Identity construction patterns via swearing:: Evidence from Greek teenage storytelling

In this paper we analyze the use of swearwords in Greek teenage storytelling. Our research is based on the analysis of conversational narratives that occurred in two conversations between male adolescents who belong to different social groups. Our analysis shows that the use of swearing in the story performances enables the narrators (1) to construct for themselves the identity of the powerful members of a group who share strong friendship bonds and challenge authorities in the first conversation, and (2) to project the identity of individuals who conform to mainstream values in the second conversation. Therefore, we suggest that swearing can be an effective linguistic tool for the construction and negotiation of diverse youth identities, i.e. the acceptance of or the departure from social norms, in the unfolding of narrative speech.