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Is swearing now normal speech?

I hate swearing.

It offends my ears and when people constantly swear I think 'poor thing they obviously don't have enough vocabulary to fill a sentence'.

Does it bother you and if not why not.

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Reply 1
Original post by Grace by Yahweh
I hate swearing.

It offends my ears and when people constantly swear I think 'poor thing they obviously don't have enough vocabulary to fill a sentence'.

Does it bother you and if not why not.

Swearing is a normal part of language and performs a specific function. If you get rid of swear words, other ones fill their place and become offensive. There is absolutely no point in whining about this.

And I'm sure your ears are not getting offended.
Swearing has its place. Watched a video of a lovely little study of people doing painful activities like holding their hands in ice water etc with and without being able to swear and the results showed that the pain levels were lower in those who were allowed to swear loudly.

There have always and always will be obscenities in language.
I'm Mancunian, it's part of my repertoire. I swear a fair bit but it's usually for emphasis i.e. 'I'm tired'... 'I'm exhausted'... 'I'm absolutely ****ing cream-crackered'
(edited 9 years ago)
It's always been 'normal speech.'
I quite like swear words, they can completely change emphasis, and whole sentences. I certainly wouldn't use them in speech though, I don't have a good accent to be using such words. But all in all I find them nice to read, to hear, when used well, of course.

I would rather be called a ****** or **** than ignorant tbh, it's such a bad word to me
Reply 6
so annoying, do people not have an imagination? the word **** conjoures up images of poo, its like when people say they are going to the toilet (thanks! I really wanted this in my head).
Yes. swearing does irritate me.
Makes me think that you're impolite and cannot utilize clever wording to respond back.
Reply 8
There's a time and a place. When I'm out for a drink with my mates there's f and c bombs being dropped left right and centre, and I don't really think anything of it. If someone at work does it at work though I cringe. Just seems really inappropriate and unprofessional. No swearing goes on within my family either, I'd be terrified of effing in front of my mother haha.
I do think swearing has a place. I don't swear in normal speech (I'm a soon to be trainee teacher) but I do swear quite a bit when I'm talking out loud to myself and nobody is in the room. Sometimes I swear accidentally when I suddenly hurt myself or something (otherwise it comes out as shhhhh or ffffffff). It does bother me when people swear in every sentence, there's no need for it. Saying that, swearing can sometimes be funny, like in the film Snatch.
Sometimes there are no other words to describe how you feel or otherwise if there are, they would be too lengthy. I don't care if someone swears because I spit swear words like a chimney at work when I'm frustrated :laugh: But I do swear in foreign languages so that not many would understand what I'm saying :teehee:
Reply 11
You've got to bear in mind of course that words that are considered obscene have changed throughout the course of history. For instance, in the middle ages blasphemy was considered to be highly offensive whereas the words we would understand today as swearing only became offensive later (interestingly, they tend to be of Anglo-Saxon origin). Swearing definitely has its place though, provided such words are not overused or used in the wrong circumstances.
[video="youtube;s_osQvkeNRM"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM&spfreload=10[/video]
Yes. The traditional swear words have by and large lost their taboo status.

Fortunately, if you are white, they have been replaced by dozens of utterly blasphemous and sacrilegious terms, which the politically correct totalitarians will inform you are "racist," "misogynistic", "Islamophobic", "homophobic", "anti-semitic", "transphobic" or "sexist" and must therefore never be uttered aloud or even thought on pain of social death.
For some people it is, though I am not one of them.
Original post by Ronove
Swearing is a normal part of language and performs a specific function. If you get rid of swear words, other ones fill their place and become offensive. There is absolutely no point in whining about this.

And I'm sure your ears are not getting offended.


I don't think anyone's going to become annoyed if 'ducking' becomes the new swear word equivalent of the f word and it wouldn't be regarded as offensive as such, more a quaint and considerate tempering for people you are with, if they're not your usual gang of people.
And some people do use such equivalents.

I swear infrequently in anger but I don't regard it as softening the power of a swear word to use it, as a rule, casually in conversation. It just suggests a crude comfort blanket against whatever disappointments in life have lead that person to think that discourse peppered with expletives suggests some form of integrity, some pushing against the 'system'.
It's worse when people use it against the very systems that enable them to actually survive in life.

But swearing by some professional comedians can be good because they know where and when to use them for effect. Whereas the average person, being average, can just come across as a crude boor.
Original post by BefuddledPenguin
[video="youtube;s_osQvkeNRM"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM&spfreload=10[/video]


yawn that man is so pretentious and overrated.
Original post by Ronove
Swearing is a normal part of language and performs a specific function. If you get rid of swear words, other ones fill their place and become offensive. There is absolutely no point in whining about this.

And I'm sure your ears are not getting offended.


But I want to whine about it.

I hear what you are saying with regard to swearing possibly performing a specific function or when in anger or pain, as mentioned in posts above.

But I still find it offensive. It is a subtle erosion of speech 'decency'.
Reply 18
Original post by Nogoodsorgods
I don't think anyone's going to become annoyed if 'ducking' becomes the new swear word equivalent of the f word and it wouldn't be regarded as offensive as such, more a quaint and considerate tempering for people you are with, if they're not your usual gang of people.
And some people do use such equivalents.

I swear infrequently in anger but I don't regard it as softening the power of a swear word to use it, as a rule, casually in conversation. It just suggests a crude comfort blanket against whatever disappointments in life have lead that person to think that discourse peppered with expletives suggests some form of integrity, some pushing against the 'system'.
It's worse when people use it against the very systems that enable them to actually survive in life.

But swearing by some professional comedians can be good because they know where and when to use them for effect. Whereas the average person, being average, can just come across as a crude boor.

Being unable to recognise when to use the correct register/mode of speech when in different company (or alternatively, being a snob and judging people using a different register) is the issue here, not language or the register itself.

And I can assure you that if 'ducking' did indeed become the go-to word instead of ****ing, it would become as offensive as ****ing. People will always either avoid using anything as an expletive at all, or they will use alternatives that make them look worse than swearing or going without. Pointedly using the word 'sugar' instead of **** around others who wouldn't give a damn if you said ****, for example, makes it look like you either haven't grown out of being a small child and are incapable of thinking about language critically, or you spend too much time around your own small children and struggle to handle register shifts.

Original post by Grace by Yahweh
But I want to whine about it.

I hear what you are saying with regard to swearing possibly performing a specific function or when in anger or pain, as mentioned in posts above.

But I still find it offensive. It is a subtle erosion of speech 'decency'.

Nothing to do with language is 'in decline' or an 'erosion' of anything. That is a myth. If you're actually interested, go and read about it. There is a very accessible book called Language Myths edited by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill, or alternatively, Historical Linguistics by Herbert Schendl, both of which would help clarify the misconceptions you have about language.

Or perhaps you just wanted to instigate a reactionary circlejerk amongst anyone you could get to agree with you.
Original post by Blind Ferret
I'm Mancunian, it's part of my repertoire. I swear a fair bit but it's usually for emphasis i.e. 'I'm tied'... 'I'm exhausted'... 'I'm absolutely ****ing cream-crackered'


As another fellow manc.... This is true. It's in our nature

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