Eight swear/taboo word forms were subjected to qualitative analysis in SydTV: god, hell, damn, ass, bitch, shit, fucking and fuck. I consider a word as a swear/taboo word if the word or its use is considered taboo, and the word has literal and non-literal meaning, and the word can be used to express emotion or attitude. A word is not included if it conveys an offensive attitude towards a target as a member of a particular group, is offensive to all members who share this identity, and identifies a referent (thereby excluding identity-based slurs/abusives, but including words such as fucker or bastard). The criteria are conceptualised in a way that is scalar, dynamic and (sub-)culturally sensitive. We are dealing with a ‘fuzzy’ category here, such that words like god or jesus may be considered marginal members of the category: While euphemisms such as gosh/geez exist, only a particular kind of word use is considered taboo (where it does not refer to the relevant religious figures), and that only by particular segments of society (i.e., in certain communities). God is nevertheless included here for comparison with more typical swear/taboo words. Note that bitch can be addressed to a woman or to a man, as in example (1), which also shows the clustering of swear/taboo words in utterances or conversations:

Example (1)
LAFAYETTE: Don’t fuckin’ creep bitch, you fuckin’ creepin’, what the fuck you doin’ here?
[12 turns]
<JASON:> Oh, can you at least tell me where I can find some more.
<LAFAYETTE:> Go to the fuckin’ morgue, ’cause that’s where you goin’. Get the fuck outta here. Bitch.
(SydTV,True Blood)

In this analysis, some occurrences were excluded (e.g. references to ‘god’ as a religious entity). The methodological steps are described in more detail in this file. This document also includes information about the different uses that are included for each form (e.g. fuck can be a verb or an interjection) and their frequency. Information on patterns or phraseologies is also included (e.g. so help me god; what the hell; I don’t give a damn).

The analysis of these eight word forms is visualised here: To find out how the Kaleidographic visualisation works, click here for instructions.