Stronger Taboos: The Role of Vocabulary Fluency and Social Context in Swearing Behavior
Overview
This essay examines swearing as a socially prohibited behavior despite religious teachings against it. The author argues for stronger cultural taboos on vulgar language while exploring research suggesting that swearing correlates with vocabulary limitations, and that verbally fluent individuals can exercise more creative and contextually appropriate expression.
What this essay covers
- Introduction establishing religious prohibition of swearing and argument for stronger taboos
- Discussion of Valdesolo's research on swearing, vocabulary fluency, and contextual appropriateness
- Analysis of differences between naturally vulgar speakers and verbally fluent individuals in managing taboo language
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Stronger Taboos
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Stronger Taboos
Swearing is an act that is forbidden by religions like Christianity. From the Bible in James 5:12, Christians are prohibited from swearing either by the earth or heaven. The teachings from that the bible state that a 'yes' should be a yes, and a 'no' should be a no (Lewis, 1947). Despite warnings from religious books, humans have continued to swear and to curse. Maybe it is because of a lack of more definite taboos that forbid swearing. It is time there be more certain taboos on words used to swear. This will make people keep off from damaging swear words that may not be appropriate in certain circumstances.
Valdesolo (2016) notes that swearing may be due to a lack of vocabulary in an individual. Lack of enough words then leads to individuals using words that may be considered taboo, such as the 'F' word and others. Further, Valdesolo (2016) notes that swearing and cursing can be smart and creative if people are fluent in their vocabulary. Besides, the article notes that it is essential for people to exercise the taboos against words by themselves so that they can make swearing creative or not proactive to another person.
However, the article notes that as much as there is a need to make swearing creative, there are people that are vulgar by nature. They speak taboo words in settings where such words are unwarranted (Valdesolo, 2016).