I think you are steering a little bit away from measurable evidence here on this. I do agree though with many people not needing to swear, but that could be from so many other reasons. Perhaps they have other methods and habits of stress management? Maybe the group of friends they are with also happen to swear less? Maybe the geographical area swears less? Who knows. There are so many other clearly measurable bad things than to waste time with that.
Profanity is the diction of the indolent, unburdening the perpetrator of lexical exertion. The syntactic versatility of the curse is boundless, conveniently obeying regular rules of inflection. Like a furtive vandal, the obscenity nestles effortlessly anywhere into any sentence, destroying its nuance.
Hardly a brain cell need be inducted to create an offending phrase. Rather than expend energy selecting the precise noun, verb, or adjective that accurately embodies intent, the debauchee resorts to the makeshift swear. Swearing ruins language and stains those engaging in it with the mark of sloth and doltishness.
For this research, I think it is important to understand, not only the meaning of the word, but also the sound of it. The shape and movement words bring into our minds can affect the way we feel about it. Many people can easily become desensitized to the words, whereas others might cringe to them the same way they cringe to certain undesirable sounds. It would be an interesting study to see the effects of different sounds on the brain and its relation to language.
Nice point about the sounds…tone, texture, rhythm, etc. I been thinking bout this for a long-a time…. It would be interesting to study whether people who are more sensitive to sound are also more negatively effected by swear words. Has there ever been a study of honesty versus swearing?
I was recently told by an acquaintance that people who swear are more honest. People I know that curse like a Scottish Sailor on a drunken holiday are really stand up people that you can put your trust in.
I think a lot of what you have said is true. I too think that a lot of people who have strong beliefs or ideas just say it as it is. People that swear often do not even realize that they swear as much as they do because they are true to themselves and just speaking the truth with no inhibitions.
I am not saying that everyone should talk like this, but maybe they are just expressing their true self. We are all different and are unique in our own skin. We all need to be true to ourselves.
I agree with your point of view. They swear more than they think they do. I make no such judgement either way myself, being probably inappropriately objective on the matter. In fact they form a vital part of the language. It is possible to talk trash with or without swearing, and possible to be kind or compassionate or to be angry and disrespectful with or without swearing.
Some vulnerable people are indeed in a worse position because of their vulnerability and thus not able to voice their feelings therefore would not be using swearing and might also avoid much else as well perhaps with certain people. Their lack of swearing, indeed lack of conversation, might mean they are vulnerable rather than their ability to speak from the heart demonstrating a lack of vulnerability. So you mentioned you do not know where children learn swear words?? Are you serious?
At home for most of them. The others learn from kids when they get to school. Did you not have kids and learn this? Research may show that the person swearing is more trustworthy, but I would like to see the study on intelligence in those who swear a blue streak. Speaking for myself, I lose a great deal of respect for a person that uses that type of language when there are so many other words that would work much better.
Personally, I find it less trustworthy, also. I found this article in a Google search. I was trying to find the supposed study showing how people who swear tend to be more trust worthy.
I do see where some truth would come from it. Simply because people who tend to swear also tend not to care about what others think about them so therefore they have less of reason to tell white lies. Having incited such violence personally, using utterances primarily constructed with swear words, and having witnessed the same in close proximity on more occasions than I am proud to admit, it strikes me as though the research may have had biases that tainted the results.
Swearing at Disney world be expected to result in fewer negative outcomes than f-bombs tossed strategically at a bar, a ballgame, or family reunion. For as long as I remember, I have considered that folks who use swearwords had not developed sufficient vocabulary to say what they had in mind. This was an article clearly describing explorations into the social mechanics of the use of profanity and it consequences, with what was obviously an exhortation for more investigation into the phenomenon, not liberal propaganda note how this word is spelled correctly.
All that, without a single profanity. Terrific article. Needs expansion. Try to ignore the trolls. Leave those clodhoppers to me. Thanks, James. Have just read the article today and the comments. Keep fighting the good fight against the trolls. You are guilty of the same logical fallacy. I totally disagree with this finding, if it really is a finding.
Half the time the person swearing is swearing because they are covering up a lie, or trying to prove a point that is unrealistic. I notice that people tend to swear just to relieve anxiety and stress. Believe me, my daughter swears like a sailor and so did one of my sisters. To heck with Behavioral Studies. I spent 45 years in engineering on the shop floor where swearing was the norm, I never got used to it. I compared it to picking your nose in public, i.
It will probably become socially unacceptable though time. As well as the example above, if the words were substituted with a loud hand clap, I think that would have a similar effect. As these two words are between 3 and 4 times older than the US they clearly fulfil some type of linguistic need, which must be worthy of a level of attention above the tut-tuttery and value judgements of some of the posters here.
This was apparently a commonly used street name in medieval England. Apparently, so named because of the prostitution which was rife. This name was actively used until Victorian times when use of what they saw as obscene language came to be frowned upon in polite society — the source of much of our current attitudes towards swearing, not to mention their legacy of sexual hypocrisy which was partially responsible for this stance on linguistic mores.
There were at least 3 streets of this name in London, one of which was euphemistically renamed as Threadneedle Street — now the location of the Bank of England. More research on this rich and interesting linguistic heritage and the role that it seems to have played in human history would seem to be more than justified.
According to HBO dramas, ancient Rome and the American frontier West were scenes of far more potty-mouth than contemporary society. SIL strode upstairs and read the three women, the riot act. If my SIL has a rather irrational approach to a famly member getting easily and emotionally reactive by swearing, then pehaps it is SHE who needs he counseling.
At least IMHO. I do have bipolar disorder so there might be some impulse control issues. I am working towards finishing my M. I promise you there are plenty of intelligent people who swear on a regular basis. It is systematic. Not impulsive. It is not speculation. It is just like you learned in school—do some research on the topic you are targeting, forming a hypothesis, designing an experiment to test that hypothesis, then doing it and finally analyzing the data, drawing a conclusion and writing up your findings.
So FairBairn— you say people who swear when they are hurt are babies. The swearing helps bear the pain. Remember the part where the author mentioned that children start this fairly young? Tags Programs But Why. Melody Bodette.
See stories by Melody Bodette. She also produces special projects for the station. See stories by Jane Lindholm. Related Content. Are Unicorns Real? Are unicorns real? Who made them up? Where do they come from? What do they eat, how big are they, and do they have rainbow manes? We're answering all of…. On the other hand, one of the criticisms I have of the study is that it could simply be distraction. There are numerous studies showing that many things improve pain tolerance, like meditation, smiling, or holding hands with your romantic partner.
If your use of swear words is one of the latter, you need to think about whether that is helping your relationships. Like almost anyone in North America, I routinely use the full gamut of four-letter words in everyday conversations with my spouse, my siblings, my friends.
So a dilemma was presented when I began researching taboo words. Like all psychology professors, I work with a team of undergraduates. We needed to discuss the linguistic stimuli — the four-letter words. I was not comfortable saying them with my research assistant. When researchers study language change, one idea is that young people change the language.
Teens in particular are thought to be the originators of new swear words. One thing I would like to know more about is what new swear words are coming on the scene. Edward A. Brown can be reached at ebrown bu. Brown Profile. Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected.
Moderators are staffed during regular business hours EST and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation. Caldwell-Harris notes that people are more comfortable swearing in another language. There are still parts of the U. In some communities, where that usage is reclaimed, they are saying that if I use it, it immunizes me against its negative effects. That is an example of a word that has fallen out of general conversation and literature into the realm of the unsayable.
The great thing about the copulatory and excretory swearing is that they are common to the entire human race. As our taboos change, that core of language that has the ability to surprise, shock or stun the emotional side of the brain will change, too.
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