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Re: OT: Slang, curses and vulgarities

From:J. 'Mach' Wust <j_mach_wust@...>
Date:Monday, January 31, 2005, 13:28
On Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:58:08 +0000, Chris Bates
<chris.maths_student@...> wrote:

>> How do you define a swear word in a cross-linguistic context? >> >> I'd say that the attributes of the prototypical swear word are: >> >> (a) Intrinsically offensive in many contexts, in some cases all. >> (b) Alternatives exist with the same meaning but without the >> intrinsic offensiveness. >> (b) In most cases the word can legitimately be used to express anger >> or other strong negative emotion, especially in private. >> (c) Used by children and immature people with much hilarity. >> >> Are there any languages with no words that exhibit all four attributes >> or is swearing a cultural universal? >> >I'd mostly agree with this characterisation, although (c) seems to me to >be an unnecessary requirement. (a) and (b) (the first b) are the main >requirements, with the second (b) (your sequence went a b b c not a b c >d) also being slightly dubious.
I'd say that (a) and the second (b) are two different uses of swear words: Either addressive swearing or expressive swearing, so to say. I like (c) a lot; it might not be a definition, but it's very definitely a most explicit clue to what expressions are considered to be vulgar. :) kry@s: j. 'mach' wust