Language: Evolving through profanity

Profanity. It is everywhere around us; scolded by parents and employed for comic relief in much of today’s programing. I, myself am guilty of using it. With the simple fact that American cultural influences are proliferating around the globe, our broadcasts and the profanity therein inevitably travel with it. Browsing through youtube.com the concept of profanity is exemplified in thousands of videos. One video in particular provides the various legitimate uses of one of the most infamous profane words (OSHOInternational, n.d.). All profanity is not inherently negative, in many cases it acts as a social lubricant, confirming to all parties that the conversation has an informal tone. Profanity is often used as defamation, language that harms a person reputation. Traditionally, with social networking aside, most defamation comes in the form of slander, a defamatory statement made aloud. Slander in most cases is difficult to prove, as it is one person’s word against another. In America’s young people, the use of profanity is expanding. It is becoming more prevalent in everyday interactions primarily because profanity can be used to convey a wide range of emotions and ideas. Also being portrayed in the media, profanity is losing is “shock value,” (Floyd, 2011) it is no longer as offensive as it has been in past decades. Profanity technically defined is a form of language considered vulgar, rude or obscene in the context in which it is used. With that being said, any phrase could be considered profane depending on the context. For example, “grandma’s chicken salad” is a simple phrase but with the right connotative tone, can be considered vulgar or profane. Profanity is becoming ever more noticeable in the speech patterns of younger generations in part because I feel that with such a wide range of emotions or ideals can be conveyed in a relatively short phrase. With that over simplification, youngsters vocabularies are becoming more limited as a