how swearing works

8/6/2019 How Swearing Works

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How Swearing Works

byTracy V. Wilson

We all know what "bad words" are. Unlike most other language rules, we learn aboutswearwords 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 exactlywhat those words mean.

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

A Note On Geography

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

In this article, we'll explore what makes words into swearwords, why most Americans usethem and how society responds to swearing. We'll also look at one of its most fascinatingaspects -- 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 firstlanguages 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 thetaboos surrounding it, written language histories also include few records of the origins ofswearing. Even today, many dictionaries don't include profanity, and comparatively fewstudies have examined swearing.

Swearing in Other Languages

People learning a new language often learn its swearwords first or learn and use swearwordsfrom a variety of languages. Anyone who learns through immersion rather than in aclassroom 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 fromtheir primary language have the most emotional impact. For this reason, some multilingualspeakers will switch to a second language to express taboo subjects.

Most researchers agree that swearing came from early forms of word magic. Studies ofmodern, non-literate cultures suggest that swearwords came from the belief that spokenwords have power. Some cultures, especially ones that have not developed a writtenlanguage, believe that spoken words can curse or bless people or can otherwise affect theworld. 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) orvisceral (related to the human body and its functions). Some expletives also relate to aperson's ancestry or parentage. While some linguists classify racial slurs and epithets asswearwords, 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.

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By the second book in the series, the world of Harry Potter had its own racialepithet -- "mudblood," a repugnant word for wizards of non-magical parentage.

In the Western, English-speaking world, people from every race, class and level of educationswear. In America, 72 percent of men and 58 percent of women swear in public. The same istrue 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 contextspecific.

So why do so many people swear? We'll look at how swearing works in relationships andsocial 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 andunexpected (like hitting your head on an open cabinet door) or something frustrating andupsetting (like being stuck in traffic on the way to a job interview). This is one of the mostcommon uses for swearing, and many researchers believe that it helps relieve stress andblow 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 insocial interactions. In the past, researchers have theorized that men swear to create amasculine 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:

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

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 becomea habit. But just because swearing plays all these roles doesn't mean it's sociallyacceptable, or even legal. In the next sections, we'll look at social and legal responses toswearing.

Social Responses to Swearing

All languages have swearwords, but the words that are considered expletives and the socialattitudes toward them change over time. In many languages, words that used to be tabooare now commonplace and other words have taken their place as obscenities. In AmericanEnglish, the words currently considered to be the most vulgar and offensive have existed for

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hundreds of years. Their designation as obscenities, however, took place largely duringand 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'sattitude 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. Womenalso tend to avoid the use of expletives that relate to the female sexual anatomy out of thebelief 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 classesand 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 atexpletives and the law.

Swearing and the Law

Swearing on the JobSwearing makes up 3 percent of all adult conversation at work and 13 percent of all adult

leisure conversation.

Just as cultures have different attitudes toward swearing and people who swear, they alsohave different laws governing people's use of expletives. The Constitution of the UnitedStates 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, includingthe Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Courts generally interpret that it alsoapplies to state governments.

So at first glance, it seems like people should be able to swear whenever they want andwherever they want because of their First Amendment rights. However, constitutional lawcan be tricky, and a wealth of court cases has led to a wide variety of judgments

surrounding swearing. Obscenity generally falls into the category ofunprotected speech-- speech that is exempt from to the First Amendment rule. Other types of unprotectedspeech 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 enforcedecency rules for broadcast television and radio.

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What to Do When Children Swear

Children mimic words they hear without always knowing what the words mean. Whenchildren mimic swear words, parents' normal reactions of shock or amusement oftenreinforce 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 "badword" 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 againto try to get attention.

In addition to obscenity, court cases have examined the use of swearing in the contexts ofinciting 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 toprosecute someone solely for the use of an expletive. On the other hand, they have upheldconvictions of people who used profanity to incite riots, harass people or disturb the peace.

The First Amendment doesn't generally apply to private organizations, and it hassignificantly less influence over businesses and schools. Courts frequently rule thatorganizations have the right to set and enforce their own standards of behavior and

judgment. In addition, numerous sexual harassment cases have involved reports ofswearing, and some courts have ruled that it creates a hostile environment andconstitutes harassment.

Clearly courts, businesses and governments think swearing is different from other speech.Your brain agrees with them. We'll look at swearing and the brain next.

Swearing and the Brain

The cerebral cortex has premotor and motor areas that control speech and writing.Wernicke's area processes and recognizes spoken words. The prefrontal cortex controlspersonality and appropriate social behavior.

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

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

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

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 seriesof phonemes, or units of sound that must be combined to form a word, the brain storesswear words as whole units [ref]. So, the brain doesn't need the left hemisphere's help toprocess them. Swearing specifically involves:

Swearing is connected to the limbic system and basal ganglia, located in the interior of the

brain.

The limbic system, which also houses memory, emotion and basic behavior. Thelimbic system also seems to govern vocalizations in primates and other animals, andsome 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 andlower parts of the brain can struggle with each other when a person swears. 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 educatedrespond 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 worditself), swearwords distract the participants from color recognition. You can also rememberswearwords about four times better than other words.

Swearing can also be a symptom of disease or a result of damage to parts of the brain. We'lllook at swearing and brain disorders next.

Swearing and Brain Damage

A wide variety of neurological and emotional conditions can affect a person's ability to speak and lead toexcessive swearing. For example, people with various forms ofaphasia lose the ability to speak or to

pronounce words because of damage or disease in parts of thebrain 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

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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.

Damage to any area of the brain can affect the way the brain functions.Damage to areas that process language can lead to aphasia.

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 toprocess the words. This may be because the right hemisphere of the brain can processwhole swearwords as a motor function rather than a language function.

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

Studies have made a connection between GTS, coprolalia, and the basal ganglia of thebrain. Medical researchers have begun to theorize that basal ganglia dysfunctioncontributes to or is responsible for GTS and coprolalia. Coprolalia also has interestingparallels to more typical daily swearing -- both tend to be more frequent among youngermales.

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