TABOO LANGUAGE

Characteristics
- universal
- language that “should not” be used, especially not in polite company
- when an act is considered taboo, the words describing it often are, too
- close correlation between how taboo the concept and how taboo the word
- NB: “taboos” are culture-specific, even if two countries share the same language

3 main clusters of taboo words:

- sex, sex organs, taboo sex (e.g. with family members)
- bodily functions
- religion: words considered profane if used outside of the domain of the
formal/religious ceremonies (holy, thus untouchable, thus taboo)

e.g. Sacre:
- Quebecois French
- taboo language centers around the Catholic church
Tabernac Shit! (lit. tabernacle)
Sacrament! Goddammit!
Sacrifice! Gosh darnit!
Baptême! Shit! (lit. baptism)
Calice! Fuck! (chalice)
Sti! Fuck, shit! (lit. Host)

- like non-taboo language, arbitrary sound-symbol pairings

- language is only dirty or clean when a community decides it is
- hearing a foreign curse word doesn’t have much effect on you
- you have to be brought up knowing a word is ‘dirty’ for it to pack that punch
- taboo-ness of words can change over…
TIME: "Oh, golly!" = "God's body"
SPACE: here vs. britain (bloody, fanny)

Phonology
- rich in fricatives and stops that create a harsh and emotive sound.

Why is it used?
- expressing pain, anger, frustration, annoyance
- insulting someone, directly or descriptively
- invoking or wishing for supernatural assistance in harming someone
- adding emphasis to statements whether positive or negative in content
- using certain taboo words, or referring to certain concepts in any way at all
- issuing ritual guarantees of truthfulness
- studies have indicated that those who swear regularly suffer less from stress (and less
violence) than those who do not.
(if I say 'motherfucker' it makes me feel better than when I say 'darnn’)
- if you're with a group of close friends, the more relaxed you are, the more you swear
(sign of comfortableness)

Neurophysiological response to taboo language

- taboo words produce physical effects in people who read or hear them
- elevated heart rate.
- elevated skin conductivity
- arm hair raises
- more shallow breathing
(NB: a similar reaction occurs among university students and others who pride
themselves on being educated when they listen to bad grammar or slang
expressions that they regard as irritating, illiterate, or déclassé)
- BUT: speakers may use descriptive swear words so regularly that they become largely
meaningless (fail to register a response in listeners)
- recalled better but cause delays on Stroop test (subjects are flashed a series of words
written in different colors and are asked to react by calling out the colors of the words
rather than the words themselves)

Aphasia and swearing

- cannot speak but can swear articulately and will do when driven by strong emotion
- syntactic and semantic functions rooted in the left hemisphere, but emotional language,
including automatic cursing (e.g. when hitting your head) in the right hemisphere

Euphemisms
The existence of TABOO words stimulates the creation of EUPHEMISMS
- a ‘nicer’ way of saying something to replaces a taboo word or avoid
frightening/unpleasant subjects
- euphemisms for death:…? urination/defecation:…? masturbation:…?

“Anti-euphemisms”?
- nonoffensive words become offensive in a particular context
“broad” applied to a woman (potentially connected to the idea of broad hips)
“sucks” euphemism for fellatio
- BUT: “sucks” grew in popularity, and was prolifically used in nonsexual contexts, and
alternative nonsexual expansions of sucks emerged ("that sucks like a vacuum", "that
sucks zucchini") it became decidedly less offensive, and is today considered a "PG"-
phrase.

Racist language
- racist terminology > sexual / scatalogical terminology
- e.g. nigger, now mostly banned in American public discourse
- has affected use of the unrelated, but similar-sounding, word niggardly (meaning
"stingy")
- context is very important; thus, Americans of African descent might use the word
nigger (nigga) in informal situations among themselves