The Creativity of Malaysian Netizens in using Curse Words

Abstract

English, as the language of the colonial masters, never ceases to be in operation in Malaysia despite its independence in 1957. English continues to be used in both formal and informal contexts, in and outside of schools and even on social platforms such as Facebook, Messenger, What’s App, SMS and emails. Although English is taught from the primary to secondary schools in Malaysia for a total of 11 years, not many Malaysians, especially the younger generation, are able to use it in the way purists expect. Noting its unusual variety, some linguists note that this variety of Malaysian English is a sign of weak proficiency. Others maintain that it is a feature of the Malaysian variety where there are mixed languages occurring simultaneously. This paper examines the use of English in Facebook as it is a common platform used by many Malaysians for social interactions. Focussing only on how Malaysians used the words to curse, data were linguistically categorised and analysed. Findings suggest several outcomes. It is argued that Facebook is extremely influential in impacting language use. The outcome of this paper will, thus, serve as a window to understand how English is used for the purpose of cursing via the social media.