This study aims to investigate the perceptions and attitudes regarding a range of taboo words and phrases across various semantic fields in the Javanese-speaking community. To achieve the research objectives, the discussion focused on the perspectives of offensiveness, the significance of Javanese and non-Javanese taboo language, and the attitudes to taboo language from the perspective of taboo language and its taxonomy according to O'Driscoll (2020). The participants were Javanese and Indonesian language users living in Yogyakarta Special Province, Indonesia. This study applied mixed methods approaches by applying both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The face-to-face interaction with respondents resulted in 98 written questionnaire responses and 95 interview transcriptions, while the online survey generated 118 respondents for Javanese language-based and 192 respondents for Indonesian language-based questionnaires. The findings indicated that the offensiveness level of 30 selected Javanese taboo language in the word-list rating task is lower than the result from the discourse completion rating task. According to word-list rating task and discourse completion rating tasks, sexuality-related taboo words are highly offensive. However, the interview recording results show that “dog” is deemed as the most offensive. According to inferential statistic, there are significant influences of offensiveness based on gender, age, and occupation but not with the educational background. The large number of additional taboo words provided by respondents demonstrates the broad currency of Javanese taboo words. In addition, people also understand non-Javanese taboo words from local languages inside and outside Java Island, Indonesian language, and international languages, where English dominates the vocabulary of foreign taboo languages. However, Javanese taboo words are most preferred in a spontaneous situation. The in-depth interview result shows the respondents acknowledge that using taboo language is undesirable, but they do so daily to express their feeling and freedom. While individuals possess the right and freedom to utilise a taboo language, societal norms regulate the presence group of people who ought to refrain from its use. Variations in respondents' perspectives have revealed divergent attitudes regarding the future of the Javanese taboo language, and these divisions do not fall neatly into any social category like sex or age. It is believed that Javanese individuals do not require deliberate instruction in taboo language, as they will inevitably acquire it through societal exposure. The attitude to the Javanese taboo language has led to the conclusion that the words will continue to exist, and that people do not need to learn them because they are so prevalent in society.
| Date of Award | 29 Sept 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Tom Devlin (Main Supervisor) & David Rudrum (Co-Supervisor) |
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