Profanity

In cartoons, profanity is often depicted by substituting symbols ("grawlixes") for words, as a form of non-specific censorship.

A profanity is a word, expression, gesture, or other social behavior which is socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, desecrating, or showing disrespect.[1]

The original meaning of the adjective profane (Latin: "in front of", "outside the temple") referred to items not belonging to the church, e.g. "The fort is the oldest profane building in the town, but the local monastery is older, and is the oldest building," or "besides designing churches, he also designed many profane buildings". Over time this meaning changed to the current meaning.

Other words commonly used to describe profane language or its use include: curse, pejorative language, swearing, expletive, bad word, dirty word, cussing, strong language, irreverent language, obscene and/or indecent language, choice words, blasphemy language, foul language, and bad or adult language.

Contents

Statistics

Tape-recorded conversations find that roughly 80–90 spoken words each day—0.5% to 0.7% of all words—are swear words with people varying from between 0% to 3.4%. In comparison first person plural pronouns (we, us, our) make up 1% of spoken words.[2]

Research looking at swearing in 1986, 1997, and 2006 in America found the same top ten words were used of a set of over 70 different swear words. The most used swear words were fuck, shit, hell, damn, goddamn, bitch, boner, and sucks—these eight made up roughly 80% of all profanities.[2] Two words, fuck and shit, accounted for one third to one half of them.[2] The phrase "Oh my God" accounts for 24% of women's swearing.[2]

Profanity as blasphemy

The original meaning of the term was restricted to blasphemy, sacrilege or saying God's name (or an identifier such as "Lord" or "God") in vain. Profanity represented secular indifference to religion or religious figures, while blasphemy was a more offensive attack on religion and religious figures, and considered sinful.

Profanities in the original meaning of blasphemous profanity are part of the ancient tradition of the comic cults, which laughed and scoffed at the deity or deities.[3][4] An example from Gargantua and Pantagruel is "Christ, look ye, its Mere de ... merde ... shit, Mother of God."[5]

Scientific research into swearing

Swearing and cursing are modes of speech existing in all human languages, and they perform certain functions that are the object of scientific research. Functionally similar behaviour can also be observed in chimpanzees.[6] Interestingly, the Bible with its talk about men who "eat their own dung, and drink their own piss" is far from the oldest surviving text containing strong language, as even the oldest traces of human writing include swear words.[6] One study found that swearing is not merely a common reaction to pain – it actually functions as a pain reliever, leading one psychologist to state: "I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear".[7] However, overuse of swear words tends to diminish their beneficial effect.[7] Linguistic research has also shown that the physiological reactions of individuals who are proud of their education are similar between exposure to obscene words and exposure to bad grammar.[6] Swearing is a widespread but underappreciated anger management technique.[6] Research into swearing practices in the United States suggests that "men generally curse more than women, unless said women are in a sorority, and that university provosts swear more than librarians or the staff members of the university day care center".[6]

Swearing in the workplace (UK)

In the United Kingdom, swearing in the workplace can be an act of gross misconduct under certain circumstances. In particular this is the case when swearing accompanies insubordination against a superior or humiliation of an inferior employee. However, in other cases it may not be grounds for instant dismissal.[8] According to a UK site on work etiquette, the "fact that swearing is a part of everyday life means that we need to navigate a way through a day in the office without offending anyone, while still appreciating that people do swear. Of course, there are different types of swearing and, without spelling it out, you really ought to avoid the 'worst words' regardless of who you’re talking to".[9] With respect to swearing between colleagues the site explains that "[a]lthough it may sound strange, the appropriateness [of] swearing [...] is influenced largely by the industry you are in and the individuals you work with". The site continues to explain that even in a workplace in which swearing is the norm, there is no need to participate.[9] The site stresses that swearing is generally more problematic in asymmetric situations, such as in the presence of senior management or clients, but it also mentions that a "holier than thou" attitude towards clients may be problematic.[9]

The Guardian reported that "36% of the 308 UK senior managers and directors who responded to a survey accepted swearing as part of workplace culture", but warned about specific inappropriate uses of swearing such as when it is discriminatory or part of bullying behaviour. The article ends with a quotation from Ben Wilmott (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development): "Employers can ensure professional language in the workplace by having a well drafted policy on bullying and harassment that emphasises how bad language can potentially amount to harassment or bullying."[10]

Severity

The relative severity of various British profanities, as perceived by the public, was studied on behalf of the British Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC and Advertising Standards Authority; the results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called "Delete Expletives". It listed the profanities in order of decreasing severity, the top ten being cunt, motherfucker, fuck, wanker, nigger, bastard, prick, bollocks, arsehole, and paki in that order. About 83% of respondents regarded cunt as "very severe"; 16% thought the same about shit and 5% (9% of people over 55) about crap. Only about 1% thought cunt was "not swearing"; 9% thought the same about shit and 32% of crap.

A similar survey was carried out in 2009 by New Zealand's Broadcasting Standards Authority. The results were published in March 2010, in a report called "What Not to Swear". According to the Authority the findings "measured how acceptable the public finds the use of swear words, blasphemies and other expletives in broadcasting". The top ten words or phrases, by the percentage of respondents that found them "totally unacceptable" or "fairly unacceptable", were cunt (74%), nigger (66%), mother fucker (66%), Jesus fucking Christ (65%), cocksucker (60%), get fucked (55%), fuck off (52%), fuck (51%), faggot (46%), and cock (46%). Of interest outside the top ten, 43% of respondents felt the same about slut; 37% about wanker; 22% about shit; and 11% about bugger.

International auxiliary languages

Distinct international auxiliary languages usually apply different strategies to coin or borrow profane words and expressions.

In Interlingua, the fundamental criterion for inclusion is widespread international use, and this can be as true of a profanity as any other word or phrase. Thus, expressions such as cunno (cunt), merda (shit), and pipi (pee-pee) may be used in Interlingua. Culo (ass or butt) and its derivative incular (to butt-fuck) are also Interlingua expressions. Futer (to fuck) is used much as in English, e.g., "Fute te!" ("Fuck you!") or "Mi automobile es futite!" ("My car is fucked up!").

For Esperanto, see Esperanto profanity.

Books and movies containing famous uses of profanity

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Definition of Profane", emphasis on original, Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, retrieved on June 5, 2007.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Jay T. (2009). The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4:153-161. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6924.2009.01115.x
  3. ↑ Bakhtin 1941, "introduction", p.5-6
  4. ↑ Meletinsky, Eleazar Moiseevich The Poetics of Myth (Translated by Guy Lanoue and Alexandre Sadetsky) 2000 Routledge ISBN 0415928982 p.110
  5. ↑ François Rabelais, Gargantua book, chap. XVII; In French the words mère de (meaning "mother of") sound like merde, which means "shit".Full text of Chapter 16, Rabelais and His World at Google Books.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Angier, Natalie (25 September 2005), "Cursing is a normal function of human language, experts say", New York Times, http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-09-25/news/17390497_1_linguistic-language-dialect 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Joelving, Frederik (12 July 2009), "Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relief", Scientific American, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-we-swear 
  8. ↑ Swearing in the Workplace.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Work Etiquette – Swearing in the Workplace.
  10. ↑ Matt Keating. "Should swearing be tolerated in the workplace?". Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/jun/03/careers.work. Retrieved 2010-05-12. 
  11. ↑ Ellmann, Richard (1982). James Joyce. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 502–04. ISBN 0-1950-3103-2. 
  12. ↑ "Art or trash? It makes for endless, debate that cant be won". The Topeka Capital-Journal. 1997-10-06. http://www.cjonline.com/stories/100697/snider.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20. "Another perennial target, J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," was challenged in Maine because of the "f" word." 
  13. ↑ Ben MacIntyre (2005-09-24). "The American banned list reveals a society with serious hang-ups". The Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-1792974,00.html. Retrieved 2007-12-20. 
  14. ↑ Raw Dialog Challenges all the Censors. p. 92. http://books.google.com/books?id=rlUEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA92&ots=7WxxdxntE8&dq=frankly%20my%20dear%20i%20don't%20give%20a%20damn%20censorship&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q=frankly%20my%20dear%20i%20don't%20give%20a%20damn%20censorship&f=false.  Life Magazine: 92. 10 June 1966. 

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Further reading

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