Swearing - English Language

What is swearing?

Short phrases/words that are used as a verbal weapon to force the listener an unpleasant or emotionally charged thought. You project you emotion onto another person or thing.

Can be used in a negative way such as to offend or a positve away such as to show excitement

Types of Swearing

Abusive Swearing - can be considered positive as it is an alternative to violence, or negative as it can be used to intimidate or humilate someone

Dysphemistic Swearing - using language to shock, offend or emphasise how awful something is. Used for the time when politeness has passed and you want to rub in your audiences faces into how awful something really is

Cathartic Swearing - used to relieve pain such as stubbing your toe

Idiomatic Swearing - swearing metaphorically and you creatively use it to arouse the listeners around you e.g. ‘sweet fuck all’

Emphatic Swearing - emphasis such as ‘this is fucking shit’

swearing is acceptable

• Fry says that rude words can bring an unamusing word or sentence to life and add humour - a ‘jab line’

• using swearing can bond with others and break the ice

• swearing as cathartic pain relief

• people with tourettes can not prevent

• tmesis (emphasis and clarity)

swearing is unacceptable

• gender, race and sexuality becomes tabooer and change is what acceptable and what is not

• to purposefully offend and shock other people

• asserts dominance and show power

• argued that suggests you have limited vocabulary

• using swearing yo stand out or fit in (convergence and divergence) instead of coming across a certain waybe being pleasant

what fuck patois?

using the word too much and it can suggest that their vocabulary is very limited and is highly informal

Professor Timothy Jay, 2011

Arousal of the words come form the reactions that are given to the situation you learn them in. He says that it is used as an evolutionary advantage as it makes us a less violent society

Germaine Greer, 2010

• Explains the origin of the ‘c word’ and attitudes towards it

• Her hypothesis and arguement is that word is acceptable with the deciptions of female anatomy

• She says that the word can be used as ‘torpedo’ and it is a powerful reminder of who women are

• the c word is less offensive to women as the biological term of ‘vagina’ has a negative Latin meaning of ‘sword sheath’

• Greer doesnt her body parts to be known as the receptor of a male weapon

The Economist, 2012

• short, sharp, one syllable words that are to portray strong emotions

• typically about religion, sex, excretion, slurs

• over time taboo topics have changed so therefore acceptable swear words have

• forcing a negative emotion on another person, using language as a weapon, which generally forces the other personto think an unpleasant or emotionally changed thought

• context dependent as well as subjective