Swearing in The Wolf of Wall Street: A Pragmatic Study

Abstract

Although swearing is considered as an offensive act, it frequently occurs in movies which represent an instance of everyday conversation. It is the use of language to express a spectrum of emotions such as anger, frustration and annoyance. It also infuses intimacy, solidarity and jocularity. The present study tries to explore swearing from a pragmatic perspective taking the context in which it occurs into account. It also investigates its pragmatic functions, the reasons underlie the use of swear words and the different categories of swearing used in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Besides, the study aims at developing an eclectic model to be used for data analysis.