I. Taboos and euphemisms

(1) Taboo refers to a prohibition on the use of, mention of, or association with particular objects, actions, or persons. Euphemism is an expression that substitutes one which may be seen as offensive or disturbing to the addressee.

(2) Taboo and euphemism are actually two sides of the same coin.

(3) What is taboo or not taboo depends on the context. Taboos and euphemisms are mostly culture-specific.

II. Communicative Competence

There is a striking different connotation between the ability to speak and the ability to talk.

(1) Chomsky who is not concerned with language use proposed the term linguistic competence to account for a speaker’s knowledge of his language.

(2) Hymes criticized Chomsky’s conception about competence. He argues that a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate.

(3) He proposed communicative competence.

 Definition:

This competence is integral with attitudes, values and motivations concerning language, its features and uses, and integral with the competence for, and attitudes toward, the interrelation of language with the other code of communicative conduct (Hymes, 1972).

 Four parameters that underlie a speaker’s communicative competence

   Grammaticality: whether (and to what degree) something is formally possible

   Acceptability: whether (and to what degree) something is feasible 

   Appropriateness: whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate 

   Effectiveness: whether (and to what degree) something is in fact done