Re: OT: Slang, curses and vulgarities

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 14:49:32 +0100, Carsten Becker
<naranoieati@...> wrote:
> Words that have to do with the areas of shame (e.g. the
> sexual facilities) as well as things and actions considered
> to be disgusting or bad (excrements for example) are
> predestined to become curse words, aren't they?
Mostly, but not invariably: see, for example, Québecois, where I'm
told that nearly all cursing is based on religious words rather than
sexuality, anatomy, or bodily processes.

> One of my English teachers once told us
> better to avoid cursing in a foreign language if you're
> visiting the respective country.
*nods* Excellent idea IMO.

It may well be useful to learn to *recognise* curse words (if only so
that you don't have to look them up when someone uses them in your
presence), but I think that you really need a good "feel" for when
which curse word is "appropriate".

If you just learn random words and fling them around with gusto,
you'll use one that's too weak to express your obvious emotion and
look funny, or one that's too strong than is warranted and be even
ruder than you intended, or one that's incongruous for a given
situation.

> Agreed. Cursing is a part of culture. Most certainly,
> there's not one single day where you haven't cursed.
Well... I try to avoid it, so I like to think that there are a fair
number of days when I haven't cursed.

OTOH, it depends on where you draw the line; for example, I don't
consider "Mist" as cursing. But even so, I might have days where I'm
"clean".

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
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