The initial words which come to mind when I think of bloody
are; bloody hell, bloody oath and bloody shit. I personally
along with many other Australians believe that in the right context, the great
Australian adjective “bloody” isn’t so bad. Obviously being brought up seeing
‘bloody’ written in newspapers, hearing bloody in public speech by respected
figures, for example when former prime minister Bob Hawke commented on his
appointment of Governor General Bill Hayden, “I thought he would be an alright
bloke for the job so I appointed him…. I didn’t consult me bloody cabinet”, it was
normalised in my vocabulary, not as a swear word but as an expressive term
which provides emphasis. For example if
I was to say something was better than amazing, instead of saying “that was
amazing”, I’d say “that was bloody amazing”, for me the addition of the one
word ‘bloody’ heightens the whole expression. I regard such forms as acceptable,
however I recognise statements such as “You’re a bloody dickhead” or “Bloody
bastard” to be quite offensive. I think
when the word bloody is employed or directed towards an individual that is
insulting, however as a descriptive or heightening term, it is tolerable.
Hong’s article (2008) focussed on the controversy surrounding the
Australian tourism campaign, which features Lara Bingle and the infamous catch
phrase “Where the bloody hell are you?” As an Australian watching it, I see no problem;
I see it as a light-hearted play on the characteristics of a typical
Australian; informal and laid back. However this ad sparked much debate around
the world. Some believe since the ad represents Australia, it should show more
politeness and courtesy in standing for the country. Like Weirzbicka discussed
in her article, Hong similarly address’ how the word ‘bloody’ is often considered
offensive and impolite in other cultures. However, I agree with Hong’s
conclusion that since the term bloody has been declared to NOT be a swear word
since 1942, and has since been part of the ordinary discourse of Australian
English language, it should therefore be respected as a common and casual
Australian phrase used in everyday life to show their characteristics of
casualness and friendliness.
References:
Hong, M 2008, ‘Where the bloody hell are you? Bloody hell
and impoliteness of Australian English’, Griffith
Working Papers in Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication, vol.1,
pp33-39.
Wierzbicka, A 2001, ‘Australian cultural scripts- bloody
revisited’, Journal of Pragmatics,
vol.34, pp1167-1209.
I really found this week’s readings very interesting. I had no idea that the word ‘bloody’ could be taken as something offensive enough to get a commercial banned from the United Kingdom. Of course, the only exposure I’ve ever had to the word ‘bloody’ (before coming to Australia) was from the Harry Potter movies. In the United States we only ever use bloody in the literal sense of the word. It’s so fascinating to note how the meaning of a word can change so drastically dependent on the time and culture in which it is being used.
ReplyDeleteOne example that I can think of from back home is the word ‘Oreo.’ Oreo is often used in a derogatory sense when referring to someone who is both Caucasian American and African American. This slang word obviously comes from the Oreo cookie which has two black hard cookies on the outside and white cream in the middle. If someone were to come to the United States and use that term in the wrong context, they could unknowingly offend someone very greatly. This could potentially create a cultural rift and lessen the possibility of positive social interactions between these two individuals.
I imagine cultural misunderstandings of simple things such as vocabulary or mannerisms may cause a lot of confusions between people from different cultures everywhere. If we as a society became more understanding of these inscribed cultural differences perhaps we would be more able to interact successfully on a global scale. It is easy to get offended when someone doesn’t behave in a way that fits the norms or what is considered socially acceptable where you’re from. Perhaps it would be beneficial for everyone to recognize and embrace the fact that each individual has grown up with an entirely unique set of social conditions which may be completely different than our own dependent on where in the world they are from. This understanding could open a whole new door for cross-cultural interaction.
I thought the original post was quite interesting, though I must disagree that it is offensive to call someone a 'bloody dickhead'. Maybe it's just a guy thing, but I call my mates this sort of thing all the time, and the use of bloody is treated almost as a term of friendliness, certainly much less offensive than calling someone a dickhead straight up.But I digress.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that even within the same country, views on the usage of so-called Australian slang can vary in meaningful ways. I was reading a post earlier today which advocated fuck as being equally acceptable as bloody, and almost as important to Australian cultural discourse. I think a great many would disagree. So how can we meaningfully define 'cultural scripts' if the culture in question has disagreement from within? Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but my understanding of cultural scripts are that they are intrinsically accepted by the people of that culture, or at least most of them.
I agree with you. Bloody is used pretty much an expressive term used for emphasis these days and can be used to heighten an expression. Is ‘bloody’ a meaningless, linguistic hiccup? I don’t think so. I think there’s a lot of meaning behind the word bloody that it warrants a 43 page reading (much to our eternal suffering). It can be used to express a lot of different things, and it seems there’s an art in telling when it’s actually offensive. I tend to think only Australian’s have this super power.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that Wierzbicka finds OED reads (granted, this is in 1989 but…) “now constantly in the mouths of the lowest classes, but by respectable people considered ‘a horrid word’’ Both Wierzbicka and myself disagree - unless we could classify Australia as the lowest class in terms of the world’s country hierarchy, but that seems a mite extreme. You're right, it’s a word found in our media and given relatively little reprimanding, though I do find that its use is a little thrilling for some (or maybe I just know some innocent ears) – but mostly I find it goes unnoticed.
What I also found interesting was the fact that, according to Wierzbicka, ‘Bloody’ is considered damn near blasphemous in the UK, but it is from this culture that I feel I picked up the word bloody, feeling it was the “proper” way to curse. I felt and continue to feel like a bloody Gentleman! You’re probably thinking The Sex Pistols (and where you would think I would have picked it up), but – and this is to my eternal shame – I came to use the word bloody a whole lot more when I got into the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer when I was about ten or twelve. The vampire Spike (or as he had been known in his time as “William the Bloody” for his “bloody awful poetry”) said it routinely, and it got me into the habit fairly quickly as a child. Though, when I come to think about it, I probably imposed my pre-existing (albeit unconscious) understanding of my cultural script onto the television show, accepting bloody as an intensifier rather than a foul expression. I was also met by no resistance when I began using it, so that probably helped.
As for it not being offensive, I can’t decide, as a frequent user of it I find myself up against all sorts and have thus received a lot of different responses. I mainly use it to downplay a serious comment, for instance, I find “you’re an idiot” to be more direct than “you’re a bloody idiot/you bloody idiot” because with a huge selection of curse words at my disposal, why on Earth would I choose bloody to insult someone? I use it with twat, prat, wanker or bastard. It seems the most forgivable of the swear words, especially when accompanied with little else (aka: not a rant but a single statement). I find its repetition in a single event will do one of two things: 1) be really bloody offensive or 2) be really bloody humorous and people may not take you seriously. Overall, I find its use is fairly indoctrinated in Australian language, and its place in the Australian cultural script is a permanent one.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHi Karishma,
I thought your blog post was really well written, and I liked the examples you gave in explaining the ways 'bloody' is used in Australian speech and slang. A definition I came across in the Australian National Dictionary (2008) described the difference in using bloody as an insult or an intensifier of a sentence to be whether the word 'bloody' was used as an adjective or an adverb. I found this really helpful in broadening my understanding of this often used Australian word. Adjectives are 'describing words', while adverbs usually 'modify a verb or verb phrase'. When used adjectivally, 'bloody' usually connotes a negative feeling to the sentence, while when used adverbially, it is generally used in a positive way )though can still be negative in some cases). The example I gave during the presentation Ann and I did in Week 9, was to compare:
‘Did you see that bloody try?’ which is using 'bloody' adverbially, making it unclear whether or not it was intended as a negative or a positive statement, when taken out of context; to this:
‘Did you see that bloody try? The bloody ref is blind!’, which uses 'bloody' as an adjective in the second part of the sentence as well as the first, and adds meaning to the sentence preceding it. It is now clear that the first sentence was intended as a negative statement.
I hope this helps put into a more definable framework the two ways that ‘bloody’ can be used. I agree with you when you say 'it was normalised in my vocabulary, not as a swear word but as an expressive term which provides emphasis', I can definitely relate to that, I don't find it an offensive term at all, even if I was to call someone a 'bloody idiot', it would be more endearing than a serious insult.
I like how you explained the use of the word 'Bloody' in relation to Australian society and how you mentioned that it is used to add emphasis to a statement in both a positive and negative way and how if used in the negative way it can be interpreted as being quite offensive. However I think that we have to be careful not to overuse the word in case it loses its ability to add emphasis as if it is overused it will become just another filler word for the Australia cultural variation of the English language.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting how you pointed out that the word has the ability to add emphasis as a standard term in the Australian cultural language but that we have to be careful of how we use it as this meaning is relatively unique to Australia and people from other countries and cultural backgrounds may tend to apply a different meaning to the word and thus find it more offensive then Australian's generally will.
I found this week’s reading (and your post on the subject) very interesting. Like you mentioned growing up in a world where bloody is used on a regular, casual, basis by the both media and those around me has normalised the phrase in my vocabulary. I usually use the term to place emphasis and give additional meaning to my speech, and definitely not as a swear word. But, while I don’t use it in context as a swear word to mean something bad, I also don’t quite think that bloody has the same connotations as other words that provide emphasis, such as very. Bloody seems to have a layer of meaning which makes it heavier than everyday terms, but not in a way as to make it constitute a swear word. For example, compare the differences between “fucking great”, “bloody great” and “very great”. The first one, with the use of the swear, I think implies a sense of sarcasm, with the overall meaning of the phrase being bad. The third phase obviously has a much more positive meaning. The use of bloody in the context I think implies a sense of friendliness, of mateship, obviously with a positive meaning, but in a way that goes beyond using a word such as ‘very’. Using the “where the bloody hell are you” in the Australian tourism campaign was a way of expressing this openness and friendliness that the Australian context of bloody implies to others. The controversy that the ad campaign created was simply other countries failing to recognise this contextual Australian use of the term.
ReplyDelete