“Bloody + Emotions” – An Investigation into the Australian Exclamations and Expletives

Abstract

Australian variety of English is known as very informal, often associated and even synonymous with slang. Hunter (2004: 5) wrote that Australians tend to be informal in their speech and behaviour, and one aspect of this informality is the extensive usage of slang. One of the most prominent indicators of this informality is the adjective bloody used as an element of an everyday speech as a component of various compounds to intensify the speaker’s message or in numerous exclamations. The purpose of this paper is to present the partial results of a survey carried out among young Australian Speakers with a view to investigating the case of bloody used as an intensifier, expletive and a part of a compound as well as to present other expletives and exclamations in current use. The study sheds light on the most typical compounds used in exclamations as well as on the current state of bloody in comparison with other expletives.