Why do people swear so much?

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LuckyR
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: May 28th, 2023, 8:52 am
LuckyR wrote: May 25th, 2023, 6:09 pm The OP asked: why do people swear SO MUCH?
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 26th, 2023, 8:23 am Perhaps because they wish to avail themselves of its benefits, either as an emphasiser, or for one of its other effects?
LuckyR wrote: May 26th, 2023, 4:53 pm I was trying to highlight the difference between use and overuse.
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 27th, 2023, 8:53 am I sort of got that, but don't really see a useful distinction between the two. Some choose to emphasise what they're saying a lot more than others do, by including more 'swear' words in what they say. Is that f*cking "overuse"? 😉
LuckyR wrote: May 27th, 2023, 2:46 pm Exactly my point. When using relative descriptors such as "emphasize", it only fulfills that definition if used rarely.
The meaning of any word can become diluted. It's a sad consequence of it being used. The more often we hear it, the less we, er, hear it. But this is just life, and no reason not to use a word, or words, in a particular way. To minimise the use of words just to minimise dilution would also be a sad event, don't you think?
Well, I think that keeping the option open for ACTUALLY creating emphasis, when needed, is the reason.
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: May 28th, 2023, 8:52 am The meaning of any word can become diluted. It's a sad consequence of it being used. The more often we hear it, the less we, er, hear it. But this is just life, and no reason not to use a word, or words, in a particular way. To minimise the use of words just to minimise dilution would also be a sad event, don't you think?
LuckyR wrote: May 29th, 2023, 3:35 am Well, I think that keeping the option open for ACTUALLY creating emphasis, when needed, is the reason.
Perhaps that's the reason new words, terms, and phrases are always being coined? If the old ones are much-used, they sort of 'wear out', as we have described, by constant use and repetition. Having said that, swearing has been around, using many of the same words, for many centuries... 🤔
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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LuckyR wrote: May 27th, 2023, 2:46 pm Exactly my point. When using relative descriptors such as "emphasize", it only fulfills that definition if used rarely.
Unless things are really f------d up. If we compare it to emotions. If people are crying a lot in back in, say, the ethnic conflict war in the 90s in the former Yugoslavia, most people would probably not judge a trend towards more crying daily as too much. So, despite differing tastes/attitudes towards crying, generally people would give more slack to this trend, even those who think public crying or crying in general is indulging. So, perhaps teenage years, now or in general feel such that regular expletives are appropriate. Or perhaps there's something about modern society that leads us to needing to get out more frustration in non-violent ways.

Too much is always a taste judgment.
Any relative descriptor that describes an uncommon event (on the edges of the bell shaped distribution) yet is used routinely becomes the new "average" or "common". It no longer means emphasized, not unlike emails you receive in ALL CAPS.
I think it's a good point, but then picking the point on the spectrum which is too much is subjective (or intersubjective). Perhaps those who use it regularly have more release. Or perhaps some of them do and others just sort of have a tic, cultural or otherwise.
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: May 24th, 2023, 9:21 am As discussion here has re-opened, I offer this quote, from earlier on, that really seems to answer the question asked in the OP. 'Swearing' is for emphasis, exactly like exaggerating for effect, "I've told you a million times...". And when we swear because we just slipped with the knife and cut ourselves, the swearing actually reduces the painful effects. [I.e. it reduces the perceived pain, not the effects that caused the pain.]
And there has been a general trend in society to expressing more (volumewise) and more broadly (for example men and women expressing a wider range of emotions in a wider range of contexts). Perhaps old cultural limits on the expression of intensity, passion and emotion were not so healthy. Of course there are many ways to do this. I am not arguing that one has to use swearwords to express those things. But it's one way.
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: May 29th, 2023, 9:17 am
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 28th, 2023, 8:52 am The meaning of any word can become diluted. It's a sad consequence of it being used. The more often we hear it, the less we, er, hear it. But this is just life, and no reason not to use a word, or words, in a particular way. To minimise the use of words just to minimise dilution would also be a sad event, don't you think?
LuckyR wrote: May 29th, 2023, 3:35 am Well, I think that keeping the option open for ACTUALLY creating emphasis, when needed, is the reason.
Perhaps that's the reason new words, terms, and phrases are always being coined? If the old ones are much-used, they sort of 'wear out', as we have described, by constant use and repetition. Having said that, swearing has been around, using many of the same words, for many centuries... 🤔
Very insightful. The fact that phrasing designed to "shock" continually need updating reflects exactly what I am describing. Old vocabulary designed to shock, no longer shock because of what the OP asks about, namely the overuse of shocking language to the point that it becomes routine.
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Moreno wrote: June 1st, 2023, 5:17 am Too much is always a taste judgment.
Not so much a "taste judgment", more of a demonstration of adherence to socially-defined cultural 'rules' of conduct? This being so, it would explain why teenagers and young adults exceed the arbitrary social boundaries, intending a deliberate attack on those boundaries. Often we hear phrases like "the rebellion of youth"...
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: May 28th, 2023, 8:52 am The meaning of any word can become diluted. It's a sad consequence of it being used. The more often we hear it, the less we, er, hear it. But this is just life, and no reason not to use a word, or words, in a particular way. To minimise the use of words just to minimise dilution would also be a sad event, don't you think?
LuckyR wrote: May 29th, 2023, 3:35 am Well, I think that keeping the option open for ACTUALLY creating emphasis, when needed, is the reason.
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 29th, 2023, 9:17 am Perhaps that's the reason new words, terms, and phrases are always being coined? If the old ones are much-used, they sort of 'wear out', as we have described, by constant use and repetition. Having said that, swearing has been around, using many of the same words, for many centuries... 🤔
LuckyR wrote: June 1st, 2023, 12:24 pm Very insightful. The fact that phrasing designed to "shock" continually need updating reflects exactly what I am describing. Old vocabulary designed to shock, no longer shock because of what the OP asks about, namely the overuse of shocking language to the point that it becomes routine.
Agreed. But I think the speculation of my final sentence still stands unanswered? Not that it must be answered, you understand. I simply wonder if you have an interesting response to my musing?

"F*ck", for example, has been around, and in use, since before 1500 CE. But it hasn't 'worn out', as far as I can see? Why not, when so many other terms have?
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: June 2nd, 2023, 7:11 am
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 28th, 2023, 8:52 am The meaning of any word can become diluted. It's a sad consequence of it being used. The more often we hear it, the less we, er, hear it. But this is just life, and no reason not to use a word, or words, in a particular way. To minimise the use of words just to minimise dilution would also be a sad event, don't you think?
LuckyR wrote: May 29th, 2023, 3:35 am Well, I think that keeping the option open for ACTUALLY creating emphasis, when needed, is the reason.
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 29th, 2023, 9:17 am Perhaps that's the reason new words, terms, and phrases are always being coined? If the old ones are much-used, they sort of 'wear out', as we have described, by constant use and repetition. Having said that, swearing has been around, using many of the same words, for many centuries... 🤔
LuckyR wrote: June 1st, 2023, 12:24 pm Very insightful. The fact that phrasing designed to "shock" continually need updating reflects exactly what I am describing. Old vocabulary designed to shock, no longer shock because of what the OP asks about, namely the overuse of shocking language to the point that it becomes routine.
Agreed. But I think the speculation of my final sentence still stands unanswered? Not that it must be answered, you understand. I simply wonder if you have an interesting response to my musing?

"F*ck", for example, has been around, and in use, since before 1500 CE. But it hasn't 'worn out', as far as I can see? Why not, when so many other terms have?
Well I think fuc4 and definitely sh1t are worn-out. Sh1t was said and printed 200 times in a single episode of South Park, whereas fuc4 is a routine part of Ted Lasso. Neither were any part of television when I was growing up. In fact you'd probably have a harder time getting a white person to say the N word than the F word.
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: June 2nd, 2023, 7:11 am
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 28th, 2023, 8:52 am The meaning of any word can become diluted. It's a sad consequence of it being used. The more often we hear it, the less we, er, hear it. But this is just life, and no reason not to use a word, or words, in a particular way. To minimise the use of words just to minimise dilution would also be a sad event, don't you think?
LuckyR wrote: May 29th, 2023, 3:35 am Well, I think that keeping the option open for ACTUALLY creating emphasis, when needed, is the reason.
Pattern-chaser wrote: May 29th, 2023, 9:17 am Perhaps that's the reason new words, terms, and phrases are always being coined? If the old ones are much-used, they sort of 'wear out', as we have described, by constant use and repetition. Having said that, swearing has been around, using many of the same words, for many centuries... 🤔
LuckyR wrote: June 1st, 2023, 12:24 pm Very insightful. The fact that phrasing designed to "shock" continually need updating reflects exactly what I am describing. Old vocabulary designed to shock, no longer shock because of what the OP asks about, namely the overuse of shocking language to the point that it becomes routine.
Agreed. But I think the speculation of my final sentence still stands unanswered? Not that it must be answered, you understand. I simply wonder if you have an interesting response to my musing?

"F*ck", for example, has been around, and in use, since before 1500 CE. But it hasn't 'worn out', as far as I can see? Why not, when so many other terms have?
Well I think fuc4 and definitely sh1t are worn-out. Sh1t was said and printed 200 times in a single episode of South Park, whereas fuc4 is a routine part of Ted Lasso. Neither were any part of television when I was growing up. In fact you'd probably have a harder time getting a white person to say the N word than the F word.
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: June 2nd, 2023, 7:11 am "F*ck", for example, has been around, and in use, since before 1500 CE. But it hasn't 'worn out', as far as I can see? Why not, when so many other terms have?
LuckyR wrote: June 3rd, 2023, 3:26 am Well I think fuc4 and definitely sh1t are worn-out. Sh1t was said and printed 200 times in a single episode of South Park, whereas fuc4 is a routine part of Ted Lasso.
If "fuc4" is worn-out, why is it still in such widespread use, then, I wonder? For, does not a worn-out 'swear' word require the creation of a new one that isn't yet worn out? Or maybe the practical truth is that swear words don't wear out? Some of them, anyway? Maybe some have some magic that makes them perennial, so to speak?

Centuries ago, in Britain (I think), there was no word for the 'rear-end' that was acceptable for any person to pronounce, so they reversed "bottom" (still way too offensive) into "mottob", and even that was the sort of word only used in private, in the most extreme circumstances. Our attitude to 'swear' words has never been, er, rational...?

Perhaps that's the core of it? The whole issue is a made-up cultural nonsense? Maybe no words should be taboo?
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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Pattern-chaser wrote: June 3rd, 2023, 8:52 am
Pattern-chaser wrote: June 2nd, 2023, 7:11 am "F*ck", for example, has been around, and in use, since before 1500 CE. But it hasn't 'worn out', as far as I can see? Why not, when so many other terms have?
LuckyR wrote: June 3rd, 2023, 3:26 am Well I think fuc4 and definitely sh1t are worn-out. Sh1t was said and printed 200 times in a single episode of South Park, whereas fuc4 is a routine part of Ted Lasso.
If "fuc4" is worn-out, why is it still in such widespread use, then, I wonder? For, does not a worn-out 'swear' word require the creation of a new one that isn't yet worn out? Or maybe the practical truth is that swear words don't wear out? Some of them, anyway? Maybe some have some magic that makes them perennial, so to speak?

Centuries ago, in Britain (I think), there was no word for the 'rear-end' that was acceptable for any person to pronounce, so they reversed "bottom" (still way too offensive) into "mottob", and even that was the sort of word only used in private, in the most extreme circumstances. Our attitude to 'swear' words has never been, er, rational...?

Perhaps that's the core of it? The whole issue is a made-up cultural nonsense? Maybe no words should be taboo?
In the role of COMMON use, fuc4 is increasing in usage as it loses it's extreme profane personna and develops it's milder emphasis personna.

In the past, you'd never see it printed in any media and when said out loud MEANT something.

So in that context "worn out" doesn't mean "absent", it means "mainstreamed" or "ubiquitous".
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

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LuckyR wrote: June 3rd, 2023, 4:00 pm In the role of COMMON use, fuc4 is increasing in usage as it loses it's extreme profane personna and develops it's milder emphasis personna.

In the past, you'd never see it printed in any media and when said out loud MEANT something.

So in that context "worn out" doesn't mean "absent", it means "mainstreamed" or "ubiquitous".
I see nothing there to disagree with. 🙂
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Re: Why do people swear so much?

Post by Moreno »

Pattern-chaser wrote: June 2nd, 2023, 7:05 am
Moreno wrote: June 1st, 2023, 5:17 am Too much is always a taste judgment.
Not so much a "taste judgment", more of a demonstration of adherence to socially-defined cultural 'rules' of conduct? This being so, it would explain why teenagers and young adults exceed the arbitrary social boundaries, intending a deliberate attack on those boundaries. Often we hear phrases like "the rebellion of youth"...
Ï don't see it being a taste judgment as mutually exclusive with the fact that some subset of the population tends to challenge it. What are they challening? A taste judgment norm.
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