Re: OT: Slang, curses and vulgarities

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 19:34:26 -0600, kcasada <kcasada@...> wrote:

> I've got to disagree. Cursing plays different roles in culture, but I
> for one
> avoid it as a matter of principle, and I seem to recall reading about at
> least
> one American Indian language that simply doesn't feature it.
I had heard that Japanese doesn't feature it, and that the closest it
comes is "a mistake had been made". Ten years of studying languages and
linguistics later (but not, you'll note, Japanese (at least in any depth))
has convinced me that the phrase "X does not exist in language Y" is
always false, or at least always arguable, however.




Paul

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