ARTICLE

https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 OPEN

Strategies of translating swear words into Arabic:

a case study of a parallel corpus of Netflix
English-Arabic movie subtitles
Hussein Abu-Rayyash1, Ahmad S. Haider 2,3 & Amer Al-Adwan 4✉
1234567890():,;

This study adopts a corpus-assisted approach to explore the translation strategies that
Netflix subtitlers opted for in rendering 1564 English swear words into Arabic. It uses a
699,229-word English-Arabic parallel corpus consisting of the English transcriptions of forty
English movies, drama, action, science fiction (sci-fi), and biography and their Arabic sub-
titles. Using the wordlist tool in SketchEngine, the researchers identified some frequent swear
words, namely fuck, shit, damn, ass, bitch, bastard, asshole, dick, cunt, and pussy. Moreover,
using the parallel concordance tool in SketchEngine revealed that three translation strategies
were observed in the corpus, namely, omission, softening, and swear-to-non-swear. The
omission strategy accounted for the lion’s share in the investigated data, with 66% for drama,
61% for action, 52% for biography, and 40% for sci-fi. On the other hand, the swear-to-non-
swear strategy was the least adopted one, accounting for 21% in sci-fi, 16% in biography, 14%
in drama, and 11% in action. In addition, the softening strategy got the second-highest
frequency across the different movie genres, with 39% for sci-fi, 32% for biography, 28% for
action, and 20% for drama. Since swear words have connotative functions, omitting or
euphemizing them could cause a slight change in the representation of meaning and char-
acters. The study recommends more corpus-assisted studies on different AVT modes,
including dubbing, voiceover, and free commentaries.

1 Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA. 2 Applied Science Private University, Amman 11192, Jordan. 3 MEU Research Unit, Middle East University,
Amman, Jordan. 4 Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar. ✉email: [email protected]

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 1

ARTICLE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

A
Introduction
udiovisual translation (AVT) or multimedia translation shape of one or more lines of written text presented on the
plays an essential role in our lives due to the enormous screen in sync with the original message.” Subtitling could be
volume of audiovisual materials that can be accessed done by professional translators (subtitlers) and non-
through various media and entertainment platforms. AVT has professional translators (fansubbers). Díaz-Cintas and Muñoz
aroused the interest of researchers because it represents a fertile Sánchez (2006) defined fansubs as a form of subtitles executed
environment for those interested in examining how the linguistic by non-professional translators. According to O’Hagan (2007, p.
and non-linguistic components of the AV product are trans- 162), professional subtitling is the “only commercially viable
mitted to the audience. Au (2009) defined AVT as a discipline way to efficiently produce subtitles in a wide range of languages
that encompasses a transfer of verbal and non-verbal aspects of with limited time and budget.” Fansubbers are aware that they
audiovisual products, making it a multi-semiotic translation. are translating for an audience with a greater interest in the
Subtitling can be considered the most extensively researched film’s original culture than the casual viewer (Díaz-Cintas and
mode of AV modes. The two most popular forms in AVT are Muñoz Sánchez, 2006). Consequently, fansubbers often prior-
dubbing and subtitling. Chaume (2020, p. 1) defined dubbing as a itize strategies that provide viewers with an “authentic”
type of AVT that “consists of replacing the original track of a experience (O’Hagan, 2007).
film’s (or any audiovisual text) source language dialogs with This study investigates the translation strategies used to render
another track on which translated dialogs have been recorded in swear words. The researchers hypothesize that omission will be
the target language.” According to Karamitroglou (2000, p. 5), the most used strategy by Netflix subtitlers. This could be due to
subtitling is “the translation of the spoken (or written) source text some issues related to culture and censorship.
of an audiovisual product into a written target text which is added
onto the images of the original product, usually at the bottom of
the screen.” Díaz-Cintas and Remael (2014) classified subtitles Swearing. There is a lack of agreement when attempting to cir-
into three linguistic dimensions: intralingual, interlingual, and cumscribe what constitutes swear words from a linguistic per-
bilingual. This study scrutinizss a paralel interlingual corpus of spective (O’Driscoll, 2020). Nodoushan (2016, p. 241) argued that
forty English movies along with their Arabic subtitles. “swear word/cursing, poor language, and filthy language” can be
This study combines corpus linguistics and translation studies in used interchangeably. Likewise, Vingerhoets et al. (2013) pointed
what is known as corpus-assisted translation studies. With the out that swearing and cursing are synonyms. Furthermore, in
advent of personal computers, the initial motive for using corpus Stapleton (2010) definition, expletives and swear words are
linguistics in translation was in the 1990s (Baker, 1993). Corpus- synonymous, which is consistent with Ljung (2011) observation
based translation studies involve “the use of corpus linguistic that expletives are the prototype of the use of swear words by
technologies to inform and elucidate the translation process” most people.
(Kruger et al., 2011). The translation process is investigated The definitions of swearing vary depending on its linguistic,
through specialized software explicitly designed to search for par- social, and psychological functions. For example, Dewaele (2004)
ticular keywords. The software, in turn, gives statistics and com- argued that swear and taboo words are multifunctional and
parisons that help obtain analytical results for the original text and pragmatic units that take diverse discourse functions and are
its translations. Examples of software packages include WordSmith identified by their offensiveness. Linguistically speaking, Ljung
(Scott, 2012), AntConc (Anthony, 2013), and SketchEngine (Kil- (2011) defined swearing as the use of utterances comprising
garriff et al., 2014). prohibited words, typically subject to severe lexical, phrasal, and
This study adopts a corpus-assisted approach to explore the syntactic constraints, implying formulaic language and having a
most frequent translation strategies that professional subtitlers primarily emotional purpose. Furthermore, some conceptual and
opted for when rendering English swear words into Arabic. It functional overlap exists between swearing and other forms of
examines the subtitling of English movies into Arabic by investi- taboo language, such as slurs and discriminatory language (Allan,
gating the subtitles of swear words in forty movies in four different 2015; O’Driscoll, 2020). Therefore, the efforts at defining,
genres, namely drama, action, sci-fi, and biography. Swear words delimiting, and typologizing swear words are united by the fact
express the speaker’s sentiments and reactions in an impolite that they index the perspective of their function.
manner (Moore, 2012). Various genres, such as drama, action, and O’Driscoll (2020) emphasized one critical distinguishing
comedy, to mention a few, include different swear words that are element of swear words, which is related to the potential for
used to convey different messages. The translation of swear words such words to be offensive and elicit negative emotions. Swearing
is a subject of contention among translators and researchers, is, therefore, by nature, a taboo action. As a result, it is often
especially when dealing with different languages and cultures. socially sanctioned or penalized through various informal and
Given that rendering swear words is a demanding task requiring formal mechanisms (Stapleton et al., 2022). In addition, Stapleton
a set of translation strategies, subtitlers need to know how to render (2010) hypothesized that swearing serves specific objectives that
the message to the target culture appropriately. This study attempts are difficult to perform through other types of language use.
to answer the following two research questions: Therefore, swearing creates various unique psychological, phy-
siological, and emotional effects and has interactional and
1. What are the most commonly adopted translation strategies rhetorical outcomes (Stapleton et al., 2022).
by Netflix subtitlers in rendering English swear words into Swearing is regarded as inappropriate use of language.
Arabic? Andersson and Trudgill (1992) identified three motives for
2. How were the translation strategies distributed in the four swearing: linguistic, social, and psychological. Swearing is a
investigated genres, namely drama, action, sci-fi, and linguistic activity that involves the use of taboo words (Stapleton,
biography? 2010). Therefore, it is a topic that lends itself to investigation
from various linguistic perspectives, including psycholinguistics
(Pinker, 2007), pragmatics (Jay and Janschewitz, 2008), socio-
Literature review linguistics (Hagen, 2013), and semantics (Goddard, 2015).
Gottlieb (2001, p. 87) defined subtitling as “the rendering in a Andersson and Trudgill (1992) defined swearing as language
different language of verbal messages in filmic media in the use in which the expression relates to something stigmatized in

2 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 ARTICLE

the swearer’s culture is not intended to be rendered literally, and worthy of in-depth investigation and analysis (see Chen, 2004;
can be used to convey some emotions or meanings. Swearing is Fernández, 2009).
often associated with references to sexuality, genitalia, and Swear words are components of every language and culture’s
religion (Pinker, 2007; Stapleton, 2010). lexicon. Swear words are among the lexical items that are subject
According to Montagu (2001, p. 71), swearing is “a learned to social restrictions (Malenova, 2015). Manchón (2013) claimed
form of human behavior in cultures and under conditions in that swear words might affect the flow of a movie. Furthermore,
which it is encouraged.” Social interaction may offer more some researchers pointed out that the cultural and moral patterns
fundamental insights into the emergence of swearing than solely of the target language may not allow translating swear words
attributing it to linguistic causes (Song et al., 2022). Research which are likely to alter throughout the translation process (see
interest is now being paid to the study of swearing from a Ameri and Ghazizadeh, 2014; Sedighi and Najian, 2012).
psychological perspective since it reveals answers to fundamental Therefore, translating swear words from one language/culture
questions such as, “Why do we swear?” Is there a connection into another may be problematic for subtitlers and put them
between exposure to positive and negative attitudes and the use of under the criticism of viewers, especially in conservative societies
swearing? The investigation of swearing from psychological, (Haider et al., 2023).
social, and linguistic perspectives becomes considerably more Some audiovisual works produced in English are rife with
approachable once these questions are answered. According to swear words that may upset some target audiences, especially in
Jay (2009), swearing is not an indication of low intellect and conservative societies like the Arab ones. Alabbasi (2009) stated
inarticulacy, as is often assumed, but rather an emotional that subtitling requires the adoption of what House (1977)
language. Thereby, the correlation between swearing and emotion termed a cultural filter. A Cultural filter is a way to capture the
strengthens the psychological impact of cursing. social-cultural variations in behavioral norms and stylistic
conventions between the source culture and the target culture,
viewing the source text through the glasses of the target text
Multi-functionality of Swear words (Denotative vs. Con-
members (House, 1977). Consequently, it attempts to naturalize
notative Meaning). Semantics is the study of language meaning.
the source text to suit the features of the target cultures and texts.
It has two kinds of meaning, namely denotative and connotative.
Furthermore, Alabbasi (2009) claimed that American movies, in
As stated by Crane et al. (1981), denotative meaning is the aspect
particular, are riddled with swear words in various situations,
of a word or phrase meaning that is akin to a definition. Likewise,
which Arab viewers may find repulsive and immoral, especially
Omar (2012) argued that a word’s or lexeme’s denotation is its
when such movies are viewed by the whole Arab family with
essential meaning as defined in a dictionary. While the con-
different age groups. Therefore, Alabbasi (2009, p. 186)
notative meaning is related to psychology and culture and refers
recommended that “swear words should be filtered and translated
to the personal or emotional associations aroused by words. In
with words in the target language of the viewing audience which
addition to its literal meaning, a word’s connotation may convey
convey the meaning of swear words (anger, hostility, justification,
nuanced emotions and judgments. Generally speaking, one may
frustration, insult, scorning, or humiliation), not necessarily in
infer that the denotative meaning is the same as the literal dic-
the same degree of vulgarity or offensiveness.”
tionary meaning, but the connotative meaning is a culturally
Swearing is a taboo in languages subject to populist cultures
dependent meaning (non-literal).
governed by religions, traditions, and morals. Al-Yasin and
In the context of swear words, there is a debate in the literature
Rabab’ah (2019) claimed that the Arab culture is well-known for
about whether or not swear words can be used denotatively or
its conservatism and influence of religion on society. Therefore,
literally (Andersson and Trudgill, 1992; Dynel, 2012; Ljung, 2011;
it is uncommon to hear a plain-spoken taboo word in the Arab
Pinker, 2007). For example, Singleton (2009) offered a triple set of
media. According to Aqel (2016), four factors may be
required criteria for swear words: they link to taboo domains, can
considered when rendering English taboo words into Arabic
produce catharsis, and have literal and non-literal meanings.
media. These factors include culture, religion/beliefs, ideological
Furthermore, O’Driscoll (2020) argued that the issue is further
perspectives, and the channel’s policy. This shows that the
provoked by the fact that many of the seemingly most offensive
religious, cultural, and ideological aspects of the Arab society
English taboo words are employed metaphorically than literally,
have the upper hand when deciding which scenes and linguistic
so that taboo reference is not a factor but rather a form of taboo.
expressions to appear and which ones to be weeded out. In this
Therefore, swear words, by their very definition and use, are
regard, Al-Adwan and Yahiaoui (2018, p. 87) argue that the
judged to be offensive, regardless of whether the meaning in a
English and Arabic Languages “are culturally and linguistically
given context is literal or non-literal, denotative or connotative
distant, and what might be accepted in the West might not be
(O’Driscoll, 2020).
tolerated in the Arab World”.

English and Arabic cultures. Language is intertwined with

culture as it constitutes an authentic means of communication Modern standard Arabic (MSA) vs. Arabic vernaculars. The
ingrained in the core of reality, being the “socially acquired Arabic language has different varieties, such as Jordanian,
knowledge” (Yule, 2020, p. 267). Debbas and Haider (2020, p. 3) Algerian, and Egyptian, in addition to Modern Standard Arabic
argued that “cultural diversity is the source of translation, and (MSA), to mention a few. MSA is the variety used in the subtitling
translation is the outcome of cultural interchange.” Translation of audiovisual products (Al-Abbas and Haider, 2021). Arabs
is a communication tool that employs language and culture in speak different vernaculars that define their identities within
the service of each other. Ivarsson and Crofts (1992) pointed out specific geographical areas. At the same time, Modern Standard
that it is vital to consider the language variety and cultural Arabic (MSA) unites them, serving as a universally recognized
awareness of the intended audience while subtitling. Researchers communication medium among Arabs. Politeness is one of the
have argued that swear words have a significant function in major distinguishing characteristics of MSA when compared to
language. In fact, they are often used when people need to vent spoken vernaculars. Vernaculars are often spoken but not written,
their feelings and opinions, such as anger, surprise, or dis- which is why they are sometimes associated with impoliteness
satisfaction (Jay, 1992). Swearing allows individuals to express (Rabab’ah and Alali, 2020). Vernacular Arabic also lacks the
their feelings through language, being a linguistic phenomenon prestige of MSA and is often reserved for lowly functions

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 3

ARTICLE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

(Suleiman, 1985). Therefore, it is not surprising that spoken “Training Day” movie and evaluated the subtitling quality. The
Arabic vernaculars have been demoted to serve as a medium for findings showed that omission and euphemism are the most
less prestigious functions, taboos, vulgarisms, and swearing. On common strategies employed by the subtitlers. Furthermore, the
the other hand, MSA is a respected and cherished form that is findings revealed that the translation was of high quality.
seen as a mode of communication for polite and well-educated Similarly, Al-Jabri et al. (2021) examined the strategies used by
individuals. This does not imply that MSA never uses impolite MBC 4 and Netflix when rendering taboo terms from English to
language; nonetheless, the language used is often more polished Arabic. In contrast to video streaming services, the researchers
and less offensive (Haider and Hussein, 2022). assumed that Arabic satellite TV channels experience interven-
Farghal (1995) noted that euphemism as a pragmatic resource tion from religious, political, and social authorities to preserve
in natural language is associated with MSA rather than different decent material and censored language in their programs. The
Arabic vernaculars since it is profoundly anchored in linguistic study’s results suggested that the Arabic subtitles generated
politeness reflected in careful speech. Dysphemism, on the other by the satellite Arabic TV channel mainly used euphemistic
hand, is more prevalent in Arabic vernaculars than in MSA language. This result is comparable to those made by some
(Farghal, 1995). In the same vein, Haider and Hussein (2022, p. 3) researchers who indicated that omission is the most prevalent
claimed that “words tend to be formal and polite in MSA, while subtitling strategy in translating swear words and taboos from
their equivalents in colloquial lack this attribute.” English into Arabic (Abdelaal and Al Sarhani, 2021; Al-Yasin and
Consequently, in the case of subtitling swear words using MSA, Rabab’ah, 2019; Almijrab, 2020; Debbas and Haider, 2020).
the target text would definitely be euphemized, mitigated, and The present paper contributes to the previous literature on
polished. Accordingly, it would be difficult to maintain the same subtitling swear words by investigating the strategies of subtitling
level of offensiveness that the swear words have in the source text. English swear words into Arabic in a large parallel corpus of
movies, which consists of forty movies. The study of the subtitling
of swear words using a large corpus of movies will likely
Swear words translation strategies. There are many strategies for contribute to the previous literature that investigated a relatively
rendering swear words and taboo expressions. Several researchers small amount of data. Given the fact that MSA is the Arabic
have conducted studies on translating taboo expressions into variety that appears on the screen in subtitling, the researchers
Arabic (see Al-Yasin and Rabab’ah, 2019; Alsharhan, 2020; argue that the degree of offensiveness of swearing will not be
Krishan, 2012). Al-Yasin and Rabab’ah (2019) examined the maintained in the source text. The investigation of the different
connotative equivalence of taboo words in three American hip- Arabic renderings of English swear words may help translators
hop movies and their Arabic subtitles. The findings indicated that and translation students acquaint themselves with the MSA
the Arab fan subtitler successfully rendered taboo words into options that can be used to render swear words using different
Arabic through euphemism and omission. These strategies are translation strategies.
mainly employed to accommodate cultural constraints. The
Arabic subtitles conformed to the connotative functions of Eng-
Methodology
lish taboo words only when the translator utilized the euphemism
Why English and Arabic subtitles? English is the language of
technique. In contrast, the connotative functions failed to appear
most audiovisual products, being the language of communication
in the subtitles when the translator resorted to omission.
worldwide (lingua franca). It is the dominant language of com-
Almijrab (2020) proposed two main strategies for rendering
munication and is spoken by a huge number of people (Lyons,
taboos into Arabic, namely substitution and taboo for taboo. The
2021). According to Al-Zgoul and Al-Salman (2022), Holly-
researcher also highlighted that the translator might omit the
wood’s filmmaking companies and the movie industry in the US
taboo word from the target text. However, the researcher also
have a wide reach due to the use of English.
argued omission is not the right choice when the ST taboo is
In Arabic-speaking countries, subtitling, rather than dubbing,
crucial; therefore, the translator must adopt euphemism or
as an AVT mode is widespread. Movies are subtitled in Modern
substitution. In the same vein, Alsharhan (2020) examined the
Standard Arabic (MSA), which is the high variety of Arabic.
Arabic subtitles generated by Netflix, focusing on taboo language
The use of this variety may reduce the degree of offensiveness
instances. The findings indicated that two significant modifica-
when translating culture-bound expressions, including swear
tions to the existing subtitling strategies were required, namely
words, as MSA is used as a means of euphemism (Haider and
euphemism and shift in the register. In addition, the results
Hussein, 2022).
suggested that a range of subtitling strategies were utilized in
Compared to other AVT modes, such as dubbing, audio
rendering taboo words into Arabic on Netflix shows, contrary to
description, and voiceover, corpus compilation in subtitling is the
prior norms, which often relied on omission and other forms of
easiest, as the data is accessible and available in a written mode.
euphemism. Another significant finding was that approximately
Accordingly, there is no need for transcription, which is
half of all taboo language instances are euphemized despite the
demanding, daunting, and time-consuming.
policy’s non-censorship. Another study conducted by Debbas and
Haider (2020) explored the cultural constraints inherent in the
Arabic subtitling of the American animated sitcom “Family Guy.” Data selection and corpus compilation. This research is quali-
The researchers divided the cultural constraints encountered tative and quantitative in nature. It uses an English-Arabic
during translation into three categories: religious remarks, jokes, parallel corpus comprised of the original scripts of forty English
and humor incorporating proper nouns and taboos. The findings movies and their Arabic subtitles. The movies used in this study
indicated that religious remarks were rendered using scene were extracted from a larger parallel corpus of movie subtitles
deletion, word omission, and word omission with justifications. titled “English-Arabic Movie Subtitles Corpus (EAMSC) (Abu
Additionally, the results showed that two strategies were used to Rayyash and Haider, 2023). EAMSC is a 1,254,278-word corpus
translate taboos, namely euphemism, and omission. Finally, the that consists of 70 movie subtitles extracted from Netflix and
research revealed that the target audience ideology and culture OSN with an IMDB rating of 8+. The researchers selected the
play a crucial in determining the translation strategy to be used. movies that met the following criteria: (a) falling into one of four
Abdelaal and Al Sarhani (2021) investigated the strategies used genres: drama, action, sci-fi, or biography; (b) having a + 8
in translating swear words from English into Arabic in the rating on the IMDB website rating; (c) being translated by

4 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 ARTICLE

Table 1 Distribution of movies according to drama, action, sci-fi, and biography genres.

Drama Action Sci-Fi Biography

Whiplash The Dark Knight Interstellar The Pianist
The Martian The Avengers Mad Max Fury Road Rush
The Father TYLER the Fellowship of the Ring V for Vendetta The Imitation Game
The Shawshank Redemption Mosul Inception Spotlight
Gone Girl Warrior The Matrix Into the Wild
Into the Wild Batman Begins Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse The Pursuit of Happiness
The King’s Speech The Bourne Ultimatum Logan Lion
There will be Blood TLOFER the two Towers Her A Beautiful Mind
Shutter Island Django Unchained Back to the Future Goodfellas
The Wolf of Wall Street Gladiator The Prestige Lawrence of Arabia

Fig. 1 The Aegisub file of the English source text extracted from Netflix.

Fig. 2 The Aegisub file of the Arabic subtitles extracted from Netflix.

Netflix; and d) containing a high frequency of swear words.

Forty movies were selected for the purpose of this study, as Table 2 English-arabic movie subtitles parallel corpus size.
Table 1 shows.
In EAMSC, the English transcription and Arabic subtitles were English 372,071
extracted from Netflix’s official website and opened using Aegisub Arabic 327,158
to make the process of aligning the English dialog with its Arabic Total 699,229
counterpart easier since the in-time and out-time are shown, as
illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2.
The English and Arabic data were copy-pasted to an excel as wordlist, n-gram, concordance, keywords, word sketch,
sheet. Each movie is saved in a separate sheet with two columns; thesaurus, and parallel concordance. In this study, the researchers
the first column contains the English source text, while the second use the parallel concordance tool to generate concordance lines
column contains the Arabic subtitles. This step was followed by that include the search term in the two investigated languages (see
segmenting and aligning the data. Data segmentation refers to Al-Khalafat and Haider, 2022).
dividing the subtitles into short segments: words, phrases, clauses, The researchers can select a query term or search word, which
and sentences, while data alignment refers to putting the segment is referred to in the literature as a node word, and Sketch Engine
in the source text with its equivalent in the target text. will filter out the English/Arabic lines containing that word, i.e.,
The total word count of the parallel corpus of the current the source script along with its translation will appear next to
study is 699,229 words comprising 372,071 words for the English each other as Fig. 3 shows.
sub-corpus and 327,158 words for the Arabic sub-corpus, as
Table 2 shows. Adopted translation model in the current study. In this study,
The parallel corpus is analyzed using SketchEngine, which is a we adopt the model proposed by Khoshsaligheh and Ameri
web-based corpus processor developed by Adam Kilgariff (2014), in which the taboo words can be subtitled using one of the
(Kilgarriff et al., 2014). Sketch Engine includes some tools such following ways:

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 5

ARTICLE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

Fig. 3 SketchEngine parallel concordance for the word “asshole*“ with the Arabic equivalents.

(1) Taboo-to-Taboo: the swear word in the source text is

rendered using an equivalent in the target language (the Table 3 Frequency of swear words along with their
offensiveness degree and load are maintained). derivatives in each genre.
(2) Taboo-to-non-taboo: the swear word in the source text is
neutralized and substituted with a non-taboo expression Swear word Drama Action Sci-Fi Biography Total
(neutralization). Fuck* 701 50 89 37 877
(3) Euphemisation/softening: The swear word is translated using Shit* 140 40 60 51 291
a target language euphemistic expression (toning down). Damn 23 30 31 15 99
(4) Omission: Not translating the swear word and deleting it in Ass 24 35 14 20 93
the target language (deletion) Bitch* 21 33 9 12 75
Bastard* 5 11 6 12 34
Asshole* 17 19 10 11 57
Dick* 12 2 3 3 20
Research procedures. This study follows the following proce- Cunt* 8 3 1 1 13
dures. First, selecting 40 English movies (drama, action, sci-fi, Pussy* 2 1 2 0 5
and biography) that have a good number of swear words with Total 953 224 225 162 1564
a + 8 rating on the IMDB website rating from the “English-
Arabic Movie Subtitles Corpus (EAMSC). Second, using Wildcards (*) are used to include the term along with its variants. For example, fuck* includes
fuck, fucks, fucked, fucking, fucker and motherfucker, among others. Bastard* includes bastard and
SketchEngine to process the data and conduct frequency analysis bastards.
to identify the ten most frequent words in the corpus. Jay (1992)
argued that the most frequently used taboo words are fuck, shit,
swear words in the investigated corpus and examine the stra-
Jesus/christ, hell, damn, ass, asshole, goddamn/god, bitch, piss, pig,
tegies used to render them.
bastard, bullshit, son of a bitch, whore, slut, cock, cocksucker,
motherfucker, queer, fag, dick, cunt, pussy, prick, screw, and crap.
Similarly, Beers Fägersten (2007) conducted a sociolinguistic
analysis of a set of swear words, namely ass, bastard, bitch, cunt, Frequency of swear words in the investigated genres. Using the
damn, dick, fuck, hell, shit, and their derivatives, e.g., bullshit or wordlist tool in SketchEngine, the researchers created a frequency
Goddamn, which are be the most frequent and common (Jay, analysis for the four sub-corpora to identify the most frequent
1977, 1980; Johnson and Fine, 1985). If any of these words were swear words based on the classification of some researchers (Jay,
among the ten most frequent swear words in the corpus, they 1977, 1980, 1992; Johnson and Fine, 1985). In the investigated
would be further analyzed. Third, comparing the frequency of corpus, the most frequent ten swear words are: fuck, shit, damn,
swear words in the four investigated genres. Fourth, using the ass, bitch, bastard, asshole, dick, cunt, and pussy, as Table 3 shows.
parallel concordance tool to examine how swear words are ren- The researchers classified the frequent words found in the
dered in Arabic, categorizing them into three groups, namely corpus based on the categorization of Jay (2009), which includes
omission, softening, and swear-. Fifth, examining the usage of nine categories, namely, (1) sexual references, (2) profanity or
different strategies grouped by swear words. blasphemy, (3) scatological and disgusting objects, (4) animal
names, (5) ethnic-racial-gender slurs, (6) psychological-physical-
social deviations, (7) ancestral allusions, (8) substandard vulgar
Analysis and results terms, and (9) offensive slang. Some words in the investigated
Swear words serve as” translation crisis points” since they fall corpus contain sexual references, including sexual acts (fuck)
within the category of culture-bound expressions, and render- and sexual anatomies (dick and cunt). The corpus also contained
ing them could be very challenging for translators (Pedersen, profane and blasphemous words (e.g., damn), scatological and
2005, p. 1). Khalaf and Rashid (2019) stated that filmmakers disgusting objects, including excretion organs (ass and asshole),
purposefully use swear words to reflect the characters’ socio- body products (shit), animal names (bitch and pussy), and
cultural and educational backgrounds and express their inner ancestral allusions relating to family relationships and ancestors
thoughts. The following sections explore the most frequent (e.g., bastard).

6 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 ARTICLE

Table 3 reveals that the total number of hits for the swear than excretory/body and sacred terms.” For example, swear
word “fuck” along with its derivatives, i.e., fucked, fucking, words like fuck and motherfucker are rated higher than ass,
fuckin, and others, was 877, being the highest when compared asshole, and shit. These are rated higher than hell, and damn. It
with the other words. According to Andersson and Trudgill is worth noting that dick and cunt received a high offensive
(1992, p. 60), the word fuck is “one of the most interesting and rating. According to (Ljung, 2011, p. 9), “the BBC guidelines do
colorful words in the English language today.” It can be used to mention the three words considered most offensive, viz. cunt,
describe different emotions, including love, pleasure, hatred, and fuck, and motherfucker”. The investigated words in this study
pain (McEnery and Xiao, 2004).In addition, the f-words have can be rated from the most offensive to the least as cunt, fuck
cultural and social interpretations and are part of the dramatic (including motherfucker), bitch, asshole, bastard, pussy, dick, ass,
plot in various movie genres. According to Pujol (2006), the shit, and damn.
word “fuck” is employed in movies to communicate severe Swear words were used the most in drama movies, with a
wrath, emphasis, disgust, disdain, surprise, and delight, pointing percentage of 61%, followed by action and sci-fi with 14% for
out that these categories are not exhaustive and sometimes each, and biography (11%), as Fig. 4 shows.
overlap. The word “shit” was the second most frequently used Clearly, the drama genre has the lion’s share in the use of swear
swear word in the data, with 291 hits. Kristiano and Ardi (2018) words by more than half of the total hits of the other movies
conducted a semantic analysis of the swear words in Bad Boys II collectively. Adriani and Hamzah (2013, p. 72) stated that
and found that the word shit was the most frequent swear word “Drama Movie is a genre of movies with serious presentations or
in the movie, followed by fuck. The frequency of each of the stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic
remaining swear words did not exceed 100 hits. characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of
It is worth noting that the intensity of offensiveness varies nature.” Therefore, the dramatic elements in the plot can be
based on the word used. Beers Fägersten (2007, p. 5) argued that reflected in the frequent inclusion of swear words that serve as a
“certain swear words are consistently rated more offensive than populist reservoir of language. This can help convey ideas and
others, with sexual terms receiving higher offensiveness scores emotions more effectively.

Translation strategies used in rendering swear words

Omission. Omission is a strategy where the translator deletes part
of the expression or leaves it out fully. It is one of the most
common practices in translation, especially when the translator
fails to render the source language expression due to temporal,
spatial, or cultural constraints. In this study, subtitlers resorted to
this strategy the most. This could be due to the strict censorship
policies and cultural constraints that subtitlers should abide by.
Table 4 shows the number of instances in which the subtitler
omitted the swear word.
Table 4 shows that omission was the most used strategy in
rendering swear words in drama movies, with 633 hits (66%),
followed by action movies (61%), sci-Fi (40%), and biography
(52%). Additionally, Table 4 shows that the deletion of words
varies from one swear word to another. For example, in drama
movies, the swear words “ass,” “fuck,” and “shit” were the most
omitted words, with (75), (73), and (73%) respectively. In drama
movies, the subtitlers did not resort to the translation strategy of
omission in rendering the swear words cunt, bitch, asshole,
bastard, and “pussy”. These words, especially “cunt” have high
offensiveness scores and can be omitted rather than softened or
substituted. The frequency of these words in Drama movies is 69,
which is relatively low when compared to the other five
Fig. 4 Swear words in the four investigated movie genres. investigated words. It can also be observed that in the four

Table 4 Number and percentage of using omission in the four investigated genres.

Swear word Drama Action Sci-Fi Biography

Total Omi. % Total Omi. % Total Omi. % Total Omi. %
Fuck 692 506 73% 59 23 39% 89 38 43% 37 22 59%
Shit 134 94 70% 45 29 64% 60 20 33% 51 30 59%
Damn 22 10 45% 30 24 80% 31 17 55% 15 10 67%
Ass 24 18 75% 35 31 89% 14 12 86% 20 11 55%
Bitch 31 0 0% 25 22 88% 9 1 11% 6 6 100%
Bastard 7 0 0% 12 0 0% 6 1 17% 12 3 25%
Asshole 17 0 0% 12 7 58% 10 0 0% 17 2 12%
Dick 12 5 42% 2 0 0% 3 1 33% 3 0 0%
Cunt 9 0 0% 3 0 0% 1 0 0% 1 0 0%
Pussy 5 0 0% 1 0 0% 2 0 0% 0 0 0%
Total 953 633 66% 224 136 61% 225 90 40% 162 84 52%

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 7

ARTICLE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

Table 5 Examples of ST swear words and their TT omission.

Genre No. ST TT Back Translation Comment

Drama 1 A thousand plants with thorns ‫ﺁﻻﻑ ﺍﻟﻨﺒﺎﺗﺎﺕ ﺫﺍﺕ‬ A thousand plants with The entire phrase, including the swear word
as big as my dick. ‫ﺍﻷﺷﻮﺍﻙ ﺍﻟﻀﺨﻤﺔ‬. thorns. “as big as my dick,” was deleted.
2 You are fucking kidding me. ‫ﺃﻧﺖ ﲤﺰﺡ ﻣﴔ‬. You are kidding me. “fucking” was deleted, and its function was
not regenerated
Action 3 Don’t throw another fucking ‫!ﻻ ﺗﺮﻣﻮﺍ ﻗﻨﺒﻠﺔ ﺃﺧﺮﻯ‬ Don’t throw another grenade! “fucking” was deleted, and its function was
grenade! not regenerated
4 Those was all the beat ass ‫ﻭﻫﺆﻻﺀ ﺍﻟﺰﻧﻮﺝ ﺍﻟﺬﻳﻦ‬ Those were all the niggers I “beat ass” was deleted, and its function was
niggers I wanna sell. ‫ﺃﺭﻳﺪ ﺑﻴﻌﻬﻢ‬. wanna sell. not regenerated
Sci-fi 5 Find a gear, dumb ass. Grind it! ‫ ﺇﻧﻪ‬.‫ﻋﺸﻘﻴﻪ ﺟﻴﺪﺍ‬ Find a gear. Grind it! “dumb ass” was deleted, and its function was
‫ﳚﺮﺵ‬. not regenerated
6 Cooper, it’s too damn fast! I ‫ ﺳﺄﺗﻮﱃ‬.‫ ﺍﻟﴪﻋﺔ ﻛﺒﻴﺮﺓ‬It’s too fast! I got this. “damn” was deleted, and its function was
got this. ‫ﺍﻷﻣﺮ‬. not regenerated
Biography 7 Shut your ass up, man, and leave ‫ ﺩﻋﲏ‬،‫ ﺍﺧﺮﺱ ﻳﺎ ﺭﺟﻞ‬Shut up, man, and leave “ass” was deleted, and its function was not
me alone! ‫ﻭﺷﺄﱐ‬. me alone! regenerated
8 I got three of them before the ‫ ﻟﺪﻱ ﺛﻼﺛﺔ ﻣﻮﺍﻋﻴﺪ ﲻﻞ‬I got three of them before the “damn” was deleted, and its function was
damn office is even open. ‫ﻗﺒﻞ ﻓﺘﺢ ﺍﳌﻜﺘﺐ‬. office was even open. not regenerated

Table 6 Total number and percentage of softening strategy in the four investigated movie genres.

Swear word Drama Action Sci-Fi Biography

Total Soft. % Total Soft. % Total Soft. % Total Soft. %
Fuck 692 108 16% 59 20 34% 89 33 37% 37 9 24%
Shit 134 32 24% 45 9 20% 60 26 43% 51 13 25%
Damn 22 9 41% 30 4 13% 31 9 29% 15 3 20%
Ass 24 4 17% 35 3 9% 14 1 7% 20 6 30%
Bitch 31 13 42% 25 8 32% 9 6 67% 6 5 83%
Bastard 7 3 43% 12 7 58% 6 3 50% 12 6 50%
Asshole 17 9 53% 12 8 67% 10 5 50% 17 7 41%
Dick 12 5 42% 2 1 50% 3 1 33% 3 2 67%
Cunt 9 5 56% 3 2 67% 1 1 100% 1 1 100%
Pussy 5 1 20% 1 1 100% 2 2 100% 0 0 0%
Total 953 189 20% 224 63 28% 225 87 39% 162 51 32%

investigated genres, the subtitlers did not use the strategy of According to Al-Yasin and Rabab’ah (2019, p. 22), this may result
“omission” in translating the swear words “cunt” and “pussy”. “into missing the pragmatic function of the utterance since the
The choice of omission may depend on the function of the occurrence of the taboo word may indicate a certain feeling like
swear words in the utterance, i.e., whether they are interjections anger or surprise.” Hendal (2021) stated that the omission strategy
(e.g., Shit! Fuck!) and mainly used to express the speakers’ might not alter the original meaning but instead remove the
reactions including anger, surprise, pain, and other feelings, author’s sentiments. Hence, rendering swear words using the
emphasizers (e.g., what the hell is the matter?”, or slot fillers (e.g., omission strategy leads to the neglect of the feelings involved in
bloody fool), or replacive (Ljung, 2011). the screenplay, as illustrated in the above examples. This is
As stated before, omission is the act of dropping a word from the supported by Al-Adwan and Yahiaoui (2018, p. 88) who argue that
target language while translating. The cultural variations between the “modifying or cutting parts of the original contents of foreign films
SL and TL may necessitate applying omission in order to escape a would affect the experience of the Arab audience and present to
potential cultural predicament. Resorting to omission is commonly them an altered representation of the original plot and characters”.
used in subtitling when compared to other translation modes. This
study revealed that subtitlers’ omission is the most frequently Softening. The subtitlers use the softening strategy as it relatively
employed strategy when rendering swear words from English into satisfies the viewers of the conservative target culture without
Arabic. The subtitlers may omit swear words that have no equivalents much neglect of the linguistic function of the swear words.
in the target language or elicit negative reactions from the audience. Softening refers to the translation of the ST swear word by using a
According to Abdelaal and Al Sarhani (2021), omission can be used TL swear word that is gentler or milder in tone (Díaz-Pérez,
due to constraints in the target culture, making it tough to render 2020). Professional subtitlers had little choice but to hold the stick
some swear words into Arabic, particularly those that are considered in mid-air to avoid falling prey to the critic’s hammer when
highly derogatory and abhorrent. Another reason for adopting this rendering the swear words. Table 6 summarizes the distribution
strategy in subtitling is spatial constraints, which allow for a limited of the softening strategy in the investigated genres.
number of characters. Table 5 shows some examples of how this Table 6 shows that the softening strategy was most observed in
strategy was used in the data. sci-fi movies (39%) and least used in drama movies (20%). Some
As Table 5 shows, the ST swear words “dick,” “fucking”, “damn,” examples of this strategy are shown in Table 7.
and “ass” were omitted from the subtitles. When resorting to this Table 7 shows that the Arabic word “‫ ﻭﻏﺪ‬rogue” was the most
strategy, the “connotative” function of swear words is not used by the subtitlers in rendering various swear words such as
maintained, and the sentence’s overall meaning is affected. “asshole” (example 9) and “dick” (examples 12 and 15). While the

8 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 ARTICLE

Table 7 Examples of ST swear words and their TT equivalence.

Genre No. ST TT Back translation Comment

Drama 9 Spoiled rich girl, married ،‫ﻓﺘﺎﺓ ﺛﺮﻳﺔ ﻣﺪﻟﻠﺔ‬ Spoiled rich girl married The Arabic word ‫ ﻭﻏﺪ‬is used to describe a dishonest,
a cheating asshole. ‫ﺗﺰﻭﺟﺖ ﻭﻏﺪﺍ ﺧﺎﺋﻨﺎ‬. a cheating rogue. unscrupulous, or unprincipled person.
10 Bitch had a foot fetish or ‫ﰷﻥ ﻟﺪﻯ ﺍﻟﺴﺎﻓﻠﺔ‬ The immoral woman The Arabic word ‫ ﺳﺎﻓﻞ‬is used to describe vile, lowly, and
something. ‫ﻫﻮﺱ ﺑﺎﻟﻘﺪﻡ ﺃﻭ ﻣﺎ‬ had a foot fetish or lousy people.
‫ﺷﺎﺑﻪ‬. something.
Action 11 You dumb bitch. ‫!ﺃﻳﳤﺎ ﺍﻟﴩﻳﺮﺓ ﺍﻟﻐﺒﻴﺔ‬ You dumb evil. The English word bitch was translated into Arabic as ‫ﴍﻳﺮﺓ‬,
which is used to describe a person who is profoundly
immoral and wicked.
12 And the dicks ‫ﻭﺍﻷﻭﻏﺎﺩ ﺍﳌﺴﺆﻭﻟﻴﻦ‬ And the rogue The Arabic word ‫ ﻭﻏﺪ‬is used to describe a dishonest,
responsible. ‫ﻋﻦ ﺫﻟﻚ‬. responsible. unscrupulous, or unprincipled person.
13 Don’t ‘who’ me bitch, ‫ﺑﺪﻭﻥ “ﻣﻦ“ ﺃﻳﳤﺎ‬ Don’t ‘who’ me whore. The Arabic word ‫ ﻓﺎﺟﺮﺓ‬is used to describe a person who
you know who I’m ‫ ﺗﻌﺮﻓﻴﻦ‬،‫ﺍﻟﻔﺎﺟﺮﺓ‬ You know who I’m has unlawful sexual intercourse as or with a prostitute
talking about!? ‫ﺟﻴﺪﺍ ﻣﻦ ﺍﻗﺼﺪ‬. talking about.
Sci-fi 14 I’m such an asshole. ‫ﺃﻧﺎ ﻣﻐﻔﻠﺔ ﺟﺪﺍ‬. “Asshole” was rendered as ‫ ﻣﻐﻔﻞ‬which is used to describe
I’m such a stupid.
fool or stupid people.
15 Waste this dick, Logan! ‫ ﺍﻗﺾ ﻋﲆ ﻫﺬﺍ ﺍﻟﻮﻏﺪ‬Waste this The Arabic word ‫ ﻭﻏﺪ‬is used to describe a dishonest,
‫!“ﻳﺎ “ﻟﻮﻏﺎﻥ‬ rogue, Logan! unscrupulous, or unprincipled person.
16 I’m a bitch. ‫ﺃﻧﺎ ﺳﺎﻓﻠﺔ‬. I’m an immoral woman. The Arabic word ‫ ﺳﺎﻓﻞ‬is used to describe vile, lowly, and
lousy people.
Biography 17 Is my roommate a dick? ‫ ﻫﻞ ﴍﻳﲄ ﺑﺎﻟﻐﺮﻓﺔ‬Is my roommate stupid? Dick was translated as ‫ ﺃﲪﻖ‬which is used in Arabic to
‫ﺃﲪﻖ؟‬ describe foolish, silly or senseless people
18 Son of a bitch. ‫ﺍﺑﻦ ﺍﻟﻌﺎﻫﺮﺓ‬ Son of a bitch. The Arabic word ‫ ﻋﺎﻫﺮﺓ‬is used to describe female
prostitute who engages in sex acts for money.

Table 8 Total number and percentage of swear-to-non-swear strategy in four investigated movie genres.

Swear word Drama Action Sci-Fi Biography

Total S. to Non-S. % Total S. to Non-S. % Total S. to Non-S. % Total S. to Non-S. %

Fuck 692 87 13% 59 7 12% 89 18 20% 37 6 16%
Shit 134 14 10% 45 2 4% 60 14 23% 51 8 16%
Damn 22 4 18% 30 2 7% 31 5 16% 15 2 13%
Ass 24 2 8% 35 1 3% 14 1 7% 20 3 15%
Bitch 31 8 26% 25 3 12% 9 2 22% 6 1 17%
Bastard 7 2 29% 12 4 33% 6 2 33% 12 3 25%
Asshole 17 8 47% 12 4 33% 10 5 50% 17 2 12%
Dick 12 2 17% 2 1 50% 3 1 33% 3 1 33%
Cunt 9 3 33% 3 1 33% 1 0 0% 1 0 0%
Pussy 5 1 20% 1 0 0% 2 0 0% 0 0 0%
Total 953 131 14% 224 25 11% 225 48 21% 162 26 16%

swear word “bitch” was translated using the swear words “,“‫ﺳﺎﻓﻠﺔ‬ mitigating their impact on the viewer in a way that preserved the
‫ ““ﻋﺎﻫﺮﺓ‬and “‫ﻓﺎﺟﺮﺓ‬,” all of which include the Arabic feminine general meaning of these words.
marker. As discussed before, the subtitles are written in Modern
Standard Arabic (MSA) rather than vernaculars, with the former Swear to non-Swear. This strategy indicates turning the SL swear
being a vehicle of polite language and does not use impolite word into a TL non-swear word that has a neutral emotive
terms, while the latter associating with lowly and nonprestigious meaning (Díaz-Pérez, 2020). Swear-to-non-swear, or taboo-for-
functions, vulgarisms, and obscene words. According to Haider non-taboo translation, occurs when the translated text is neu-
and Hussein (2022, p. 3), “words tend to be formal and polite in tralized. Table 8 summarizes the distribution of the swear-to-non-
MSA, while their equivalents in colloquial lack this attribute.” swear strategy in the investigated genres.
Words like ‫ ﻭﻏﺪ‬rogue and ‫ ﺳﺎﻓﻞ‬immoral/scummy are offensive Table 8 shows that the softening strategy was most observed in
words in Arabic. However, they are not as offensive as the English sci-fi movies (21%) and least used in action movies (11%). Table 8
words, most likely because of the used variety of Arabic in the indicates the number and percentage of using the swear-to-non-
subtitles. Based on this, it can be argued that the use of some swear strategy in the investigated four movie genres. The data
equivalent terms in Arabic, like ‫ ﻋﺎﻫﺮﺓ‬bitch would more directly shows that the number of swear words rendered using the swear-
translate the original English terms when compared to other to-non-swear strategy was most used in the drama genre with 131
equivalents, such as ‫ ﺳﺎﻓﻠﺔ‬immoral. hits, followed by the sci-fi genre with 45 hits, biography (26 hits),
Since subtitlers are aware that SL swear words are undesirable and finally action (25 hits). Some examples of this strategy are
to TL individuals and society, they choose to tone them down. shown in Table 9.
Resorting to this strategy gives the subtitlers more freedom to Table 9 shows examples of the swear-to-non-swear strategy
interpret the meaning in the cinematic dialog. Thus, the subtitlers where the English swear words were substituted with Arabic non-
succeeded to some extent in softening the swear words and swear words. In some incidents, the function of the swear words

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 9

ARTICLE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

Table 9 Examples of ST swear words and their TT non-swear counterparts.

Genre No. ST TT Back translation Comment

Drama 19 Damn, right we’re gonna run it. ‫ﺳﻨﻨﴩﻫﺎ ﺑﲁ ﺗﺄﻛﻴﺪ‬ Sure, we’re gonna run it. The word damn was rendered
as‫ﺑﲁ ﺗﺄﻛﻴﺪ‬sure
20 When I see you, you’d treat me ‫ﻭﺳﺘﻌﺎﻣﻠﲏ ﺑﻄﺮﻳﻘﺔ‬ When I see you, You’d treat me in a The word shit was rendered as
like shit. ‫ﺳﻴﺌﺔ ﻋﻨﺪ ﻣﺎ ﺃﺭﺍﻙ‬. bad way. ‫ ﺑﻄﺮﻳﻘﺔ ﺳﻴﺌﺔ‬a bad way
21 She’s got an ass like a 22-year-old ‫ﻭﰷﻥ ﺟﺴﺪﻫﺎ ﲨﻴﻼ‬ She’s got a body like a 22-year-old The word ass was rendered
stripper. ‫ﻟﻠﻐﺎﻳﺔ‬. stripper. using a more general word
which is ‫ ﺟﺴﺪ‬body
Action 22 Very funny, bitch. ‫ﺃﻧﺖ ﻣﻀﺤﻜﺔ ﻟﻠﻐﺎﻳﺔ‬. You are very funny. “Bitch” was deleted and
substituted with ‫“ ﺍﻧﺖ‬you”
23 Okay, start the bastard. ‫ ﰴ ﺑﺘﺸﻐﻴﻞ‬،‫ﺣﺴﻨﺎ‬ Okay, start the car. “Bastard” was deleted and
‫ﺍﻟﺴﻴﺎﺭﺓ‬. substituted with ‫“ ﺳﻴﺎﺭﺓ‬car”
Sci-fi 24 It takes two numbers to measure ‫ﺑﺮﳃﲔ ﺗﻘﻴﺲ‬ It takes two numbers to measure your “Ass” was deleted and
your ass but only one to measure my ‫ ﴎﻭﺍﻟﻚ ﻭﺑﻮﺍﺣﺪ ﺗﻘﻴﺲ‬trouser but only one to measure my substituted with ‫ﴎﻭﺍﻝ‬
son’s future? ‫ﻣﺴﺘﻘﺒﻞ ﺍﺑﲏ؟‬ son’s future? “trouser.”
25 I can’t believe you watch that shit. ‫ﻻ ﳝﻜﻨﻨﻲ ﺃﻥ ﺃﺻﺪﻕ‬ I can’t believe you watch that “shit” was deleted and
‫ﺃﻧﻚ ﺗﺸﺎﻫﺪ ﻫﺬﻩ‬ bad thing. substituted with ‫“ ﺭﺩﻱء‬bad.”
‫ﺍﻟﺮﺩﺍﺀﺓ‬.
Biography 26 Whole thing was, uh, over a piece of ‫ ﰻ ﳾء ﰷﻥ ﺑﺴﺒﺐ‬The whole thing was, uh, over a “Ass” was deleted and
ass, right? ‫ ﺃﻟﻴﺲ ﻛﺬﻟﻚ؟‬،‫ﻓﺘﺎﺓ‬ girl, right? substituted with ‫“ ﻓﺘﺎﺓ‬girl.”
27 Wait a minute. You’re full of shit. ‫ ﺃﻧﺖ‬.‫ﺍﻧﺘﻈﺮ ﺩﻗﻴﻘﺔ‬ Wait a minute. You’re full of lies. “shit” was deleted and
‫ﻣﲇء ﺑﺎﻟﻜﺬﺏ‬. substituted with ‫“ ﻛﺬﺏ‬lies.”

Table 10 Total frequency of subtitling strategies in the four different movie genres.

Movie genre Omission Softening Swear-to-non-swear Total

Frequency % Frequency % Frequency %

Drama 633 66% 189 20% 131 14% 953 100%
Action 136 61% 63 28% 25 11% 224 100%
Sci-Fi 90 40% 87 39% 48 21% 225 100%
Biography 84 52% 52 32% 26 16% 162 100%
Total 943 60% 390 25% 230 15% 1564 100%

in the English text is replacive, where they replace a lexical item.

In rendering swear words with this function, the subtitlers used
the replaced lexical item to make the context clearer for the
audience. In example 23, which reads “start the bastard,” the
subtitler replaced bastard with ‫ ﺳﻴﺎﺭﺓ‬car. According to Al-Zgoul
and Al-Salman (2022) replacive swearing plays a role in building
the context. In example 21, the swear word “ass” was substituted
with a more general word, “body,” while in example 26, the same
word was replaced with “a girl.”
Table 10 shows the number of occurrences and the percentage
of each subtitling strategy used to render swear words from
English into Arabic in the four investigated movie genres, namely,
drama, action, sci-fi, and biography.
As can be observed from the data, the omission strategy
accounted for the lion’s share in the number of swear words in all
the different genres mentioned, with 66% for drama, 61% for
action, 40% for sci-fi, and 52% for biography. On the other hand,
the softening strategy got the second-highest frequencies across
the different movie genres, with 39% for sci-fi, 32% for biography,
28% for action, and 20 for drama. In addition, the swear-to-non-
swear strategy was the least often adopted by subtitlers in Fig. 5 Translation strategies in the four investigated genres.
rendering swear words from English into Arabic, accounting for
21% for sci-fi, 16% for biography, 14% for drama, and 11% for
action (see Fig. 5). be argued that omission occurred due to technical or cultural
The strategy of omission was used in about two-third of the constraints, with the former relating to the spatial and temporal
swear words as Fig. 5 shows. This strategy could be the easiest for aspects of the subtitles and the latter to the differences between
the subtitlers, as it does not require any effort from the subtitlers. liberal and conservative cultures. Antonini (2005) argued that
However, using it densely may affect the meaning and sometimes omission is a reduction strategy resulting from the technical
lead to poor translation (Al-Zgoul and Al-Salman, 2022). It can constraints of time and space. However, the meaning of the

10 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 ARTICLE

Table 11 Total hits of each swear word using the three strategies.

Swear word Omission % Softening % Swear-to-non-Swear % Total hits

Fuck 589 67% 170 19% 118 14% 877
Shit 173 60% 80 27% 38 13% 291
Damn 61 62% 25 25% 13 13% 99
Ass 72 77% 14 15% 7 8% 93
Bitch 29 38% 32 43% 14 19% 75
Bastard 4 12% 19 56% 11 32% 34
Asshole 9 16% 29 51% 19 33% 57
Dick 6 30% 9 45% 5 25% 20
Cunt 0 0% 9 69% 4 31% 13
Pussy 0 0% 4 80% 1 20% 5
Total 943 60% 391 25% 230 15% 1564

audiovisual product should be delivered with such technical expressions ‫ ﻳﺒﺎﱄ‬،‫ ﳞﱲ‬،‫ ﻳﻌﺒﺄ‬،‫ﻳﺄﺑﻪ‬, meaning care. Similarly, the
constraints (Matkivska, 2014). Resorting to the strategy of word ‫( ﺍﻟﻠﻌﻨﺔ‬Lit. curse) was the most frequently used in translating
omission seems to be relatively common, as it was discussed by English swear words, where it is used 118 times to render the
different scholars (ElShiekh, 2016; Hosseinnia, 2014; Simanjuntak words fuck, shit, and damn. Arabic epithets like ‫ ﺍﲪﻖ‬fool (5
and Basari, 2016). Using this strategy is not haphazard and times), ‫ ﺃﺧﺮﻕ‬clumsy (5 times), ‫ ﺣﺜﺎﻟﺔ‬scum (22), ‫ ﺣﻘﻴﺮ‬despicable
requires a profound knowledge of the connotative functions of (19 times), ‫ ﻗﺬﺭ‬nasty (19 times), ‫ ﻭﺿﻴﻊ‬lowly (3 times), ‫ ﻏﱯ‬stupid
the linguistic elements so that susbtitlers compensate for the loss (3 times), ‫ ﻧﺬﻝ‬villain (4 times) and ‫ ﻭﻏﺪ‬nasty (16 times). Some
that occurred due to the act of deletion. To reflect and recap, tense Arabic attributes were also observed in the data, such as
omission affects utterances due to what Matkivska (2014) ‫ ﺩﺍﻋﺮ‬sluttish, ‫ ﺩﺍﻋﺮﺓ‬whore, ‫ ﺳﺎﻓﻞ‬bastard, ‫ ﺳﺎﻓﻠﺔ‬Bitch, ‫ﺳﺎﻗﻄﺔ‬
explained as the synchronism of the characteristic, which entails Bitch, ‫ ﻋﺎﻫﺮﺓ‬whore, ‫ ﻓﺎﺟﺮﺓ‬whore, and ‫ ﻟﻘﻴﻂ‬bastard. Some
delivering the meaning of the whole audiovisual product within euphemistic expressions to refer to body organs were frequently
the technical constraints. The other two strategies that were used used, such as ‫ ﺍﻟﻌﻀﻮ ﺍﻷﻧﺜﻮﻱ ﺍﻟﺘﻨﺎﺳﲇ‬female genital organ, ‫ﺍﳌﻨﻄﻘﺔ‬
by the subtitlers are softening (euphemism) and swear-to-non- ‫ ﺍﳋﺎﺻﺔ‬private area, ‫ ﺃﻋﻀﺎﺀ ﺗﻨﺎﺳﻠﻴﺔ‬genitals, ‫ ﺟﺴﺪ‬body, ‫ ﻋﻀﻮ‬organ,
swear (neutralization). These two strategies could be better ‫ ﺭﺟﻮﻟﺔ‬manhood, and ‫ ﻣﺆﺧﺮﺓ‬butt. Other times, literal translation
choices when compared to omission, as the loss of the meaning was used to render some words like ‫ ﻗﻀﻴﺐ‬dick.
resulting from the deletion of the swear words may affect the
comprehension of the target audience. The findings of this study
are in harmony with those of Cuenca (2016) who examined the Conclusion
strategies used in subtitling taboo words from English into This study combines corpus linguistics and audiovisual transla-
Spanish and found that omission, euphemism, and neutralization tion to examine the translation strategies adopted by Netflix
were employed by the subtitlers. subtitlers in rendering swear words in 40 English movies into
As mentioned before, ten swear words were spotted to be Arabic. Swear words express the speaker’s sentiments and reac-
further investigated. These included fuck, shit, damn, ass, bitch, tions in an impolite manner (Moore, 2012). Swear words can be
bastard, asshole, dick, cunt, and pussy. Table 11 shows the usage observed frequently in some movies. Various genres, such as
of different strategies, grouped by swear words. drama, action, and comedy, to mention a few, include different
Omission was the most used translation strategy in rendering swear words to convey some messages in a particular way. The
the words fuck, shit, damn, and ass; softening was used primarily translation of swear words is a subject of contention among
in translating the words pussy, cunt, bastard, asshole, dick, and translators and researchers, especially if the target culture is
bitch. Swear-to-non-swear was mainly used with the swear words conservative. Ten swear words, namely fuck, shit, damn, ass,
asshole, bastard, and cunt. The strength and offensiveness of the bitch, bastard, asshole, dick, cunt, and pussy were frequently
investigated swear words are discussed. On this basis, ‘stronger’ observed in the data. Going through the data and comparing the
swear words would invite different strategies, i.e., strong swear English swear words with their Arabic equivalents, the
words would be omitted, while less offensive words would be researchers classified the strategies of rendering swear words into
softened or substituted. The investigated words in this study can three categories: omitting the ST swear words from the target text,
be rated from the most offensive to the least as cunt, fuck rendering ST swear words into TT non-swear words, and soft-
(including motherfucker), bitch, asshole, bastard, pussy, dick, ass, ening the ST swear words. The analysis showed that omission is
shit, and damn. However, as argued above, with the use of the the most frequently used strategy by professional subtitlers in
MSA variety of Arabic, these words would lose their strength or rendering English swear words into Arabic.
offensiveness. Accordingly, the level of offensiveness in the source While the results obtained in the current study are aligned with
text is not maintained in the target text. the research questions, there have been some limitations and
To help subtitlers, translation students and translation training recommendations. The current study’s data were retrieved from
programs render the ten swear words investigated in this study Netflix; future studies may investigate fansubbing as they are
into Arabic, the researchers summarized the most frequent abundantly available via different websites1. Future research can
Arabic translations of these words. The swear words are also bulid on the few studies that investigated subtitles of pro-
sometimes rendered literally in a euphemistic way; for example, minnat satellite channels in the Arab World (see Al-Adwan, 2019;
the word fuck was rendered as ‫ ﻳﻀﺎﺟﻊ‬get laid/make love 24 times. Al-Jaberi et al., 2021). This study was conducted on four movie
However, other times, they are used connotatively. For example, genres, as the other genres are not available in abundance com-
the Arabic word ‫( ﺗﺒﺎ‬Lit. doom and lose) was used 163 times to pared to drama, action, sci-fi, and biography on the one hand,
render the words fuck (92 times), shit (60), and damn (11). Give a and their inclusion of plenty of swear words on the other hand.
damn/fuck was mainly rendered using the euphemistic Other genres can be the data source for future studies.

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 11

ARTICLE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

This study uses a parallel corpus of English-Arabic movie sub- Ameri S, Ghazizadeh K (2014) A norm-based analysis of swearing rendition in
titles and recommends more corpus-assisted studies on different professional dubbing and non-professional subtitling from English into
AVT modes, including dubbing, voiceover, and free commentaries. Persian. Res English Lang Pedagogy 2(2):78–96
Andersson L, Trudgill P (1992) Bad language. Penguin Books, London
Furthermore, the researchers recommend more AVT research on Anthony L (2013) AntConc (Version 3.2.5). Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan,
swear words in different languages, as they represent a con- http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/ Retrieved from
troversial issue, especially when translating for conservative cul- Antonini R (2005) The perception of subtitled humor in Italy. Humor
tures. This study investigated a large chunk of data quantitatively; 18(2):209–225. https://doi.org/10.1515/humr.2005.18.2.209
other studies may attempt to identify fansubbing norms in a Aqel YAA (2016) Constraints on translating taboo language in English movies into
Arabic. (Master Degree). An-Najah National University, Palestine
limited number of movies as this may allow them to examine them Au K (2009) Introduction. In: Fong G, Au K (Eds.) Dubbing and subtitling in a
in detail. This study was limited to translation strategies; other world context. Chinese University Press, Hong Kong, p 7–12
studies may examine the denotative and connotative functions of Baker M (1993) Corpus linguistics and translation studies: implications and
swear words and the typology of swearing. applications. Text and technology: in honor of John Sinclair. In: Baker M,
To conclude, further research on the different AVT modes is Francis G, Tognini-Bonellis E (Eds.) Text and technology: in honor of John
Sinclair. John Benjamins Publ, Amsterdam, pp. 233–250
needed to help translators identify the best and most appropriate Beers Fägersten K (2007) A sociolinguistic analysis of swear word offensiveness.
strategies to opt for when rendering culture-bound expressions, Saarland Working Papers in Linguistics. Universität des Saarlands
including swearing. Such research will significantly help sub- Chaume F (2020) Audiovisual translation: dubbing. Routledge, London
titlers, translation students, and translation training programs. Chen C (2004) On the Hong Kong Chinese subtitling of english swearwords. Meta:
J Des Traducteurs/Meta: Translators’ J 49(1):135–147. https://doi.org/10.
7202/009029ar
Crane LB, Yeager E, Whitman RL (1981) An introduction to linguistics. Little,
Data availability Brown, United States
The data are available on request from the authors. Cuenca A (2016) On the translation of taboo words in an English-Spanish corpus
of film subtitles. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). UNIVERSIDAD DE
JAÉN, Spain
Received: 21 June 2022; Accepted: 4 January 2023; Debbas M, Haider AS (2020) Overcoming cultural constraints in translating
English series: a case study of subtitling family guy into Arabic. 3L: Lang
Linguist Lit® 26(1):1–17. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2020-2601-01
Dewaele J-M (2004) The emotional force of swearwords and taboo words in the
speech of multilinguals. J Multiling Multicult Dev 25(2-3):204–222. https://
Note doi.org/10.1080/01434630408666529
1 Such as www.subscene.com. Díaz-Cintas J, Muñoz Sánchez P (2006) Fansubs: audiovisual translation in an
amateur environment. Jostrans 6:37–52
References Díaz-Cintas J, Remael A (2014) Audiovisual translation: subtitling. Routledge,
Abdelaal NM, Al Sarhani A (2021) Subtitling strategies of swear words and taboo London & New York
expressions in the movie “Training Day”. Heliyon 7(7):e07351. https://doi. Díaz-Pérez FJ (2020) Translating swear words from English into Galician in film
org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07351 subtitles: a corpus-based study. Babel 66(3):393–419. https://doi.org/10.1075/
Abu Rayyash H, Haider AS (2022) Construction of a parallel corpus of English- babel.00162.dia
Arabic movie subtitles: a genuine source for audiovisual translators. The Dynel M (2012) Swearing methodologically: The (im) politeness of expletives in
International Journal of Humanities Education 21(1): 21–37. https://doi.org/ anonymous commentaries on YouTube. J Engl Stud 10:25–50. https://doi.
10.18848/2327-0063/CGP/v21i01/21-37 org/10.18172/jes.179
Adriani KGD, Hamzah HA (2013) Comparison of the maxim violation found in ElShiekh A (2016) Problems in English to Arabic subtitles translation of religious
action and drama movies. Engl Lang Lit 1(2):69–78. https://doi.org/10.24036/ terms-bruce almighty and supernatural on MBC & Dubai one: a case study.
ell.v10i1.113084 Int J Engl Linguist 6(1):38–42. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v6n1p38
Al-Abbas LS, Haider AS (2021) Using modern standard arabic in subtitling Farghal M (1995) Euphemism in Arabic: a gricean interpretation. Anthropol
egyptian comedy movies for the deaf/hard of hearing. Cogent Arts Humanit Linguist 37: 366–378.
8(1):1993597. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2021.1993597 Fernández MJF (2009) The translation of swearing in the dubbing of the film South
Al-Adwan A (2019) Mapping arabic subtitling conventions: the case of Dubai one Park into Spanish. In: Díaz-Cintas J (ed.) New trends in audiovisual trans-
and MBC 2. In: Said Faiq (Ed.) Arabic Transl Across Discourse. Routledge, lation. Multilingual Matters, United Kindom, pp. 210–225
London, p 63–78 Goddard C (2015) “Swear words” and “curse words” in Australian (and Amer-
Al-Adwan A, Yahiaoui R (2018) Comedy under fire: subtitling Two and a Half Men ican) English. At the crossroads of pragmatics, semantics and socio-
into Arabic. In: Irene R, Serenella Z (Eds.) Linguistic and cultural representation linguistics. Intercult Pragmat 12(2):189–218. https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-
in audiovisual translation. Rourteldge, Lonodn/New York, pp. 85–100 2015-0010
Al-Jabri H, Allawzi A, Abushmaes A (2021) A comparison of euphemistic stra- Gottlieb H (2001) Subtitling: visualising filmic dialogue. In: García L, Rodriguez
tegies applied by Mbc4 and netflix to two arabic subtitled versions of The US A (Eds.) Traducción subordinada (II). El subtitulado (inglés-español/
sitcom how i met your mother. Heliyon 7(2):e06262. https://doi.org/10.1016/ galego). Servicio de publicacións da Universidade de Vigo, Spain,
j.heliyon.2021.e06262 pp. 85–110
Al-Khalafat L, Haider AS (2022) A corpus-assisted translation study of strategies Hagen SH (2013) Swearwords and attitude change: a sociolinguistic study. The
used in rendering culture-bound expressions in the speeches of King University of Bergen, Norway
Abdullah II. Theory Pract Lang Stud 12(1):130–142. https://doi.org/10.17507/ Haider AS, Al-Saideen B, Hussein RF (2023) Subtitling taboo expressions from a
tpls.1201.16 conservative to a more liberal culture: the case of the Arab TV series ‘Jinn’.
Al-Yasin NF, Rabab’ah GA (2019) Arabic audiovisual translation of taboo words in Middle East J Cult Commun (in press)
American hip hop movies: a contrastive study. Babel 65(2):222–248. https:// Haider AS, Hussein RF (2022) Modern standard Arabic as a means of euphemism: a
doi.org/10.1075/babel.00090.aly case study of the MSA intralingual subtitling of jinn series. J Intercult Commun
Al-Zgoul O, Al-Salman S (2022) Fansubbers’ subtitling strategies of swear words Res Online First, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2022.2106289
from English into Arabic in the bad boys movies. Open Cult Stud Hendal B (2021) Translation of taboos: a case study on translating the F-word into
6(1):199–217. https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2022-0156 Arabic. J Res Lang Transl 1(1):47–65
Alabbasi A (2009) Translation (Arabic-English). In: Omar HC (Ed.) The sustain- Hosseinnia M (2014) Omission as a strategy in subtitling. Int J Lang Learn Appl
ability of the translation field. ITBM, Malaysia, p. 179 Linguist World 5(1):394–402
Allan K (2015) When is a slur not a slur? The use of nigger in ‘Pulp Fiction’. Lang House J (1977) A model for assessing translation quality. Meta: journal des tra-
Sci 52:187–199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langsci.2015.03.001 ducteurs/Meta: Translators’ Journal 22(2):103–109. https://doi.org/10.7202/
Almijrab R (2020) Strategies used in translating English taboo expressions into 003140ar
Arabic. African J Soc Sci Humanit Res 3(1):22–30 Ivarsson J, Crofts RF (1992) Subtitling for the media: a handbook of an Art.
Alsharhan A (2020) Netflix’s no-censorship policy in subtitling taboo language Transedit, Sweden
from English into Arabic. J Audiovis Transl 3(2):7–28. https://doi.org/10. Jay T (1977) Doing research with dirty words. Maledicta: Int J Verb Aggress
47476/jat.v3i2.2020.127 1(2):234–256

12 HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 ARTICLE

Jay T (1980) A frequency count of college and elementary school students’ colloquial Rabab’ah G, Alali N (2020) Impoliteness in reader comments on the Al-Jazeera
English. Catal Sel Doc Psychol 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1037/e481592008-001 channel news website. J Politeness Res 16(1):1–43. https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-
Jay T (1992) Cursing in America: a psycholinguistic study of dirty language in the 2017-0028
courts, in the movies, in the schoolyards, and on the streets. John Benjamins Scott M (2012) WordSmith tools version 6. Lexical Analysis Software, Stroud
Publishing, Amsterdam Sedighi A, Najian TS (2012) On audiovisual translation: The effect of norms of
Jay T (2009) The utility and ubiquity of taboo words. Perspect Psychol Sci dubbing taboos into Persian movies after the Islamic revolution in Iran. J
4(2):153–161. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01115.x Lang Transl 3(1):37–49
Jay T, Janschewitz K (2008) The pragmatics of swearing. J Politeness Res Simanjuntak NVN, Basari A (2016) Subtitling strategies in Real Steel movie. LITE:
4(2008):267–288. https://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2008.013 Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, dan Budaya 12(1):17–36
Johnson FL, Fine MG (1985) Sex differences in uses and perceptions of obscenity. Singleton D (2009) Unspeakable words: the taboo fringe of the lexicon. Adv Dis-
Women’s Stud Commun 8(1):11–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07491409.1985. course Anal 130:146. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501722035-008
11089675 Song Y, Lin Q, Kwon KH, Choy CH, Xu R (2022) Contagion of offensive speech
Karamitroglou F (2000) Towards a methodology for the investigation of norms in online: An interactional analysis of political swearing. Comput Hum Behav
audiovisual translation: The choice between subtitling and revoicing in 127:107046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.107046
Greece (Vol. 15). Rodopi, Amsterdam Stapleton K (2010) Swearing. In: Locher MA, Graham Sage L (eds.) Interpersonal
Khalaf AS, Rashid SM (2019) Pragmatic functions of swearwords in the amateur pragmatics. vol. 6. Walter de Gruyter, Germany, p. 289
subtitling of American crime drama movies into Arabic. Int J Asia-Pacific Stapleton K, Fägersten KB, Stephens R, Loveday C (2022) The power of swearing:
Stud 15(1):97–131. https://doi.org/10.21315/ijaps2019.15.1.4 What we know and what we don’t. Lingua 277:103406. https://doi.org/10.
Khoshsaligheh M, Ameri S (2014) Translation of taboos in dubbed American crime 1016/j.lingua.2022.103406
movies into Persian. T&I Rev 4(2):25–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/23306343. Suleiman SM (1985) Jordanian Arabic between diglossia and bilingualism. John
2015.1129781 Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam
Kilgarriff A, Baisa V, Bušta J, Jakubíček M, Kovář V, Michelfeit J, Suchomel V Vingerhoets AJ, Bylsma LM, De Vlam C (2013) Swearing: a biopsychosocial per-
(2014) The sketch engine: ten years on. Lexicography 1(1):7–36. https://doi. spective. Psihologijske teme 22(2):287–304
org/10.1007/s40607-014-0009-9 Yule G (2020) The study of language. Cambridge university press, Cambridge
Krishan T (2012) Norms of subtitling taboo language and the role of censorship in
Jordan: a case study of the Arabic subtitling of’Friends’. (Ph.D.), University of
Salford, United Kingdom Funding
Kristiano JT, Ardi P (2018) Swear words in Bad Boys II: a semantic analysis. LLT J Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.
21(2):191–198. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v21i2.1586
Kruger A, Wallmach K, Munday J (2011) Corpus-based translation studies: Res Competing interests
Appl. Bloomsbury Publishing, London The authors declare no competing interests.
Ljung M (2011) Swearing: a cross-cultural linguistic study. Palgrave Macmillan,
New York
Lyons D (2021) How many people speak English, and where is it spoken? Retrieved Ethical approval
from https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/how-many-people-speak-english- This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of
and-where-is-it-spoken the authors.
Malenova ED (2015) Translating subtitles–translating cultures. J Siberian Federal
Univ Humanit Soc Sci 12:2891–2900. https://doi.org/10.17516/1997-1370-
2015-8-12-2891-2900
Informed consent
This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of
Manchón PG (2013) A corpus-based analysis of swearword translation in DVD
the authors.
subtitles and internet fansubs. (MA Thesis), Universidad Complutense,
Madrid, Spain
Matkivska N (2014) Audiovisual translation: conception, types, characters’ speech Additional information
and translation strategies applied. Kalbų studijos 25:38–44. https://doi.org/10. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Amer Al-Adwan.
5755/j01.sal.0.25.8516
McEnery A, Xiao Z (2004) Swearing in modern British English: the case Reprints and permission information is available at http://www.nature.com/reprints
of fuck in the BNC. Lang Lit 13(3):235–268. https://doi.org/10.1177/
0963947004044873 Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in
Montagu A (2001) The anatomy of swearing. University of Pennsylvania press, published maps and institutional affiliations.
Pennsylvania
Moore RL (2012) On swearwords and slang. American speech 87(2):170–189.
https://doi.org/10.1215/00031283-1668199
Nodoushan MAS (2016) On the functions of swearing in Persian. J Lang Aggress
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons
Conflict 4(2):234–254. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.4.2.04sal
Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing,
O’Hagan M (2007) Impact of DVD on translation: language options as an
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give
essential add-on feature. Convergence 13(2):157–168. https://doi.org/10.
appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative
1177/1354856507075242
O’Driscoll J (2020) Offensive language: taboo, offence and social control. Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party
Bloomsbury Publishing, United Kingdom material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless
Omar YZ (2012) The challenges of denotative and connotative meaning for indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the
second-language learners. ETC: Rev Gen Semant 69(3):324–351 article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory
Pedersen J (2005) How is culture rendered in subtitles. Paper presented at the regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
MuTra 2005–Challenges of Multidimensional Translation, Saarbrücken the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/
Pinker S (2007) The stuff of thought. Penguin Books, London, England licenses/by/4.0/.
Pujol D (2006) The translation and dubbing of ‘fuck’into Catalan: The case of From
Dusk till Dawn. J Specialised Transl 6:121–133
© The Author(s) 2023

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES COMMUNICATIONS | (2023)10:39 | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01506-3 13