All Films
Curse Count
The top three curse words in all three screenplays were 'fuck', 'ass', and 'shit' respectively.
Slur Count
Out of all three screenplays, the most used slur was 'nigger.' This can be attributed to the most common usage in Django Unchained. The second most used slur was 'jew,' which most commonly used in Inglorious Basterds.
Parts of Speech for Curses
The graph below is the general trend within each screenplay.The most common part of speech for curses is noun. One reason why nouns are the most common part of speech because curse words such as 'fuck,' 'shit,' 'pussy,' and 'ass' can be used easily be used as nouns. 'Motherfuck' can also be included in this group because it is most commonly used as a noun as in 'motherfucker.' This group of curse words can easily be changed into adjectives as in 'fuckin,' 'shitty,' and 'motherfuckin.' In addition, nouns and adjectives include the top three most commonly used curse words used in the three screenplays which would add to the overall count in parts of speech. The other curse words such as 'damn' and 'goddamn' are most commonly used as verb or adverbs and are not as productive. Typically, these curse words 'damn' and 'goddamn' are most commonly used as verbs and adverbs which rely on the context of the other parts of the sentence such as the noun to make sure it it appropriate to be used.
Click to show the graphs below for the Parts of Speech for the Top Three Most Commonly Used Curse Words
Parts of Speech for Fuck
For the curse word most common curse word 'fuck,' it has the most even usage of all parts of speech in comparison to the other curse words. Surprisingly, its most common usage is as an adjective and its least common usage is as a noun because the most common part of speech for all curses are nouns. However, 'fuck' is most commonly used to modify another part of the sentence such as the person or situation. Although 'fuck' can be used as a noun, it is rare for 'fuck' to be used as a noun in these particular screenplays.
Parts of Speech for Ass
For the second most common curse word 'ass', it was not surprising that that its most common usage is as a noun because it is not as productive as other parts of speech. The literal word 'ass' also has another physical association with it, meaning the buttocks or donkey. Due to this strong association, perhaps 'ass' is used most often as a noun and is not easily used as other parts that would have to modify other nouns or adjectives. However, there are some instances where it is used as an adjective such as 'crazy-ass shit' in Pulp Fiction. Even in the rare occassions that it used as an adjective, there is also another modifier helping convey the meaning.
Parts of Speech for Shit
The third most commonly used curse word 'shit' is most commonly used as a noun. 'Shit' can also be considered a colloquial term for feces. However, it has more variability than 'ass' because it also used as a verb and as an adjective, even if they are few cases. Some instances are 'shit job' where it is used as an adjective and 'shit my pants.' There is more diverse usage of 'shit' in comparison to 'ass' because there are multiple association with the word 'shit.'The literal feces that are associated with it and the physical act of defecating. Therefore, 'shit' as verb refers to the act of defecating and 'shit' as an adjective refers to the association of feces.
Network Analysis
Another topic we were interested in was the co-occurrence of curse words and slurs in a single dialgoue. How are the most commonly used curse words and slurs connected? Are there clusters of words that are deemed more 'male' or female'? To answer these questions, we chose the filter PartnerofMultiEdgeNodes, which filters the graph so that the furthest right node is the most connected node and the furthest left node is the least connected node. The thickness of each node is also indicated by EdgeBetweeness. EdgeBetweeness indicates the degree in which that node is crucial to make other node connections possible. Each node is color differently based on whether it is a curse or a slur. The red nodes are curse words and yellow nodes are slur words. The connection between nodes are colored differently based on the speaker's gender. The red lines indicate male speakers and the black ones indicate female speakers.
Out of all three screenplays, there were a total of 143 dialogues that have two or more curses and slurs. Not suprisingly, the curse word 'fuck' is the furthest right node, indicating that it has the most connection to other nodes. Although it is furthest left node and the node with the least connection, 'bitch' is actually a really crucial node because its edge betweeness score is the highest one in the entire network.
Out of the 143 dialogues containing two or more curse words or slurs, 138 of them were spoken by male and 5 of them spoken by female. It is also noteworthy that the dialogues with two or more curse words or slurs that were spoken by a female were only in Pulp Fiction. The female characters that use more than two curse words and slurs in a single dialogues in Pulp Fiction are Honey Bunny and Mia. The female dialogues that use two or more curse words or slurs only include the following curse words: fuck, motherfuck, ass, and goddamn. Female characters do not use any slurs more than once and in conjunction with other curse words. They only use the previously mentioned curse words together. There is a whole cluster of curse words and slurs that are not used by female characters in conjunction with other curse words and slurs. This network analysis visually represents the gendered speech patterns of the characters over the three screenplays. Male characters have more dialogues that contain more diverse pairings of slurs and curse words while female characters are limited to the pairing of select curse words. Therefore, the amount of curse words and slurs and the type of profanity is indicative to the character's gender. This analysis adds further depth to our research question about how male characters use more profanities than female characters. From the network analysis, male characters not only use more profanities as indicated by the majority of the connections being red, but also have more variety in terms of the type of profanity they can use.