SUMMARY
<b>Swearing, Abuse and Vulgarity in Language: The Lexicographical Treatment of Sociolinguistically Offensive Lexical Items</b> This article limits itself to some thoughts on the lexicographical handling of swearing, abuse and ordinary "bad language". It examines the faults made in the treatment of Afrikaans <i>fok</i> (English <i>fuck</i>), together with some of its compounds, related lemmata, idioms and other ramifications. A very noticeable evasion of linguistic reality is demonstrated and discussed. A draft is presented of more realistic definitions, and the labelling explained. Labels indicating <i>swearing, abuse, insult</i> and the like belong to a series concerned with stylistic functioning and should be distinguished from those indicating sociolinguistic status, like <i>vulgar, colloquial, elevated</i>, etc., with which they are traditionally grouped on a graded scale.