SCATOGISMS IN GERMAN LINGUISTIC CULTURE

Abstract

Phenomenon of scatologisms is one of under-researched and poorly studied issues in the field of linguistics. Modern scientists are prone to research obscene language in general; they are less willing to distinguish scatologisms as an important subject under study. The objective of this article is to discover a place of scatologisms in the German linguistic culture. The main tasks include the following: to analyze attitudes of the German nation towards tidiness and scatologisms, to study peculiarities of scatologisms usage in the German speaking space in the diachronic aspect, starting from the ХVI century and up to nowadays. Certain elements of scatologisms as a lexical layer are present many spheres of human lives. They can be found in literature, mass media, dictionaries, the latter including regional and dialect ones. Taking into account modern researches on the topic and comparing German linguistic culture with other linguistic cultures, scientists prove that in order to swear Germans use scatologisms more eagerly, rather than obscene words with sexual meaning. Scientists still debate on the subject of connection existing between German fondness of scatologisms and their obvious affection to tidiness. This article provides an analysis of some learned papers, mainly by German authors, concerning the problem of attitude of German nobility and common people to scatologisms over a long period of time, starting from the Middle Ages; the article also provides certain parallels and comparisons with other countries. The article analyses scatologisms in the Middle Ages, attitudes of the German nation towards tidiness, it presents points of view of Ukrainian and Russian scientists concerning this particular issue.