![\"Haddock\"](\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Haddock.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nProfanity has been with humans ever since we developed language past grunts. Research indicates that it emanates from different centers than those for main language: the limbic syste in charge of the \u201cFour Fs\u201d rather than the cerebral cortex [Tourette syndrome, whose symptoms include out-of-context swearing, has both limbic and cortical components]. This provenance makes swearing the direct descendant of involuntary animal stress vocalizations for anger, fear and pain. It explains why otherwise aphasic stroke victims can still swear and why stutterers nevertheless swear fluently (showcased in The King\u2019s Speech). It also jibes with the fact that swearing can alleviate pain, though only short-term \u2013 and only acute pain, not its intractable chronic counterpart.<\/p>\n
Swearing is routinely divided into blasphemy (religion) and obscenity (body parts). Steve Pinker has fussily classified swearing into abusive, dysphemistic, idiomatic, emphatic and cathartic \u2013 but the significant category overlaps are clearly visible.<\/p>\n
Non-reflexive swearing is word magic akin to cursing and as such registers viscerally, but only in one\u2019s natal tongue. Swearing in languages acquired later in life doesn\u2019t deliver this solar-plexus punch, hence the common spectacle of normally restrained or prudish people swearing freely in their non-primary tongues. As with all language, some words may be deemed insults in some contexts but not others, although the basis for the assignment is always obvious (a prime example is \u201ccunt\u201d, convoluted exegeses about its gender \u2013 and value \u2013 neutrality notwithstanding; even its apologists concede in private that it\u2019s a nuclear-option term).<\/p>\n
In most societies, constant swearing is taken as evidence of a limited vocabulary and hence a signifier of low educational and social status. Conversely, uttering obscenities without consequences is the prerogative of those dominant in their local power structures and\/or beneficiaries of exceptionalism. Spontaneous swearing is always a physical reaction; on the other hand, calculated swearing is often a way to establish a persona, overcome feelings of inadequacy or claim instant\u2013insider membership in a group. Many in\/famous standup comedians are textbook examples of all three. So are rage bloggers and frothing trolls who seem to operate on the assumption that four-letter words (especially about women, especially about older and non-pretty ones) are toughness bona fides.<\/p>\n
Likewise, routine heavy use of expletives in conversations obscures the points in an argument, focusing instead on the swearer\u2019s intent to shock\u2026 though they rarely awe. A swearer\u2019s goal is often to show \u201crighteous\u201d wrath; but they mostly come across as people who, to use Saxon, can\u2019t hold their shit \u2013 or who are using a blunderbuss to obscure the weakness of their position. The polyglot occupancy of the internet (even while English remains its lingua franca) blunts the impact of such words anyway, leaving only the categorization of their user.<\/p>\n Bone-breaking maces have their uses but even the brawniest berserker can be brought low by a well-aimed arrow. Of course, wit can get its wielders beaten, imprisoned or killed, because its targets (usually) recognize it for the subversive instrument it is \u2013 and people pricked by sarcasm often fancy themselves alphas in one or more ways. Using a scalpel rather than a hammer in discourse doesn\u2019t necessarily imply a winning position. Nor does it automatically signify ethical or logical superiority. But it evens the playing field, just as the bows and slingshots of Welsh and Cretan commoners obliterated the advantages of patrician heavy armor and just as guerilla warfare has always finessed brute-force frontal battles.<\/p>\n As someone whom many consider an annoyance or obstacle (though they\u2019ve used different terms) I find it amusing, during breaks from important tasks, to poke pinholes in helium or lead balloons of wannabee godlings, rambots and tai tai. That said, my sense of fair play (and, to be frank, my self esteem) prohibits me from tackling the unarmed even with ping pong balls, let alone with Stinger missiles.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=u1c_PK2RL-I<\/p>\n [Billy Bragg and Wilco, with Natalie Merchant harmonizing, perform Woody Guthrie’s Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key]<\/p>\n Related articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n Is It Something in the Water? Or: Me Tarzan, You Ape<\/a><\/p>\n Storytelling, Empathy and the Whiny Solipsist\u2019s Disingenuous Angst<\/a><\/p>\n A Plague on Both Your Houses<\/a><\/p>\n Won\u2019t Anyone Think of the Sexbots?!<\/a><\/p>\n That Shy, Elusive Rape Particle<\/a><\/p>\n Free Speech: Bravehearts and Scumbags<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>Deliberate excessive swearing reminds me of an anecdote about Richard the Lionheart and Salah ad-Din (the story is apocryphal: the two never met face-to-face). Richard, to show his might, whacked a table with his two-handed sword, reducing it to splinters. Saladin removed a silk scarf from around his throat, tossed it in the air and twirled his damascene blade below it. Richard picked up the scarf, only to find out it had been neatly cut in two.<\/p>\n