Bad-Bad Words (Term Paper)
Bad-Bad Words
Der’rik Hardin
Psych 326
December 1, 2012
Dr. Hennon
Bad-Bad Words The goal of this paper is to conduct a series of research on curse words, their meanings, and a brief history of profanity. I also intend to show that curse words are deemed acceptable in certain social situations in the American culture. To begin we must define semantic. Semantics is a branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between sentences or words and their meanings (Weinreich, Labov, & Weinreich, (1980). It can also be referred to as the study of the relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent. But presently, does the meaning of the curse word matter anymore or is it the way we portray these bad words in a specific social situation?
Ambiguity and Curse Words Currently there is no exact theory to explain why humans curse or why we chose the words we use to define these curse words. Psychologists, linguists, speech pathologists and a number of other researchers have been pondering on such an explanation for some time. According to Jay, (2000), cursing is an essential element of language in linguistics and psycholinguistics that refers to multiple uses of offensive speech. The term cursing is subjected to many ambiguous words such as swearing, obscenity, name calling, insulting, ethnic-racial slurs, vulgarity and slang, (Jay, 2000). These terms will be used interchangeably throughout the paper. Thanks to research conducted by Timothy Jay in 1992, it was quite simple to distinguish between the use of cursing and its many ambiguous terms. For starters, cursing is more than name calling. In fact, to curse is to call upon divine or supernatural power in order to cause harm to another, (Jay, 2000). The intent behind cursing is to cause physical harm on another through the use of words and phrases. Most Americans use cursing in short phrases, out of
Der’rik Hardin
Psych 326
December 1, 2012
Dr. Hennon
Bad-Bad Words The goal of this paper is to conduct a series of research on curse words, their meanings, and a brief history of profanity. I also intend to show that curse words are deemed acceptable in certain social situations in the American culture. To begin we must define semantic. Semantics is a branch of linguistics that deals with the study of meaning, changes in meaning, and the principles that govern the relationship between sentences or words and their meanings (Weinreich, Labov, & Weinreich, (1980). It can also be referred to as the study of the relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent. But presently, does the meaning of the curse word matter anymore or is it the way we portray these bad words in a specific social situation?
Ambiguity and Curse Words Currently there is no exact theory to explain why humans curse or why we chose the words we use to define these curse words. Psychologists, linguists, speech pathologists and a number of other researchers have been pondering on such an explanation for some time. According to Jay, (2000), cursing is an essential element of language in linguistics and psycholinguistics that refers to multiple uses of offensive speech. The term cursing is subjected to many ambiguous words such as swearing, obscenity, name calling, insulting, ethnic-racial slurs, vulgarity and slang, (Jay, 2000). These terms will be used interchangeably throughout the paper. Thanks to research conducted by Timothy Jay in 1992, it was quite simple to distinguish between the use of cursing and its many ambiguous terms. For starters, cursing is more than name calling. In fact, to curse is to call upon divine or supernatural power in order to cause harm to another, (Jay, 2000). The intent behind cursing is to cause physical harm on another through the use of words and phrases. Most Americans use cursing in short phrases, out of
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