By Richard Stephens
The Conversation
The use of obscene or taboo language - or swearing, as it’s more commonly known - is often seen as a sign that the speaker lacks vocabulary, cannot express themselves in a less offensive way, or even lacks intelligence.
Studies have shown, however, that swearing may in fact display a more, rather than less, intelligent use of language.
While swearing can become a habit, we choose to swear in different contexts and for different purposes: for linguistic effect, to convey emotion, for laughs, or perhaps even to be deliberately nasty.
Psychologists interested in when and why people swear try to look past the stereotype that swearing is the language of the unintelligent and illiterate.
In fact, a study by psychologists from Marist College found links between how fluent a person is in the English language and how fluent they are in swearing.
The former - verbal fluency - can be measured by asking volunteers to think of as many words beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet as they can in 1 minute.
People with greater language skills can generally think of more examples in the allotted time. Based on this approach, the researchers created the swearing fluency task. This task requires volunteers to list as many different swear words as they can think of in 1 minute.
By comparing scores from both the verbal and swearing fluency tasks, it was found that the people who scored highest on the verbal fluency test also tended to do best on the swearing fluency task. The weakest in the verbal fluency test also did poorly on the swearing fluency task.
What this correlation suggests is that swearing isn’t simply a sign of language poverty, lack of general vocabulary, or low intelligence.
Instead, swearing appears to be a feature of language that an articulate speaker can use in order to communicate with maximum effectiveness. And actually, some uses of swearing go beyond just communication.
To read rest of article, click on ,link below:
The use of obscene or taboo language - or swearing, as it’s more commonly known - is often seen as a sign that the speaker lacks vocabulary, cannot express themselves in a less offensive way, or even lacks intelligence.
Studies have shown, however, that swearing may in fact display a more, rather than less, intelligent use of language.
While swearing can become a habit, we choose to swear in different contexts and for different purposes: for linguistic effect, to convey emotion, for laughs, or perhaps even to be deliberately nasty.
Psychologists interested in when and why people swear try to look past the stereotype that swearing is the language of the unintelligent and illiterate.
In fact, a study by psychologists from Marist College found links between how fluent a person is in the English language and how fluent they are in swearing.
The former - verbal fluency - can be measured by asking volunteers to think of as many words beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet as they can in 1 minute.
People with greater language skills can generally think of more examples in the allotted time. Based on this approach, the researchers created the swearing fluency task. This task requires volunteers to list as many different swear words as they can think of in 1 minute.
By comparing scores from both the verbal and swearing fluency tasks, it was found that the people who scored highest on the verbal fluency test also tended to do best on the swearing fluency task. The weakest in the verbal fluency test also did poorly on the swearing fluency task.
What this correlation suggests is that swearing isn’t simply a sign of language poverty, lack of general vocabulary, or low intelligence.
Instead, swearing appears to be a feature of language that an articulate speaker can use in order to communicate with maximum effectiveness. And actually, some uses of swearing go beyond just communication.
To read rest of article, click on ,link below:
7 comments:
Man, you're stupid!
FUCK YOU OJETE VENDIDO!!! CHUPALE LA VIENNA SAUSAGE A TU PUTO BOOTY BUDDY EL PINCHE MAMON ORANGEUTAN D/MP!!! NO PUCHEN, HAGAN COLA, HAY PA TODOS CULEROS!!!!
I'm a child of God. I don't say bad words.
The profuse and ongoing use of foul language reflects badly on your parents and family. You were not raised properly. You failed to acquire good manners and live and talk like a trash person.
So las prietas y el southmost is full of intelligent and good mannered untrashy people? Now that I can't believe.
Maclovio es un pendejo. He knows it. We all know it. I feel bad for his wife and his kids.
The Mac’ Daddy aka Maclovio is a fucking GENIUS and a LEGEND in his OWN MIND! We need more Mac’s in town that are interested in more topics than what is on TV tonight! Viva Maclovio!! Long live the MacDaddy. FUCK ‘em MAC.
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