychological motive is 

generally employed by someone to reduce tension or to express strong feelings 

being experienced. In this case, several feelings such as anger, frustration, and 

shock are included. Besides, each point of the three motives will be explained and 

discussed as follows. 

Psychological Motives 

The first motive that can be found in the Antologi Rasa novel is 

psychological motives. As suggested by Andersson, the psychological motive is 

spontaneously uttered by someone to reduce tension or to express strong feelings 

being experienced. One of the various types of emotions such as happiness, 

frustration, sadness, and others is generally involved (as cited in Karjalainen, 

2002, p. 26). The swearing expressions that involve psychological motives in the 

novel are presented as follows. 

Keara: “Oh, shiiit, Cosmopolitan-nya nendang gila.” 

Haris : “Slow down, Key.” 

(Dialogue) Page 78 

In the dialogue between Keara and Haris, the term ‘shit’ is verbally 

expressed by Keara indicating that she feels amazed and shocked. In other words, 

joy and happiness are a strong feeling that she wants to express. She likes having 

a vacation as well in this cosmopolitan country, Singapore. The following 

monologue is another example of Psychological Motives (PM): 

 



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“But I can’t help wondering, Rul, what is your weakness? … crap, 

kenapa aku harus menyebut-nyebut nama si keparat itu lagi?” 

(Monologue) Page 160 

The swearing word ‘crap’ is uttered in this monologue by Keara. This 

monologue can be seen that Keara has not understood yet about Ruly’s 

weaknesses. The setting of the monologue is on a beach. Keara and Ruly were 

hanging out together in the morning on a beach. At that time, they wanted to 

enjoy the morning by having relaxation on a beach. Keara wore a bikini and she 

wondered that Ruly was not tempted at all by what Keara wore. It is different 

from the other men who will be tempted by girls who wear a bikini in general, 

Haris, for instance. However, while she was remembering about Haris, she 

directly realized that she did not want to mention Haris’s name anymore. Thus, 

while she is shocked, the swearing word ‘crap’ was uttered in her mind. It belongs 

to Psychological Motives (PM) because it has a strong relation with Keara’s 

feelings. She cannot forgive Haris yet because he has raped Keara when Keara 

was drunk in a short trip to Singapore. She regrets to what Haris has already done 

to her. 

Social Motives 

Social motives are more relevant to the sociolinguistic concept as they are 

also dealing with the connectedness of language and society. When swearing 

expressions are employed in daily communication with someone else, swearing 

itself is seen as one of the speaking behaviors. However, taking into account the 

social context is more important to understand the intention of swearing 

utterances themselves. This is in line with the concept proposed by Andersson (in 

Karjalainen, 2002, p. 26) that swearing utterances might be employed to indicate 

the close relationship among the members of a certain community. In contrast, 

swearing expressions might also be uttered to insult other people due to several 

reasons in social life. 

Based on the analysis, the data obtained in this research revealed that 

social motives are the least frequently appeared motives in the novel compared to 

the other two motives. The expressions involved in the social motives that were 



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found in the novel are mostly affected by social impulsions. The examples of 

swearing utterances that include social motives are presented as follows: 

Dinda: “Panji is not the asshole that we know then?”  

Keara : “Oh, he IS the asshole that we know.” 

Dinda: “So he did try stuff with you?” 

(Dialogue) Page 116 

In the dialogue above, the swearing word ‘asshole’ is uttered by both 

Keara and Dinda. Asshole is the synonym of anus which means the opening 

where the gastrointestinal tract ends and exits the body (WebMD, 2014). In this 

dialogue, Keara and Dinda are mentioning Panji’s name as an ‘asshole’. They call 

him ‘asshole’ behind Panji’s back. Remembering that Keara and Dinda have a 

very close relationship with one another, they call someone else as they want. It is 

only a matter of social interaction between those two characters. In fact, in the 

novel, Panji is not described as a real asshole. Furthermore, Keara and Dinda have 

never called Panji asshole when they meet. 

The following monologue is another example of the use of a swear word 

which is influenced by the social motive (SM): 

 “Don’t freud me, bitch,” kataku tertawa waktu Dinda menganalisis 

begitu. 

(Monologue) Page 186 

In this monologue, Keara remembered that one day Dinda was trying to 

find out the reason why Keara felt in love with Ruly. Dinda said that Keare loves 

Ruly just because of Ruly’s character who is mature. Besides, she regards that 

Ruly will always protect Keara as a father who always protects her daughters and 

sons. At that time, in her monologue, Keara says about her reaction while hearing 

Dinda’s argument. It is not clear whether or not Keara agrees. However, based on 

the words she has uttered, the word ‘bitch’ appeared. Keara asked Dinda not to 

say so as if she knows everything about Keara. So, she calls Dinda’s name using 

the word ‘bitch’ with no offense. The word “bitch” in this sentence is employed to 

show their close relationship with no anger expression or feeling. 



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Linguistic Motives 

The third motive found in the Antologi Rasa novel is linguistic motives. 

Anderson stated that linguistic motives are generally used to emphasize something 

that becomes the intention of the speakers (as cited in Karjalainen, 2002, p. 26). 

The linguistic motives found in the novel are mostly described to indicate that the 

main figure emphasizes something that she wants to talk about. Here are some 

examples included in the linguistic motives, which were taken from the story: 

“Aku menahan diri untuk tidak muntah lagi sampai dia menghilang di 

balik pintu menuju dek. Fucking second jackpot.” 

 (Monologue) Page 196 

The monologue above occurs when Keara and Ruly are in the Port of 

Tanjung Benoa, together with the team of BorderBank and Wyman Parrish, to 

have dinner on Bounty Cruise. The dinner itself is arranged by the regional office 

Border of Denpasar as the last dinner in Bali before they go back to Jakarta. 

However, Keara gets seasick along the trip to the Port of Tanjung Benoa so that 

she decided to take a bottle of wine. After drinking some glasses of wine, she gets 

her first jackpot. In this context, jackpot means a situation in which someone 

vomits after drinking alcohol as what Keara did. Ruly knows what has happened 

to Keara and he tries to help her. He takes some painkillers for Keara. While Ruly 

is taking the painkillers for Keara, Keara talks to herself not to have her second 

jackpot in front of Ruly. Therefore, Keara employs swearing expression fucking 

second jackpot to herself to emphasize what she is talking about and something 

which she does not want it to happen in front of Ruly. 

Ruly  : “Mendingan kan, ya, biasanya kalau udah minum obat 

begini?” 

Keara: “… I feel like I’m inside a crappy episode of The Love Boat.” 

(Dialogue) Page 197 

In this dialogue, Ruly had already taken medicine for Keara. Ruly asks 

Keara whether she feels better or not. Then Keara answered that usually, it will be 

better soon. However, while Keara rests on Ruly’s shoulder, she hears a tune of 

music which she does not like at all. Then she talks to Ruly about it and calls this 



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kind of situation like a very unpleasant episode of The Love Boat movie. 

However, she does not just mention it as an unpleasant episode, but a crappy 

episode. Here, the swearing word ‘crap’ is uttered to emphasize what she is 

talking about. 

From the discussion, it can be concluded that the auxiliary type is the most 

common type that appears in the Antologi Rasa novel. It shows that the main 

character often uses swear words when she wants to emphasize something that she 

is talking about. While the most common motives used by the main character in 

the novel is psychological motives because while she is swearing, it is always 

influenced by her feelings, such as anger, frustration, shock, and surprise.  

Based on the findings and discussion above, the researchers found that 

there were similarities and differences from the previous studies written by Bram 

and Putra (2019) and Setiawan (2016). Bram and Putra (2019) suggested that 

there were five types of swear words found in the movie, namely descriptive, 

idiomatic, cathartic, abusive, and emphatic swearing. Emphatic swearing is the 

most frequently used type in The Wolf of Wall Street movie. However, Bram and 

Putra (2019) did not analyze the motives of swearing in their study. Meanwhile, 

Setiawan (2016) reported that there were six types of swearing found in the 21st 

Jump Street movie, namely cursing, profanity, blasphemy, taboo or obscenity, 

insult, and slurs and scatology. Unfortunately, he did not mention the most 

dominant type used in the movie, but he also mentioned that there were three 

motives of swearing used in the movie. These three motives were the same as the 

motives used in this study. While the main difference between this study and 

those two previous studies was in the classification of swearing types due to the 

main theory used by each study.  

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 

There are four swearing categories found in the Antologi Rasa novel, which 

were uttered by Keara as the main figure, namely Expletive Swearing (ES), 

Abusive Swearing (ABS), Humorous Swearing (HS), and Auxiliary Swearing 

(AUS). According to the research results, it can be concluded that the auxiliary 

swearing is the most frequently used category uttered by the main character of the 

novel as the swearing utterances she expresses are mostly complementary and are 



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used to intensify the things she intended. Besides, those swearing expressions 

included in the auxiliary swearing category indicated her speaking behavior, even 

though the motives of those swearing utterances may be different.  

Furthermore, the motives of swearing expressed by the main figure of the 

Antologi Rasa novel in certain parts can be used as the parameter of the analyzing 

process and determining the reasons for the swearing phenomena. Those motives 

are theoretically categorized into three motives. The first one is the Psychological 

Motive (PM), the second one is Social Motive (SM), and the last one is Linguistic 

Motive (LM). It can be concluded that the psychological motive (PM) is the most 

dominant motive used by the main figure while swearing. In other words, all the 

swearing words expressed by Keara are mostly influenced by her feeling and 

something to express her emotion such as joy, sorrow, shock and other feelings 

related to the psychological aspect. 

Moreover, swearing expressions have become a daily conversation which is 

used by Keara in the novel. It becomes her way of speaking whether when she has 

a conversation with her friends (other characters in the novel) or even when the 

swearing words are not directed to others. However, she does not swear all the 

time in, though. The motives of the way she is swearing cannot be separated from 

the social context. Surely, she does not use any swearing words to anybody. She is 

still using a good language while she is with her mother and her boss, for instance. 

She uses swear words only to whom she has close relations, such as Dinda and 

Haris. She has never employed any swearing expression while talking to Panji and 

Ruly, even though those two men still swear. One of the important things in 

swearing is that the swear words or swearing expressions can be employed either 

constructive or destructive. On the one hand, the swearing expressions addressed 

to the other figures in the Antologi Rasa novel are mostly constructive as they are 

expressed to indicate a close and good relationship and also to entertain other 

figures. On the other hand, destructive swear words cannot be found in the novel.  

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