Why do
profanities
proliferate?
By CRYSTAL LINDELL - clindell@nwherald.com
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| (Northwest Herald photo illustration) |
The former governor of Illinois is quoted doing it, Britney Spears has a popular song alluding to it, and police were called after a local school board member allegedly did it.
What is it? Dropping the F-bomb.
And all three are following a trend that is part of society becoming more complacent about profane language, said Edward Callary, an English professor specializing in linguistics at Northern Illinois University.
“General social interaction is becoming much more informal,” he said. “We’ve used these words so often now ... they really have lost much of the shock value that they’ve had.”
Blagojevich has been quoted as saying that President Obama’s Senate seat was “bleeping golden,” but everyone knows he didn’t actually say “bleeping.”
Spears’ new song “If you seek Amy” when said quickly alludes to crude suggestions and is regularly aired on public radio stations.
And a District 165 school board member allegedly used the F-word during a confrontation with a parent at Locust School, according to a police report.
“A lot of the swearing is done because it’s lazy language,” said Jim O’Connor, a Lake Forest resident and author of “Cuss Control: The Complete Book on How to Curb your Cussing.” “Certain swear words are very versatile. They can be nouns, participles, adjectives.”
But why are certain words so much worse than others? Callary said each society has its own set of profane words, and they usually reference religion, sexual situations, ethnic groups or various lifestyles.
They also tend to evolve over time.
For example, the changing attitudes toward the F-bomb now could be compared to another common phrase, once considered profane, he said.
“A generation ago, saying ‘Oh my God,’ would have shocked people,” Callary said. “Now we have ‘OMG.’ We just go ahead and text it.”
Dale Graff, a Richmond resident, said he’s always been lax with swear words, despite the fact that his wife, Cindy, never uses them.
“Say something falls on you,” he said. “It just comes out. It’s not like you really want it to come out.”
Cindy Graff said her husband also cusses in conversation.
“I’m the opposite,” she said. “I still get offended.”
Donna Smith of Wonder Lake said she also becomes offended, but she seems to hear swear words everywhere she goes.
“Right in the lines at the department store,” she said. “I was there the other day, … and it was, well, foul language, a four-letter word in front of me and my granddaughter.”
But even if the words are starting to lose their taboo, the anger behind them hasn’t, O’Connor said.
“The F-word doesn’t shock much of anybody anymore, but it still offends people sometimes, and it reflects bad judgment,” he said.
Swear words also usually portray a lack of an ability to control emotion, O’Connor added.
“If you get in an argument with somebody and you swear at them, you’re not going to convince them of anything,” he said. “It’s not just the words, it’s the tone and the attitude behind the words that are offensive.”
Smith said she believed that people who swore weren’t being articulate enough to choose other words. She added that the words particularly offended her because she believed they were offensive to God, especially those that take his name in vain.
“People have lost respect,” she said. “They don’t care if their mother hears it.”
O’Connor agreed.
“It’s shows a decline in civility, manners and respect for others,” he said.
Callary said he did believe that it would be possible for the pendulum to swing back the other way, persuading people to swear less.
“The trend certainly might reverse itself,” he said. “These things sort of come and go.”
O’Connor said he, too, thought that eventually might happen.
“If we keep using these words over and over again, it becomes meaningless,” he said. “There’s so much saturation that people are tired of hearing it.”
