Blog 7 - Zounds

I’ve been reading a couple of blogs recently which address the issue of profanity and taboo words, so I figured that I’d chime in. I was recently reading an article about some research done by Yehuda Baruch. Baruch, a professor of management at the University of East Anglia, suggests that swearing in the workplace is actually beneficial for workers as a means to relieve stress and develop collegiality with their co-workers.

I am supremely suspicious of these findings. Baruch suggests that abusive and offensive swearing should be “stamped out.” However, for many people, swearing is inherently offensive, and by encouraging the use of profanity in certain circumstances, managers would be creating an uncomfortable atmosphere for several of their employees. Also, swearing could even be detrimental to a company’s productivity, as it leads to an atmosphere of informality, which is not conducive to work. If nothing else, swearing damages the employees own abilities to articulate themselves as much of their vocabulary gets crudely replaced by profanity. Whatever happened to weekend picnics and office parties? There are most certainly better ways for people to relieve stress and develop team spirit than to use offensive language.

But that statement actually begs the question of why is this language offensive? According to a New York Times article, swearing has been a constant through history. For instance, Shakespeare often used profanities of his time like “zounds” and “sblood,” which are respectively offensive contractions of “God’s wounds” and “His blood.” The article even suggests that the Bible itself uses what could be considered language. Researchers have found that simply hearing curses causes signs of instant arousal. For instance, the hairs on their arms rise, their pulse speeds up, and their breathing becomes shallow.

But where does the taboo that surrounds swear words come from? According to Dr. Deutscher, a linguist at the University of Leiden, in some cultures, swears come from sex and bodily functions while in others they derive from religion. The idea of a swear word comes from the immense importance accorded to swearing by the name of a god. In ancient Babylon, to break such an oath would be tantamount to bringing down god’s wrath. For example, even the term “Golly!” which may seem, as the article puts it, “comically wholesome,” was once a profanity as it’s a contraction for “God’s Body.” However, a lot of questions still exist about why swears evoke such strong and passionate reactions from people in a broad spectrum of cultures. By studying patients with Tourette’s, researchers are beginning to see the brain’s role in swearing and the emotional reactions that it induces.


Pran


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/20/science/20curs.html?pagewanted=4&_r=1&ei=5070&en=165110c8ec4d45c1&ex=1128225600&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1192734106-6jcTMExIfl2dwkZrBAMZIw
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/10/17/swearing-works-89520-19963117/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/10/18/ftramsay118.xml