A Socio-Pragmatic Study of Profanity and Derogatory Words in Doja Cat’s Songs: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

Rap songs often feature artists who utilize explicit language to convey feelings such as happiness, sorrow, and anger, reflecting audience expectations and trends within the music industry. This study intends to conduct a socio-pragmatic analysis of explicit, derogatory, and offensive language in the songs of the American artist Doja Cat, employing Hughes’ (1996) Swearing Word Theory, Jay’s (1996) Taboo Words Theory, Luhr’s (2002) classification of social factors for sociolinguistic examination, Salager’s (1997) categories of hedges for pragmatic assessment, and Austin’s (1965, 1989) theory of speech acts. The researchers collected the data using the AntConc corpus analysis tool. The data shows the singer’s frequent use of general profanity (46%), followed by excrement (29%) and animal words (13%). She employs hedges for rhythm and harmony and directive and representative speech acts for future meaning. For pragmatic reasons, she employs more directive (44%) than representative speech acts (34.1%) in her songs. She also employs hedges, mostly, modal auxiliary verbs (27.8%) and “if” clauses (72.1%), which are more frequently used than the others because they are more aligned with common speech. The sociolinguistic research shows she connects with the lower class by using phrases like “gonna” and “nigga” that signify her association with them. Furthermore, she uses slang terms finishing in “-in”, thus making a statement as a masculine female rapper among the Black community. Finally, researchers can learn more about the social and linguistic factors behind the use of profanity in rap music by comprehending the socio-pragmatic element such words.