Linguistic interdiction: Its status quaestionis and possible future research lines

In spite of the fact that the censoring of language carries out some unavoidable functions for social life, the topic of forbidden words has scarcely been studied. This paper focuses, on the one hand, on how linguistic censorship is present in any society, including our contemporary society - and on how it affects the most varied aspects of everyday life. And, in addition, this paper suggests some possible lines of research which should be carried out in order to develop the results obtained in the most recent publications on the topic. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.