People Who Swear More Are Vocab Experts

[Super Nova]

F*ck, Bloody, Bitch, %$#*& - Does this mean IQ is our Vocab Expert.

People Who Swear More Are Actually Vocab Experts
Would you argue that some people use curse words as a crutch? You might wanna watch your mouth... and then give them a quick briefing on feminism.

"The ability to generate taboo language is not an index of overall language poverty," wrote the researchers behind a new study published in the journal Language Sciences. "A voluminous taboo lexicon may better be considered an indicator of healthy verbal abilities.”

Stated plainly, people don’t swear because they lack the words with which to express themselves. They swear because that's how they want to express themselves -- and they tend to know MORE words than people who don’t.

But that isn't necessarily a good thing, as some of the most common swear words in the study have connotations that degrade women. In the study, "expressive" swear words were uttered more frequently than slurs except when those slurs pertained to women. Terms like "bitch" were uttered almost as frequently as those common words you might shout if you hit your finger with a hammer. And that suggests society still has a very long way to go.

Granted, the small study's subjects skewed young -- researchers tested just 43 college students, aged 18 to 22. Each was asked to recite as many swear words as they could in one minute and name as many animals as they could in one minute. In the end, researchers found that people who named more animals could also name more swear words. Their findings support the theory that "fluency is fluency": If someone knows a large number of words overall, then swear words are bound to be included.

What's more, it takes smarts to swear correctly. The researchers say subtle nuances attached to slur words prove "the presence of more rather than less linguistic knowledge" in those who use them. Let's hope they use that knowledge for good.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not), men and women showed equal proficiency for coming up with curses.

"Years ago, you think you would've seen more men swearing in public than women," researcher Timothy Jay of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts told HuffPost. "But among the students we tested, women showed no difference."

http://www.msn.com/en-au/lifestyle/smar ... spartandhp

[boxy]

Wait... they asked them to recite as many as possible. That, in itself, doesn't mean that they use them regularly

[skippy]

Many women swear more than men nowadays. Agnes has taught me a word or two I'd never heard of.
I'm sure IQ must have a swear dictionary he uses to share the word of the day with us. He seems an expert on obscure words that offend.

[AiA in Atlanta]

ackamarackus

[Outlaw Yogi]

Pommy backpackers have often commented that they can't believe how much Aussies swear .. in general speech .. all the time.
But over time they pick it up and mimic us. Some who returned said that they got in trouble with their parents when they went back home.

[Super Nova]

Pommy backpackers have often commented that they can't believe how much Aussies swear .. in general speech .. all the time.
But over time they pick it up and mimic us. Some who returned said that they got in trouble with their parents when they went back home.

When I am comfortable with people OS I start to swear more particularly when in a work crisis.

By then they have got to know me and think, "well he is an Australian after all" and I get away with it.

POMs I have to do this with too, their class bias leads them to believe the way you speak represents your class. Fuck 'em.

If you go to pub in Scotland or Birmingham in the council estates they can give us a good run for our money.

[Chard]

No shit. Told you ignorant motherfuckers that a while ago. Y'all niggas be egregiously trippin'.

[Neferti]

No shit. Told you ignorant motherfuckers that a while ago. Y'all niggas be egregiously trippin'.

Hey, Chard ... Aussies don't use the Yank "curse words" "motherfuckers" or "son of a bitch (SOB)" ...

I had to explain the different interpretations of "pissed" to one of your countrymen many years ago ... he used "I was pissed" ... meaning that he was annoyed and I told him that, in Australia, "I was pissed" means you were drunk. Being "pissed off" is when you are annoyed. I think this difference seems to have caught on since the Internet was available to all and sundry (20+ years ago).


Welcome back by the way. Where have you been?

[mantra]

Swearing would be effective if it wasn't overused by so many people. People who swear a lot are tedious and come across as ignorant and inarticulate.

[AiA in Atlanta]

the English have a richer vocabulary of dirty words than either the Americans or Australians.