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English Profanity On Social Media: Linguistic Preferences And Reasons For Use

Table 1: The results of the ways UiTMCPP students use English swear words on social media

No. Items Mean Standard deviation (SD) Response options
SD D U A SA
% % % % %
1 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends use language mechanics (e.g.: !,@,#,$,%,^,&,*) when using English swear words on social media (e.g.: “f**k” instead of “fuck”) 3.19 1.16 9 24 14 45 8
2 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends use capital letters for the English swear words on social media (e.g.: “FUCK” instead of “fuck”.) 3.19 1.02 3 26 29 33 9
3 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends spell the English swear words on social media in full (e.g.: “fuck” instead “fk”). 3.36 1.11 3 26 17 40 14
4 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends spell the English swear words on social media in Malay (e.g.: “fak” instead of “fuck”). 3.69 1.02 4 10 18 49 19
5 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends use more than one of English swear words in a single post. 3.36 1.17 5 23 21 33 18
6 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends use animal names for swearing (e.g.: “pig”, “dog”, “bitch”) on social media. 3.60 1.13 4 19 10 47 20
7 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends use sex positions for swearing (e.g.: “doggy”) on social media 2.37 1.19 27 33 23 10 7
8 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends use genital organs for swearing (e.g.: “dick”, “pussy”, “asshole”) on social media. 2.97 1.28 13 32 12 31 12
9 I usually see my UiTMCPP friends use the word “god” for swearing (e.g.: “god damn it”, “fucking god”) on social media. 3.15 1.23 9 27 18 32 14
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