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Two Western Cape High Court judges recently found themselves grappling with, what they coyly referred to as the “p-word”, and whether it had been uttered offensively as a verb or a noun or just used as a descriptive adjective.

The matter before judges Gayaat Salie and Nathan Erasmus was an automatic review of a conviction and sentence imposed by a Caledon magistrate on a man accused of contravening a domestic violence protection order. The order had been obtained by the man’s sister and niece, with whom he shared a house.

He was sentenced to 12 months in jail, wholly suspended for five years.

The judges reckoned “The original taboo meaning and use of the p-word has been diluted over time” and “it is not uncommon in contemporary culture to hear reference to the p-word to describe cold temperature, for example.”

Truth, who hasn’t uttered the p-word in times of extreme cold, hot, or belligerence?

The case that tied the judges’ tongues stems from a row that broke out when the accused man came into the main house to make dinner and turned up his music too loud. His niece, who was studying at the time, asked him to turn it down. According to the GroundUp report on the case, the niece went to turn it down herself, only to be met with “Los my ma se p… se ding”.

Judge Salie said the word had to be ‘considered in its grammatical context’.

“Whilst the word is indeed used as an offensive one in the Afrikaans language, it has also evolved over a number of years and come to be colloquially used across our society and within various community circles,” she said.

“The culture of using it as a verb, noun or adjective has become prevalent … It of course remains a term not used in polite company, however the question is whether the state had proven beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had in fact sworn at (his niece) and in doing so had verbally abused her.”

The judge said the use of the word – “leave this p-thing alone” – was constructed as an expletive attributive adjective that did not contribute to the meaning of a sentence but was used to intensify its emotional force.

“Whilst the p-word remains offensive it has, however, as in the case of various other offensive words, undergone a process referred to by linguists as delexicalization. This represents a process where a word loses its original lexical value and often acquires other meanings and functions.”

“The original taboo meaning and use of the p-word has been diluted over time depending on the context and grammatical use. It is not uncommon in contemporary culture to hear reference to the p-word to describe cold temperature, for example.”

On the facts of this case, the judge said she was not persuaded that the use of the p-word amounted to hurling abuse at his niece and thus a contravention of the protection order.

Neither a noun nor a verb was used with the term. If it had been, the situation would have been different and the injunction would have been broken.

The judge, however, said the use of the word was to ‘claim ownership to the music he was playing’, and the conviction and sentence were overturned and replaced with an order acquitting the defendant.

[source:groundup]