Revealing the Euphemism in the Original Trilogy in Star Wars Movies

Type, Context, and Meaning

Abstract

Euphemism is used to cover up taboo topics in a polite way. It will not be challenging to find euphemism expressions in works regarding politeness. Star Wars is one of the works in the science-fiction genre that adopted euphemism in its film due to presenting a habit considered taboo in their works. Star Wars movies are a work that first aired in the 70s era but is still victorious today. It happens because of the creative thinking of the creator, including language use. This research aims to discover the type of taboo words used by the characters. This research also examines the meaning and in what context they produce euphemism words. This research applied the qualitative method by utilizing documentation and transcription to collect the data. The collected data was in the form of words or phrases taken from utterances of Star Wars characters. The result shows that four types of taboos used by Star Wars characters: Discriminatory Language, Bodily Excretion, Death and Disease, and Swear words. In terms of the context, the speakers used euphemisms to express feelings like anger, upset, disappointment, and satisfaction.