Linguistic taboo. A constant paradoxical reality

Abstract

In this article we tried to extend and clarify some aspects of our previous research concerning the linguistic taboo. We selected examples belonging to the political, social or current speech from communist-era Romanian language, but also to the international vocabulary. We proposed two theoretical criteria of classification of the linguistic taboo. One of them is functional and it reflects the relationship between the cause and the effect involved with the taboo creation. The other is a pragmatic criteria, it is based on the premise that the linguistic taboo could be considerated a speech act and it expresses the relationship between its success and failure. We also identified some paradoxical features of the taboo. As a result, we noticed that a ban language (not saying x) often generates, in response, stylistic loaded words and phrases. There, where it was supposed to be a lack, the vocabulary enriches itself by new words or paraphrases. At the pragmatic level, the full success of the act of prohibition involves the silence. Or, by excellence, the linguistic taboo manifests itself as lexical form.