Who swears the most online: the Australians, British or Americans?

New research has uncovered the English-speaking country that swears the most online, and it's not who you might think.

Researchers analysed a vast database of more than 1.7 billion words from internet content across 20 English speaking countries to explore how people use vulgar language online.

The US tops the list when it comes to swearing online, followed by Britain, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Malaysia, Ireland, Jamaica and Canada.

Professor Kate Burridge, from School of Languages, Literature, Cultures and Linguistics, collaborated on the research, published in peer-reviewed academic journal Lingua.

“Some Aussies might well be disappointed to learn we’re not topping the charts when it comes to swearing,” Professor Burridge said.

“But our study suggests we might still live up to our popular image of having an unusually rich and inventive 'bad' language, especially thanks to our very public and colourful airing of swear words.

"This is something that’s often remarked upon by overseas visitors to the country.”

In the first large-scale analysis of its kind, Professor Burridge and Dr Martin Schweinberger, Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at The University of Queensland, used big data alongside fine-grained analysis to understand the way people are using vulgar language online, and how it differs between countries.

"Aussies and Brits are more creative with their swearing than Americans," Dr Schweinberger said.

"It's fun to be creative in the way you express yourselves.

"For example, in Australia, we may say, 'We're not here to F* spiders' which is a very peculiar way to use swearing."

The researchers combined computational methods with linguistics to gain deeper insights into language and culture – an approach to research referred to as data-intensive humanities.

"Traditionally in the humanities, you'd read books and write about what you read. With computational methods, you can analyse vast amounts of text and do research in ways that have never been done before," said Dr Schweinberger.

The researchers used the Language Data Commons of Australia, a University of Queensland-led research infrastructure initiative supported by the Australian Research Data Commons.

The Language Data Commons of Australia is making language data available to the public, and provides tools to analyse the data via LADAL.

What counts as 'vulgar language'?

The study defines vulgar language broadly as words and expressions considered rude, offensive, or inappropriate in certain social contexts. This includes overlapping categories such as swearing, profanity, obscenity, insults, and more.

The perception of vulgarity depends on the context, with a word like 'shit' being crude in a work meeting but sometimes normal in a casual online chat.

Read the paper online: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024384125000713