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What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

arstechnica.com

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Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#11

Post by uwu »

pm90 wrote: post #7
peter303 wrote: post #6

Harvard psychology prof Steven Pinker has an interesting demo of this in one of his stump lectures on language an emotion. He recites fifty English swear words in raid succession. By the end of that minute the audience is cringing. Who could think a distinguished Harvard professor could go potty mouth like that? Pinkers point is that swearing is processed by an alternative language system deeply tied to emotion and c…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BcdY_wSklo

is there a full version available somewhere?

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#13

Post by hyperpallium »

Mz wrote: post #3

This is actually a really awesome article, though poorly titled for the HN crowd. It is about brain research in brain injured individuals and how that impacts use of language: Studies from people with different types of aphasia have delineated different brain regions that regulate different aspects of communication. Wernicke’s area is like a dictionary: it helps us to understand the meanings of the words we hear and…

So, if coming from a more primitive part of the brain, possibly pre-linguistic animal sounds are cussing.

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#14

Post by Mz »

hyperpallium wrote: post #13
Mz wrote: post #3

This is actually a really awesome article, though poorly titled for the HN crowd. It is about brain research in brain injured individuals and how that impacts use of language: Studies from people with different types of aphasia have delineated different brain regions that regulate different aspects of communication. Wernicke’s area is like a dictionary: it helps us to understand the meanings of the words we hear and…

So, if coming from a more primitive part of the brain, possibly pre-linguistic animal sounds are cussing.

My ex husband didn't cuss -- at least, not until I stupidly corrupted him (I have a terrible potty mouth and it's a long story). We knew this was completely sincere and not some sort of affectation because when our oldest son accidentally stepped on his dad's junk once when his dad was in a dead sleep on the living room floor, he woke up making cartoon sweary noise (a la "rassum frassum mrrrfff").

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#15

Post by posterboy »

uwu wrote: post #11
pm90 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BcdY_wSklo

is there a full version available somewhere?

$#!7, the description !@$%& says Full talk available at http://www.thesciencenetwork.org

haven't looked that up though.

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#16

Post by rando444 »

fernandotakai wrote: post #8
timdeneau wrote: post #4

Perhaps this is partly why it’s so hard to stop cursing. I curse like a sailor, even though I'm consciously aware that it’s an unhelpful, unprofessional, unarticulated form of communication.

one interesting thing: i don't swear that much in my native language. i find... cringy. now, whenever i speak/write english, i swear like a sailor. feels more natural to curse in english.

I can't help but wonder if this is because of how english swear words get adapted into other languages.

It's not uncommon to hear variations of english swear words in my language.. even printed in the newspaper or children's books.. nobody thinks twice about it.. but our native swear words take on a different tone and meaning altogether.

Maybe this could contribute to why it's easier to swear in english? (the words not holding the same type of gravity/meaning)

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#17

Post by posterboy »

pm90 wrote: post #7
peter303 wrote: post #6

Harvard psychology prof Steven Pinker has an interesting demo of this in one of his stump lectures on language an emotion. He recites fifty English swear words in raid succession. By the end of that minute the audience is cringing. Who could think a distinguished Harvard professor could go potty mouth like that? Pinkers point is that swearing is processed by an alternative language system deeply tied to emotion and c…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BcdY_wSklo

The link doesn't contain the fifty English swear words in rapid succession, but I found interesting at which words he seems to fumble himself, eg. death and nigger (there, I said it), but that might just be observation bias. Still, he seems to have missed to list death as a principle category.

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#18

Post by seszett »

fernandotakai wrote: post #8
timdeneau wrote: post #4

Perhaps this is partly why it’s so hard to stop cursing. I curse like a sailor, even though I'm consciously aware that it’s an unhelpful, unprofessional, unarticulated form of communication.

one interesting thing: i don't swear that much in my native language. i find... cringy. now, whenever i speak/write english, i swear like a sailor. feels more natural to curse in english.

Swearing (especially putain) is punctuation in French, I don't even notice when I'm saying it.

Swear words don't come naturally to me in English though, so they don't get an occasion to be said at all.

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#19

Post by posterboy »

rando444 wrote: post #16
fernandotakai wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one interesting thing: i don't swear that much in my native language. i find... cringy. now, whenever i speak/write english, i swear like a sailor. feels more natural to curse in english.

I can't help but wonder if this is because of how english swear words get adapted into other languages. It's not uncommon to hear variations of english swear words in my language.. even printed in the newspaper or children's books.. nobody thinks twice about it.. but our native swear words take on a different tone and meaning altogether. Maybe this could contribute to why it's easier to swear in english? (the words n…

It's not just the adaption, but also the isolation from the context.

Re: What the F? What swearing reveals about language and ourselves

#20

Post by sir_kin »

pm90 wrote: post #7
peter303 wrote: post #6

Harvard psychology prof Steven Pinker has an interesting demo of this in one of his stump lectures on language an emotion. He recites fifty English swear words in raid succession. By the end of that minute the audience is cringing. Who could think a distinguished Harvard professor could go potty mouth like that? Pinkers point is that swearing is processed by an alternative language system deeply tied to emotion and c…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BcdY_wSklo

Weirdly enough, when he was demonstrating the Stroop test, I had absolutely no slowdown for cuss words; maybe 3x faster than when the text named a different color.
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