ON WORD FORMATION PATTERNS OF TABOO WORDS IN ENGLISH

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to the study of active word-formation patterns used in Modern English to create taboo words. The aim of the paper is to show which patterns are commonly used in forming new taboo words. According to the research taboo words are formed after all possible word formation patterns. The study of 138 taboo units shows that almost half of them are simple (root) words, the rest are various analytical, synthetic forms and abbreviations, compounds or derivational words. Moreover, most of the compound taboo words are of analytical type and only few of them are abbreviations. One can conclude that taboo words, being an active and viable units of vocabulary, have historically developed along with other layers of the English word-stock.