subject: Emotions, Taboos And Profane Language [print this page] Perhaps it is not too far-fetched a statement to say that most of us like to think of ourselves as rational, articulate and disciplined human beings. Having postulated this, I would add in haste that we are not always quite as rational, articulate and disciplined as we might wish to be since we are, like it or not, also emotional, sexual and aggressive animals. Since both speech and emotions are universal features of the animal species called humans across space and time, so is swearing.
Now, you may wish to claim that you are so verbally hygienic and taboo-conscious that you never-ever swear, not even in the relative privacy of your own ego, super ego and id. Well... if this is the case, you can start polishing your halo as of today, and might as well stop reading right here and now.
However, most of us humans are just that, humanswe have not quite sublimated our life into sainthood. Consequently, although we may wish to keep our language, along with our body, soul and teeth, fresh and fussily flossed, the language we use often circumvents our socially conditioned sanitising impetus. But when and why do we disregard taboos and expectationswhy do we swear? For example, why is merde, shit, szar, kusobaba a not-altogether-uncommon word in French, Hungarian, English, and Japanese respectively?
This is a simple question about a deceptively simple fact of life. Yet there is no readily available, coherent theory of cursing to explain this verbal behavior which is well-documented from times immemorial.
The Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory (NPS) Theory of cursing embraces three important aspects of our behavior. Namely, that we normally operate under three interlocking systems: neurological control, psychological restrains and socio-cultural restrictions.
At the neurological level, cursing can be non-propositional or propositional. The former is an automatic response to pain, surprise, happiness, frustration or some other emotion, coming from the right hemisphere of the brain. The latter is, however, done creatively and often for highly strategic purposes such as dirty joke telling or steamy pillow-talk. Jay argues this is because the neurological control, our brain, functions as two interlocking neural systems of control processes: the cerebral cortex regulates both speech production and comprehension, whereas the subcortical system is responsible for the control of emotional reactions.
This is confirmed by the fact that people suffering from neurological disorders, such as the Tourette Syndrome or aphasia, cannot speak but can swear articulately and will do so to express emotions. So although brain-damaged people may lose their ability to construct creative, syntactically governed propositional statements such as swearing in the witness box, they can swear profusely nonetheless when driven by a strong emotion.
This phenomenon is due to the lateralization of the brain, i.e. to the division of labor between the left and right cerebral hemisphere. As we know, verbal reasoningalong with calculation and analytical thinkingreside in the left, while spatial reasoning, musical abilities and visualization in the right hemisphere. Consequently, syntactic and semantic functions, including swearing as in giving oath in the witness box, are rooted in the left, but emotional language, including automatic cursing from the right hemisphere. Hence in case of left-hemisphere brain damage, speakers can swear but only automatically as an emotional reaction coming from the right hemispherebut they would not be able to repeat the very same swearing if required.
After the neurological factors, such as emotional speech, verbal aggression etc, part three of the book details the psychological aspects of cursing, dealing with personality, religiosity, sexual anxiety, the sexual lexicon and so on. Part four tackles the social and cultural factors, including speaker power, gender identity, joke telling, verbal duelling, slang, magic, etiquette and law.
Of course, cursing is not necessarily abusive or aggressive. It can be humourous, playful, and creative.
Why We Swear closes with the beginning: to stimulate new research, Jay offers an impressively extensive and systematically organized table of literature on cursing, grouped under subject headings, with brief comments on content. The fact that the longest list of research literature is under the heading of Human Sexuality and Gender Issues speaks for itself and re-enforces the thesis of the book: cursing is a fundamental and universal feature of human communication that challenges primary taboos such as sex.
This has implications for all professionals involved in language and communication issuesincluding language teachers, interpreters and translators-- linguists in general. Most of us would agree that emotions are vital part of most communication processes. Those of us who translate films are acutely aware of the significance of swearing in films, and how to deal with it creatively.
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