Analysis of taboo words used by the main characters of “booksmart” movie

Abstract

English is an international language with the most speakers in the world. In learning or improving English language skills, we can use various media, one of it is movies. But, in the movie, we often find some taboo words. This study analyzes the type of taboo word and the function of the taboo word used by the main character from the “Booksmart” movie. The research was conducted to find out which type of taboo word and function of taboo words were dominantly used. This study uses the theory of Jay (2009) to analyze the type and the idea of Swan (2005) to investigate the function of the taboo word. This study uses a mixed-method with the object “Booksmart” movie. The data taken is an utterance containing the word taboo used by the main actors of the “Booksmart” movie, Molly Davidson and Amy Antsler. This study found that the type of sexual referents used the most by the main characters (66%). The taboo words function that is widely used is miscellaneous (25%). The use of taboo words by the main character has different meanings depending on the context of the incident or the sentence expressed.