Profanity and Profane Language
CHAPTERI
THE PHENOMENON INTRODUCTION
Language is the most important aspect in the life of all beings. We use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thought, to learn to communicate with others, to fulfill our wants and needs, as well as to establish rules and maintain our culture.
Language can be defined as verbal, physical, biologically innate, and a basic form of communication.
"We can define language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences."
(E. Bruce Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, 2nd ed. Thomson, 2008)
Humans express their feelings in many different ways physically, mentally or verbally. Vulgar words, also known as swearing or cursing exists in all human languages that perform certain functions. One study found that swearing is not merely a common reaction to pain; it actually functions as a pain reliever where psychologist would advise people to swear than to hurt someone or yourself. However, the overuse of swear words tends to diminish their beneficial effect and will result in bad moral attitude. Swearing is a widespread but underappreciated anger management technique. (Mapúa Institute of Technology, “Vulgarized Filipino Identity: Development of Filipino Profanity”, 2011)
Swear words have manyaliases: bad words, curse words, cuss words, dirty words, four-letter words, expletives, epithets, obscenities, profanity, blasphemy, bawdy language, foul language, rude language, vulgar language, or taboo language. This long but nonetheless non-exhaustive list of descriptors gives an indication both of the wide range of alternate labels that exist, and of the kind of words or language these labels denote. Most people have at the very least a general idea of what such words or language use these descriptors refer to, if not an intimate knowledge of or even
THE PHENOMENON INTRODUCTION
Language is the most important aspect in the life of all beings. We use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thought, to learn to communicate with others, to fulfill our wants and needs, as well as to establish rules and maintain our culture.
Language can be defined as verbal, physical, biologically innate, and a basic form of communication.
"We can define language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences."
(E. Bruce Goldstein, Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, 2nd ed. Thomson, 2008)
Humans express their feelings in many different ways physically, mentally or verbally. Vulgar words, also known as swearing or cursing exists in all human languages that perform certain functions. One study found that swearing is not merely a common reaction to pain; it actually functions as a pain reliever where psychologist would advise people to swear than to hurt someone or yourself. However, the overuse of swear words tends to diminish their beneficial effect and will result in bad moral attitude. Swearing is a widespread but underappreciated anger management technique. (Mapúa Institute of Technology, “Vulgarized Filipino Identity: Development of Filipino Profanity”, 2011)
Swear words have manyaliases: bad words, curse words, cuss words, dirty words, four-letter words, expletives, epithets, obscenities, profanity, blasphemy, bawdy language, foul language, rude language, vulgar language, or taboo language. This long but nonetheless non-exhaustive list of descriptors gives an indication both of the wide range of alternate labels that exist, and of the kind of words or language these labels denote. Most people have at the very least a general idea of what such words or language use these descriptors refer to, if not an intimate knowledge of or even