Cursing as Peephole Into Brain Architecture

tabdelgawad writes "The New York Times offers this excellent and entertaining writeup on cursing and its role in recent studies of the brain. The article discusses the universality of cursing across time, space, and culture, its varied roles, from linguistic evolution to anger management, and its uses in recent brain research. You can also read all about the sexual effects of uttering obscenities and the swearing habits of sorority women." From the article: "Researchers point out that cursing is often an amalgam of raw, spontaneous feeling and targeted, gimlet-eyed cunning. When one person curses at another, they say, the curser rarely spews obscenities and insults at random, but rather will assess the object of his wrath, and adjust the content of the 'uncontrollable' outburst accordingly." As someone who plays a lot of MMOGs, in my experience this is only mostly true.

Comments

Dag Nabbit!

[jellomizer]

I wonder how Wimpy Curses work vs. Real Curses. I myself don't have a tendency of cursing I tend to use the old curse or wimpy curse words like "Dag Nabbit!", "D'Oh", "Arg!", and "Crappy", and "Cruncy". I tend to shoot them out just as often and with little though like other people shoot off Real Curses.

Re:Dag Nabbit!

[steelfood]

Personally, when words like "Freak" and "Darn" are used in place of their vulgar counterparts, I tend to laugh at the person using them. It just sounds wrong.

The word itself isn't supposed to matter (let's see, I learned fuck meant having sex in the fifty grade, which is about three years after I began using it), but the force, intent, and attitude behind the word. Using an alternate word changes this in the speaker, especially if the speaker is used to the vulgar forms, and thus conveys a different sense to the listener. For me, it's comical, like a turtle on its back trying to flip itself over but can't. But when these alternate words convey the same sense (and I've seen them used in this way), they really are the same as vulgar varieties.

When I can't use words like fuck, shit, and damn, I use the more subtle facial expressions. Snorting, rolling my eyes, grimacing, clenching my teeth, etc. all serve the same purpose. After all, it's a quick stress reliever for quick stress buildup.

Re:Dag Nabbit!

[NanoGator]

"Personally, when words like "Freak" and "Darn" are used in place of their vulgar counterparts, I tend to laugh at the person using them. It just sounds wrong."

Heh. I read a Dilbert book (err I can't remember the title, but it had to do with things you should and shouldn't do... it had to do with etiquette, I think.) One strip had to do with swearing and how some people (typically older people) would go haywire if you used the wrong words.

I've seen this happen. I remember one day in high school, there was some stupid play scheduled. The play was going on during the 3rd period. For me, that meant I could stay in the computer class for 3 hours. Neat! So I didn't get the permission slip filled out. Well, I was wrong. They shuffled everybody who wasn't attending the play into study halls. Doh. I was a senior during the peek of my rebellious phase. I was going to do something daring, I was going to skip the study hall. So while everybody was herded to another room, I slipped away. I wandered into a different study hall where one of my friends was. We bs'd for about 20 minutes before I noticed the teacher was taking attendance. Oh... crap. Like a secret agent, I snuck out of the class and started making tracks to where I was supposed to go. I was one floor up from the study hall. If I were caught coming down the stairs, instant bust. So I cooked up a story to the tune of "I had to go to the bathroom. I went up a floor because that level had a bathroom with a door on the stall." Perfect excuse! By the time I came down the stairs, I was anxious. Very anxious. The teacher that saw me spotted me and said "where have you been?!" My anxiety caught up with me and all that came out was "I was taking a dump!"

The teacher's eyes lit up with anger. In retrospect, I should have expected this. But I honestly didn't see 'taking a dump' as being in the same league as 'shitted in a fucking private stall', but the way he reacted I might as well have said that. He was so mad, he actually ran across the hall and stopped a teacher that was passing by. "I asked this young man why he was late to class, and you know what he said?" The poor teacher disinterestedly shook his head. "He said he was..." he actually held up his hands to signify quotes... "taking a dump." The teacher who obviously wanted to continue to his destination had a blank look on his face. The study hall teacher then asked "Do you think that was appropriate?" He shook his head and wandered off. I was left to write a 4 page report on why the phrase "Taking a dump" is inappropriate.

By the third revision of my paper I was getting annoyed. He told me he didn't like it and that I should completely rewrite it. So I did. I filled up four pages about how the older generation of people couldn't cope with the cultural changes that had happened over the last couple of decades, so the younger generation had to tread lightly when speaking around them. I fully expected to end up explaining that paper to the vice principal, but instead the study hall teacher shook his head and threw it away. I honestly don't know if what I was saying got through to him or if he realized he was overreacting or if he was just plain bored with the conflict.

Needless to say, I find cartoons about people swearing so much that other characters catch fire pretty funny. I understand the concept of polite conversation, but it still baffles me how some people get so worked up over 'vulgar phrases'. I think it's a generational thing, but if somebody has a better idea I'm all ears.

Heh sorry dudes, didn't have anything real interesting to share about the topic at hand. I just remembered this little story after what the parent poster said about people looking silly by using softer words. I found myself using words like that during the rest of my senior year in high school.

Re:Dag Nabbit!

[Floody]

The teacher's eyes lit up with anger. In retrospect, I should have expected this. But I honestly didn't see 'taking a dump' as being in the same league as 'shitted in a fucking private stall', but the way he reacted I might as well have said that. He was so mad, he actually ran across the hall and stopped a teacher that was passing by. "I asked this young man why he was late to class, and you know what he said?" The poor teacher disinterestedly shook his head. "He said he was..." he actually held up his hands to signify quotes... "taking a dump."

Yes, very Donnie Darko. "I'll tell you what he said. He asked my to forcibly insert the Life Line exercise into my anus."

Cultural differences vary widely with geography, of course, but where I happen to currently reside, cursing has become so socially accepted that it's practically no longer noticed. I'm not just talking about a particular peer group either; even in the workplace, it's unusual not too hear a litany of frustated cursing at any given moment with no apparent relation to gender, ethnicity, etc.

As someone with significant intellectual interest in linguistics, I've noticed that there are essentially two categories of cursing: Words or phrases with a prejudicial basis (gender, race, sexual preference, etc) and those related to bodily functions. The "bodily function" category is apparently much more acceptable in mixed company; for the obvious reason that while an isolated prejudicial curse might be harmless out of context, the prejudice itself often still exists in the world and continues to damage societies across the globe.

There is also the class of curses that seems to be in somewhat of a "cross-over" mode, like the word "bitch." Literal meaning aside, it has traditionally been used as a derogatory term for a female. Modern usage though seems to be changing, and the term can now often apply to both men and women; as a result it seems more acceptable in common speech. I'm curious if it will lose (or already has lost) some of its "curse power" because of this slight linguistic shift and the fact that it's not part of the immortal "bodily function" category.

Hot Shit

[TruePaige]

What about the perpetual fuck as a comma crowd though? How do they fit into this? Are they de-sensitized?

Why not lie detecting?

[Safe Sex Goddess]

I wonder why they never talk about detecting lies with these fMRI machines. They'll talk about how to induce "spiritual" feelings in people, or how they've discovered the mirror neurons that tell us when a person watches another person do something, it's like we're doing it ourselves. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01-mo nkey.html

If we want to really clean up government and speed up processing in the criminal justice system, we should put $100 million into fMIR as lie detectors.

We could have an electoral truth telling challenge between candidates to see who's telling the truth and who isn't.

WoW - Why ?

[craznar]

Which brings me to the question - why does WoW let me say 'crap' - but not 'LSD' ?

I personally think that WoW should have a 'receive' foul language option to increase entertainment.

So if two people both have the flag on - they can spit what ever they want at each other.

Sort of like VpV.

The article is poopy, but I'll comment anyways

[Shazow]

Firstly, I don't agree with some of what is said. For one:

"Golly" is a compaction of "God's body" and, thus, was once a profanity.

I have no idea where they got that (and many others of their facts) from, but wiktionary says otherwise. It seems to be pseudo-researched with a couple of reputable quotes here and there... Oh well.

To the point, in reference to their Stroop test (on page 2), where people were startled by obscene words moreso than neutral words, I find it to be the reverse in "comfortable" environments (as they vaguely mentioned). That is to say, so many people swear habitually that it's not even a big deal in casual situations. To find someone that says "poop" instead of "shit" or something unique and unsensical like "fatty arbuckle!" instead of "fuck!" tends to startle people in surprize. At first, at least.

The novelty of profanity has been worn out to the point where it doesn't have the desired effect anymore. Therefore, I subscribe to the alternative: Using unique and creative utterings to describe my feelings.

This way, after people get to know me, and get used to me being profanity-free, and then one day I get REALLY pissed off and say FUCK, they know I MEAN IT! :D

Works wonderfully. Plus, makes swearing that/i much more fun.

- shazow

NPR, Deadwood, Carlin

[BlueEar]

NPR had an interesting interview about Deadwood. Turns out that at the time people were using words such as "damn", "bloody", "goddam", etc., which are no longer strong curse words. Thus the producer of Deadwood decided to convey the reality of times by "upgrading" curses.

Another interesting observation was made by George Carlin. He was essentially guessing that teaching somebody not to use certain "bad" words is the first step in teaching them to be complacent. If you can teach them not to make certain sounds, you can teach them not to yell at authorities. Often, people who play the "word police" are very controlling. Of course, cursing is not a sign of an educated person, but when you hit your shin on a corner of a desk, "fuck!" is a more appropriate response than "I think I experienced pain" ...

Origin of Swears...

[Dankling]

It's interesting that the article is so focused on the effect that swear words have on the people hearing them (or even just seeing them). I think the story of how swear words come into being wasn't nearly touched on enough in the article as it should have.

Why is it that words come to be 'forbidden' after normal usage before. At one time, none of the swear words used today existed. Remember, someone had to invent all of these words. On the flip side, why is it that swear words, after repeated use, lose their 'evilness'?

Nowadays, the phrase, "Oh, golly!" may be considered almost comically wholesome, but it was not always so. "Golly" is a compaction of "God's body" and, thus, was once a profanity.

Is it that profanity is in the eye of the beholder? If I were talking to somebody in a room can call the person a 'fucktard', chances are the person I'm talking to would take offense. But in a different scenario I'm talking with a French man that doesn't know a word of english. Now I can call him whatever-the-hell I want to. And just as long as I'm using the inflections in my voice as if I were telling a joke, he wouldn't know any better than if I were telling a joke.

What makes a word a word? It's not the arrangement of the english characters on the post card that offend me - the association between the arranged letters on the notecard and my past experience with that word that makes it vulgar. Ever since we have been children we have known which words not to say - not by the letters F U C and K, but by the face on my pissed off mother. That surely would explain why a child, illiterate or foreigner wouldn't find our swear words offensive.

So, after reading the article, I question the reactions that the tested subjects had to the swear word on the card. We aren't born with these conections in our head, they are learned.

Lastly, another question for the readers: Can swear words be taught out of existence? You would think that if people stopped taking offense to swear words that people would stop using them. It would make sense that if we were taught that 'shit' was a synonym for Cotton Candy, then it wouldn't really be offensive.

Feasible? bs? i dunno...