Swearing is a part of language and a natural part of life. According to Timothy Jay, Professor of Psychology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and leading psycholinguist in curse research, "when scholar disregard or dismiss it as irrelevant to a complete understanding of language, we are left with a polite or sanitized and therefore a false science of language" (Jay 2009, 157; Jay and Janschewitz 2007; Potts 2007). Furthermore, ignoring this aspect of language also creates an artificial world. Hence swearing deserves to be studied to provide a genuine image of the world for people.
David Crystal, a linguist, academician and author, defined swearing as the general term for the use of all kinds of taboo language whatever its purpose (Crystal …show more content…
People acquire swear words as early as childhood. Jay stated that during childhood, children learn to associate cursing or curse words with all emotional states—happiness, anger, fear, etc. They have grasped that using curse words to express an individual’s opinions or emotions intensify its effect on other people (Ibid). In a study by Marta Dynel, Chair of Pragmatics Department at the University of Lodz, in 2012, she stated that curse words are not only utilized in a face-to-face manner of communication but are also manifested over the internet. People use curse words because of several reasons and some are to display intentional impoliteness to others, to express aggression, to establish power, or to serve as a verbal abuse. However, curse words are not always associated with aggression and impoliteness because others use curse words as a strategy to exhibit and promote membership and belongingness and to demonstrate common grounds with a group (Dynel 2012). Dynel concludes that there are three general fundamental functions of swearwords and she called it the tripartite division of functions of swearwords. People curse in order to indicate 1) solidarity or agreement among individuals or group, 2) hostility or unfriendliness and opposition with others and (3) negative emotions such as pain and anger (Ibid). Hence, people are encouraged to utilize curse words to reveal or convey their current emotional state since these words enables people to emphasize their feelings and/or
David Crystal, a linguist, academician and author, defined swearing as the general term for the use of all kinds of taboo language whatever its purpose (Crystal …show more content…
People acquire swear words as early as childhood. Jay stated that during childhood, children learn to associate cursing or curse words with all emotional states—happiness, anger, fear, etc. They have grasped that using curse words to express an individual’s opinions or emotions intensify its effect on other people (Ibid). In a study by Marta Dynel, Chair of Pragmatics Department at the University of Lodz, in 2012, she stated that curse words are not only utilized in a face-to-face manner of communication but are also manifested over the internet. People use curse words because of several reasons and some are to display intentional impoliteness to others, to express aggression, to establish power, or to serve as a verbal abuse. However, curse words are not always associated with aggression and impoliteness because others use curse words as a strategy to exhibit and promote membership and belongingness and to demonstrate common grounds with a group (Dynel 2012). Dynel concludes that there are three general fundamental functions of swearwords and she called it the tripartite division of functions of swearwords. People curse in order to indicate 1) solidarity or agreement among individuals or group, 2) hostility or unfriendliness and opposition with others and (3) negative emotions such as pain and anger (Ibid). Hence, people are encouraged to utilize curse words to reveal or convey their current emotional state since these words enables people to emphasize their feelings and/or