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1.- PROFANITY: SWEARING, CURSING AND EXPELITIVES

How Swearing Works

by Tracy V. Wilson

We all know what "bad words" are. Unlike most other language rules, we learn about swearwords and how to use them without any real study or classroom instruction. Even very young children know which words are naughty, although they don't always know exactly what those words mean.

But swearwords aren't quite as simple as they seem. They're paradoxical -- saying them is taboo in nearly every culture, but instead of avoiding them as with other taboos, people use them. Most associate swearing with being angry or frustrated, but people swear for a number of reasons and in a variety of situations. Swearing also serves multiple purposes in social interactions. Not only that, your brain treats swear words differently than it treats other words.

In this article, we'll explore what makes words into swearwords, why most Americans use them and how society responds to swearing. We'll also look at one of its most fascinating aspects -- the way it affects your brain.

Virtually every language in every culture in the world has its own unique swearwords. Even different dialects of the same language can have different expletives. The very first languages probably included swearwords, but since writing evolved after speaking did, there's no record of who said the first swearword or what that word was. Because of the taboos surrounding it, written language histories also include few records of the origins of swearing. Even today, many dictionaries don't include profanity, and comparatively few studies have examined swearing.

Most researchers agree that swearing came from early forms of word magic. Studies of modern, non-literate cultures suggest that swearwords came from the belief that spoken words have power. Some cultures, especially ones that have not developed a written language, believe that spoken words can curse or bless people or can otherwise affect the world. This leads to the idea that some words are either very good or very bad.

While spoken swearwords from different languages don't sound alike, they generally fall into one of two categories. Most of the time, they are either deistic (related to religion) or visceral (related to the human body and its functions). Some expletives also relate to a person's ancestry or parentage. While some linguists classify racial slurs and epithets as swearwords, others place them in a separate category. So the words themselves are similar, but in different cultures people swear at different times and in different contexts.

In the Western, English-speaking world, people from every race, class and level of education swear. In America, 72 percent of men and 58 percent of women swear in public. The same is true for 74 percent of 18 to 34 year olds and 48 percent of people who are over age 55. Numerous language researchers report that men swear more than women, but studies that focus on women's use of language theorize that women's swearing is simply more context specific.

So why do so many people swear? We'll look at how swearing works in relationships and social interactions next.

Why People swear?

In early childhood, crying is an acceptable way to show emotion and relieve stress and

anxiety. As children, (especially boys) grow up, Western society discourages them from crying, particularly in public. People still need an outlet for strong emotions, and that's where swearing often comes in.

A lot of people think of swearing as an instinctive response to something painful and unexpected (like hitting your head on an open cabinet door) or something frustrating and upsetting (like being stuck in traffic on the way to a job interview). This is one of the most common uses for swearing, and many researchers believe that it helps relieve stress and blow off steam, like crying does for small children.

Beyond angry or upset words said in the heat of the moment, swearing does a lot of work in social interactions. In the past, researchers have theorized that men swear to create a masculine identity and women swear to be more like men. More recent studies, however, theorize that women swear in part because they are emulating women they admire.

In addition, the use of particular expletives can:

Establish a group identity
Establish membership in a group and maintain the group's boundaries
Express solidarity with other people
Express trust and intimacy (mostly when women swear in the presence of other women)
Add humor, emphasis or "shock value"
Attempt to camouflage a person's fear or insecurity

People also swear because they feel they are expected to or because swearing has become a habit. But just because swearing plays all these roles doesn't mean it's socially acceptable, or even legal. In the next sections, we'll look at social and legal responses to swearing.

Social Responses to Swearing

All languages have swearwords, but the words that are considered expletives and the social attitudes toward them change over time. In many languages, words that used to be taboo are now commonplace and other words have taken their place as obscenities. In American English, the words currently considered to be the most vulgar and offensive have existed for hundreds of years. Their designation as obscenities, however, took place largely during and after the 1800s. In fact, the use of the word "dirty" to describe words arose in the 19^th century, as did the word "profanity".

Most languages also have a hierarchy of swearwords -- some words are mildly offensive, while others are nearly unspeakable. This hierarchy usually has more to do with a society's attitude toward the word than what the word actually means. Some words that describe extremely vulgar acts aren't thought of as swearwords at all. In English-speaking countries, however, many people avoid using racial slurs to swear for fear of appearing racist. Women also tend to avoid the use of expletives that relate to the female sexual anatomy out of the belief that the words contain an element of sexism.

Western society generally views swearing as more appropriate for men than for women. Women who swear appear to violate more societal taboos than men who swear. People also tend to judge women more harshly than men for their use of obscenities. Society in general can also make moral judgments about women who swear and use non-standard English [ref]. In general, women also believe swearwords are more powerful and express more guilt about using them than men do.

In many English-speaking communities, expletives also carry connotations of lower classes and lower economic standing. Although people from every economic level use swearwords, many people associate their use with people of lower income and education.

Swearing isn't just a social taboo, though. In some cases, it's illegal. Next, we'll look at expletives and the law.

Swearing and the Law

Just as cultures have different attitudes toward swearing and people who swear, they also have different laws governing people's use of expletives. The Constitution of the United States guarantees that people have the right to freedom of speech in the First Amendment. The First Amendment applies specifically to Congress and the federal government, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Courts generally interpret that it also applies to state governments.

So at first glance, it seems like people should be able to swear whenever they want and wherever they want because of their First Amendment rights. However, constitutional law can be tricky, and a wealth of court cases has led to a wide variety of judgments surrounding swearing. Obscenity generally falls into the category of unprotected speech -- speech that is exempt from to the First Amendment rule. Other types of unprotected speech include:

• Language that incites people to violence or illegal activity

• Libel and defamation

• Threats

• False advertising

The unprotected speech exclusion is one of the reasons why the FCC can create and enforce broadcast television and radio.

In addition to obscenity, court cases have examined the use of swearing in the contexts of inciting people to violence, defamation and threats. They have generally ruled that the government does not have the right to prevent blasphemy against a specific religion or to prosecute someone solely for the use of an expletive. On the other hand, they have upheld convictions of people who used profanity to incite riots, harass people or disturb the peace.

lace as obscenities. In American English, the words currently considered to be the most vulgar and offensive have existed for hundreds of years. Their designation as obscenities, however, took place largely during and after the 1800s. In fact, the use of the word "dirty" to describe words arose in the 19th century, as did the word "profanity".

The First Amendment doesn't generally apply to private organizations, and it has significantly less influence over businesses and schools. Courts frequently rule that organizations have the right to set and enforce their own standards of behavior and judgment. In addition, numerous sexual harassment cases have involved reports of swearing, and some courts have ruled that it creates a hostile environment and constitutes harassment.

Clearly courts, businesses and governments think swearing is different from other speech

Swearing and the Brain

Your brain is a very complex organ, but there are only a few things you need to know about it to understand how it approaches swear words differently from other language:

In most people, the left hemisphere is in charge of language. The right hemisphere creates the emotional content of language.

Language processing is a "higher" brain function and takes place in the cerebral cortex.

Emotion and instinct are "lower" brain functions and take place deep inside the brain

Many studies suggest that the brain processes swearing in the lower regions, along with emotion and instinct. Scientists theorize that instead of processing a swearword as a series of phonemes, or units of sound that must be combined to form a word, the brain stores swear words as whole units [ref]. So, the brain doesn't need the left hemisphere's help to process them. Swearing specifically involves:

The limbic system, which also houses memory, emotion and basic behavior. The limbic system also seems to govern vocalizations in primates and other animals, and some researchers have interpreted some primate vocalizations as swearing.

The basal ganglia, which play a large role in impulse control and motor functions.

So, you can think of swearing as a motor activity with an emotional component.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have shown that the higher and lower parts of the brain can struggle with each other when a person swears [ref]. A New York Times article cites several other studies that involve how a healthy brain processes swearing. For example, the brains of people who pride themselves on being educated respond to slang and "illiterate" phrases the same way they do to swearwords. In addition, in studies in which people must identify the color a word is written in (instead of the word itself), swearwords distract the participants from color recognition. You can also remember swearwords about four times better than other words.

Swearing and Brain Damage

A wide variety of neurological and emotional conditions can affect a person's ability to speak and lead to excessive swearing. For example, people with various forms of aphasia lose the ability to speak or to pronounce words because of damage or disease in parts of the brain that govern language. Many aphasics retain the ability to produce automatic speech, which often consists of conversational placeholders like "um" and "er." Aphasics' automatic speech can include swear words -- in some cases, patients can't create words or sentences, but they can swear. Also, the ability to pronounce other words can change and evolve during recovery, while pronunciation and use of swearwords remains unchanged.

Patients who undergo a left hemispherectomy experience a dramatic drop in their language abilities. However, many people can still swear without their left hemisphere present to process the words. This may be because the right hemisphere of the brain can process whole swearwords as a motor function rather than a language function.

Coprolalia is the medical term for uncontrollable swearing and is a rare symptom of Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome (GTS). Published numbers vary widely, but relatively few people with GTS exhibit coprolalia, and more males than females experience it. It generally begins between four and seven years after the onset of tics, peaks during adolescence and tapers off drastically during adulthood. There have been medically documented cases of deaf people with GTS-related coprolalia using sign language to swear excessively.

Studies have made a connection between GTS, coprolalia, and the basal ganglia of the brain. Medical researchers have begun to theorize that basal ganglia dysfunction contributes to or is responsible for GTS and coprolalia. Coprolalia also has interesting parallels to more typical daily swearing -- both tend to be more frequent among younger males.

Notes:

Caveat: A Note on Geography

Most research on swearing printed in English discusses swearing in English. Although every culture has its own swearwords, the statistics in this article primarily come from research involving English-speaking people in the United States and Great Britain. Research related to swearing and the brain, however, should apply to speakers of any language.

Swearing in Other Languages: People learning a new language often learn its swearwords first or learn and use swearwords from a variety of languages. Anyone who learns through immersion rather than in a classroom tends to use more swearwords and colloquialisms. People who speak more than one language often use swearwords from different languages, but feel that the words from their primary language have the most emotional impact. For this reason, some multilingual speakers will switch to a second language to express taboo subjects.

Swearing vs. Cursing: A lot of people use the words "swearing" and "cursing" interchangeably. Some language experts, however, differentiate between the two. Swearing involves using profane oaths or invoking the name of a deity to give a statement more power or believability. Cursing takes aim at something specific, wishing for or trying to cause a target's misfortune.

What to Do When Children Swear: Children mimic words they hear without always knowing what the words mean. When children mimic swear words, parents' normal reactions of shock or amusement often reinforce children's use of the words. Instead of laughing or becoming upset if you hear your child swearing, you should:

Explain that the word is not acceptable for children to use. The concept of a "bad word" can be foreign to children who are just learning how to speak.

Offer an alternative word to use when angry or upset.

Use humorous substitutes instead of swearwords in front of your children.

Remain calm and matter-of-fact. If you get upset, your child may use the word again to try to get attention.

Swearing on the Job: Swearing makes up 3 percent of all adult conversation at work and 13 percent of all adult leisure conversation.

Sources

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· Berger, Stephen. "Scientists Explore the Basis of Swearing." Johns Hopkins Newsletter. October 28, 2005.
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· Dewaele, Jean-Marc. "The Emotional Force of Swearwords and Taboo Words in the Speech of Multilinguals." Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. Vol. 25, no. 2 & 3, 2004.
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· "Dirty Words: Oh #@*$." Psychology Today. Vol. 27, no. 3 May 1994.

· Dooling, Richard. Blue Streak: Swearing, Free Speech and Sexual Harassment. Random House: 1996.

· Fleischman, John. "When they put it in writing, they were cursing, not cussing." Smithsonian. Vol. 27, issue 1. April 1996.

· Grimm, Matthew. "When the Sh*t Hits the Fan." American Demographics. Vol. 25, no. 10. December 2003.

· Kissling, Elizabeth Arveda. "'That's Just a Basic Teen-age Rule:' Girls' Linguistic Strategies for Managing the Menstruation Communication Taboo." Journal of Applied Communication Research. Vol. 24, 1996.

· Marshall, Paul. "Tourette's Syndrome and Coprolalia."
http://www.tourettes-disorder.com/symptoms/coprolalia.html

· Mbaya, Maweja. "Linguistic Taboo in African Marriage Context." Nordic Journal of African Studies . Vol, 12, no. 2. 2002.

· Montagu, Ashley. "The Anatomy of Swearing." MacMillan: 1967

· Rayson, Paul, Geoffrey Leech and Mary Hodges. "Social Differentiation in the Use of English Vocabulary." International Journal of Corpus Linguistics. Vol. 2, no. 1. 1997.

· Schapiro, Naomi A. "'Dude, You Don't Have Tourette's' Tourette's Syndrome, Beyond the Tics." Pediatric Nursing. Vol. 28, No. 3. May/June 2002.

· Sigel, Lisa Z. "Name Your Pleasure." Journal of the History of Sexuality. Vol. 9, Iss. 4, 2000.

· Smith, S.A. "The Social Meanings of Swearing: Workers and Bad Language in Late Emperial and Early Soviet Russia." Past and Present. August 1998.

· Spivey, Nigel. "Meditations on an F-theme." The Spectator. June 20, 1992

· Stapleton, Karyn. "Gender and Swearing: A Community Practice." Women and Language. Vol. 26, no. 2. Fall 2003.

· Tortora, Gerard J. and Sandra R. Grabowski. Principals of Anatomy and Physiology. 9th ed. John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

· van Lancker, D. and J. L. cummings. "Explectives: Neurolinguistic and Neurobehavioral

About the Author

Tracy V. Wilson, Site Director
Tracy V. Wilson joined HowStuffWorks.com as a staff writer in 2005 and now manages the site's editorial team. She holds a B.A. in literature and language with concentrations in literature and creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

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