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Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

vole.wtf

181–190 of 310 posts

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#181
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't surprise me that people with larger overall vocabularies also have larger swear vocabularies. But the study you cite deals only with taboo word fluency, not with actual usage. I would be curious whether high-vocab swearers diverge from low-vocab swearers in how they actually use bad language. In my experience, even my high-vocab friends drop f-bombs in substantially the same way that lower-vocab friends do…

I hypothesize that the "swearing => stunted vocabulary" argument is just a post hoc rationalization to give some justification for not liking bad words.

I think you're wrong.

There are two distinct populations (in UK), those of poor vocabulary who use swearing all the time and don't seem capable of speaking in a nuanced way. And those who have the vocabulary to not swear, can still express themselves without expletives but choose to use them depending on the company/context they're in.

I found as a teenager that I'd swear to try and appear cool, and when I lacked sufficient nuance to my vocabulary to clearly express my feelings, and decided I wanted to do better.

I don't really care if you swear - except in front of children (because they have to learn not to swear in the wrong context when they can get in trouble from others who are more conservative) - but unless you demonstrate otherwise I'll assume it's lack of decent vocabulary.

Almost all people I've worked with who've sworn a lot (amongst general company) have had very low levels of education.

I don't really understand the whole "these words are shocking" attitude, eg cunt, people give simple utterances too much power.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#183
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around middle school, I decided that I would stop using swear words, because it seemed like getting myself in trouble by letting one slip out at an inappropriate time was more of a bother than just avoiding them and coming up with more inventive ways to express myself. Refraining from curse words has been part of my character ever since, and just about everybody who knows me knows that I don't swear. And you know wha…

ESL here. At school one teacher told us using swear words only show your lack of knowledge for better words. I took that to heart and the very few times I've used them, I really had no other option. However I've noticed swear words come more easily to me in English and don't feel as harsh as when I hear them in Spanish. I wonder if it's my lack of vocabulary.

[deleted]

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#184

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

IMHO swear words are strong words capable of causing impact, and which are strengthened through reserving them for when you really need them. If you swear all the time, you dilute that power. If you keep it in reserve, it retains its power to surprise. And so, somewhat ironically, the people who can swear best are those who swear least. People who swear all the time acquire a kind of linguistic impotence.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're looking for the wonderful-sounding "Sapir-Whorf hypothesis", which is a great thing to trot out at dinner parties (if those ever become a thing again).

I guess I can see the added value of swearing in Klingon — kind of the reverse of bowdlerization.

You could have wedged a couple of a Klingon swear words in there to give us something to start with. The only Klingon I know is q'pla (sp?).

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#186
post #86

I once worked for an online game aimed at children. With some limited messaging and a forum, we needed to automatically filter swearing especially when it started to reach millions of users. The initial limited English only blacklists were useless. Kids are creative and terrible. So we replaced with big processes of failover with several external swearword filtering services. Costly... But kids are creative..., they…

> Or rearranged their "room" with decoration that spelt out letters, or simply drew cock and balls, etc. A whole Lego MMO was once cancelled because they couldn't come up with an automated way to detect such things in virtual Lego buildings and using employees to filter the content became too expensive.

I don't understand that at all. Just have a "warning to parents: this is a sandbox game and may feature any shape - including body parts - built from Lego". 99% of parents wouldn't be bothered, surely?

Every kid who has two opposite sex parents knows from toddler-hood what a penis and vulva look like, why is it such a problem??

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#187

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

Jesus-shitting-Christ, calm the fuck down. Cocking hell, it's clearly just a bit of fucking about. No need to pop a bollock.

/s

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#188
post #34
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inspired by you, I grepped my system words file in search of words containing fuck. What I didn't expect is Apple's /usr/share/dict/words comes pre-censored. > grep fuck /usr/share/dict/words > grep '^shit$' /usr/share/dict/words > grep '^dick$' /usr/share/dict/words dick > grep '^cunt$' /usr/share/dict/words > grep '^bitch$' /usr/share/dict/words bitch Wow. (This comment doesn't reflect well on me. Fortunately, this…

> (This comment doesn't reflect well on me. Fortunately, this is a pseudonymous account.) If anyone thinks less of you because you simply know five swearwords, it's pretty much their problem.

An interesting part of my kids playing CSGO is that they can now swear in at least 3 languages. I don't think you can play for more than a couple of days before you learn to swear in Russian (cyka blyat), it's practically synonymous with the game, a couple of weeks and you should know a Polish (kurwa) and a French swear (putain/merde).

And of course "fuck[ing]" and "shit" are used prolifically.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#189
post #165

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

When my daughter was about 5 we were on public transit and a bunch of teens were talking near us. Every second or third word was 'fuck' or 'shit'. My daughter asked why they talk that way. I told her it was because they didn't know enough words to say what they meant. 15 years later, she speaks two languages fluently and 2 more at about middle school level. She swears a little, but she knows how to say what she means…

That's just your victorian judgementalness coming out. It has nothing to do with vocabulary. And it certainly has nothing to do with how many languages your kid knows.

Anyone who grew up with conservative parents rolled their eyes at your post. "Ok dad".

Btw, she just learned to swear when you're not around. And when you eventually find this out, rest assured it's not that you failed her vocabulary, it's just because she met some friends that swear.

Re: Scunthorpe Sans – a self-censoring font

#190

As a way to show off the capability of ligatures, more power to them. As an effort to censor, why in the ever loving fuck nuggets would you ever actually do that? I have young kids and a large family. We all curse periodically. Instead of telling the kids that these are bad words, we told them they are adult words. As in, when you are old enough you can curse all you want, but as a kid you can’t. We felt that this wa…

I would further refine them from "adult" words to "coarse" words.

Everyone needs to know when to be polite and when to be coarse as various situations require. (It's a social skill.) Furthermore, they need to be capable of being polite when required.

As a child, you can't be allowed to be coarse all the time because learning politeness takes practice and work, so it'd be like skipping your homework in this area.

At some point, hopefully you've mastered that, and then can be a responsible person (probably an adult) who applies things as appropriate.

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