I've wondered about cursing in everyday language from a lot of people...and found this news article with the thought of several academics, etc

What do you think?

 

all the EFF'N time

it's just words

 

i don't believe it's just words, vulgar language is just that, vulgar. It bothers me to hear kids today constantly dropping the F-bomb in the malls and in school. Friends that are teachers say the same thing, it shows total disrespect. Why do we feel that we have to use expletives to get our point across.

 

i use curse words as adjectives and nope not all the time - not at work however if i am in a social setting with friends i don't see anything wrong with curse words - it's not like i am directing the word at a person i am with

 

I use them but realize people like Maury, and my sister, Nancy, are offended by them, so I try to behave when I'm around others, or in public, for sure. Then there's my sister, Jeanne. She cracks me up with her use of Eff.

I don't like to hear people walking around in a public place saying Eff this or that. I think it's rude. I'm not against using the words, but I don't think they should be thrown out in public.

I don't think education has much to do with it.

 

I'm not offended at all by the use of the F word, what I am upset about is the constant use of the word by kids.

 

I do not use the "F" word and seldom use foul language. If I'm very, very angry I may use a four letter word or so. I do not, however, use any form of foul language in public and would prefer not to hear the "F" word ever. There are generally better ways of expressing oneself imho. I am not critical of other people who use curse words. I've just never been around a lot of people who expressed themselves in such a way.

 

Oh, okay.

I'm rarely around kids anymore to hear what they're saying.

 

Hmmmm. I am a believer in free speech regardless of how ugly someone might find it. As a famous supreme court ruling once said "One man's vulgarity is another man's lyric."

I use curse words, and am somewhat educated. I know some extremely brilliant people who use curse words, and some people who might be considered simpletons that would never curse. Although my usage tend to be in private conversation with people who will not be offended by it, or by exclamation when I hit my thumb with a hammer. I don't think the usage is a matter of level of education but more of personality.

One experience that I have had in my life was that I watched two drivers go at it on the freeway. Shortly afterward the "loser" of the road rage battle began to aggressively tailgate me and I gave her the bird. It appeared to me she was taking out her anger of her previous fracas on the next person to try to pass her. An hour later a trooper showed up at my house and charged me with a crime for "offending her" by giving her the bird.

I say this because I think most people would equivocate a curse word with the gesture. I don't feel the government has any authority to regulate polite behavior, nor should it even try. Free speech (or any human expression) is supposedly guaranteed under the constitution and the reason was our forefathers did not want people to be charged with criminal sanction for what they express. You should not have to fear the governnment over what you say, whether that be a political idea, a religious (or anti-religious) idea, or even vulgarity. Some may think the founders did not intend to include vulgar speech as protected, I seem to think they were smart enough to intend that. And that the educated people that have sat on the supreme courts of this land seem to believe that too.

Now, just dropping F-bombs or what have you inpublic is bad form, and up to the individual. I try to be good mannered in public and think others should as well. But if somebody lets loose with a vulgar word or two, the worst they should suffer is disapproval from others and not the criminal code. It looks for a judicial remedy, fines and punishment for hurting someone's feelings.

 

I highly recommend Steven Pinker's The Stuff Of Thought. It has a whole chapter on cursing as part of language use.

It is very interesting that curse words "light up" entirely different parts of the brain on fMRI scans than ordinary language does. Cursing apparently has a different mechanism and a different purpose than normal language. This is why, for instance, we tell our enemies to "fu<k off" even though in many cases that is what we would consider to be a pleasurable reward. We aren't literally telling them to go enjoy some sexual activity.