This study aims to investigate how Lebanese Arabic speakers living in Australia negotiate their linguistic taboos, with the purpose of comprehending their cross-cultural adaptation in the Australian context. The specific research focal point of this study includes: 1) how Lebanese Arabic speakers handle and deal with Arabic linguistic taboos and; 2) how gender, age, religion and educational background might affect Lebanese Arabic speakers’ preference for taboo words. A qualitative research tool, NVIVO 10 software, was used to analyse the questionnaire and interview, and help sort major themes, as identified above, for critical discussion. The research project has four important findings. First, participants provided a wide range of definitions of taboos and indicated that such definitions were not only restricted to sexual references. The participants stated that they used or refrained from using linguistic taboo words, according to the situation and context. For example, they used linguistic taboos in more sensitive scenarios such as infidelity. Second, the results show that female participants are closing the gap between their male counterparts in the use of taboo words. Third, one of the major findings is that there would seem to be no major differences between Muslim and Christian participants in the usage of strong linguistic taboo words. Fourth, results also show that older participants used more linguistic taboo language (LT) than younger participants. Finally, educated participants would seem more likely to use more taboo language than noneducated ones. These research results will help to understand the sociolinguistic landscape of the Lebanese community regarding taboo usage in Australia. Additionally, they provide insights into how Lebanese speakers manage linguistic taboos successfully in social interactions through using their cross-linguistic skills and cross-cultural knowledge.
Date of Award | 2017 |
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Original language | English |
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Supervisor | Ping Yang (Supervisor), Hiromi Muranaka (Supervisor) & Mohamed Moustakim (Supervisor) |
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Understanding the linguistic and cultural taboos of Lebanese Arabic speakers in Australia
Abi-Esber, F. D. (Author). 2017
Western Sydney University thesis: Master's thesis