Re: What the f -at- #$?

[Michael LaTorra <mikel -at- ACCUGRAPH -dot- COM>]

> Matt --

> Regarding expletives, you wrote:

>    I'm wondering if anyone else has ever stopped to ponder why
>    some words (usually monosyllabic) are shunned while
>    there synonyms (usually
>    polysyllabic) are acceptable. I suspect that the origins of
>    this are classist
>    and elitist, but I've never actually made a study to confirm this.


> Perhaps they are, but there is another alternative. Since we
> know that our behavior is nearly equally affected by
> social environment and hereditary/biological factors, we
> should consider the latter as well. I'm thinking specifically
> of something I read in Jeremy Campbell's excellent book on
> language, GRAMMATICAL MAN, and also of what I heard from an
> ER nurse.

> In GRAMMATICAL MAN, we learn of a computer experiment in which
> character strings would be randomly generated at first, then
> grammatical rules of English would be applied one by one. All
> they got was gibberish for a while. But the first English words
> to emerge were "fuck, shit" etc.

> My friend the ER nurse told of accompanying a patient with a
> severe head injury on a helicopter ride to the hospital.
> The patient spoke mostly in swear words. Finally, the pilot
> turned around and said "Shut up or I'll shut you up!" The
> nurse then explained to the pilot that the patient was not
> swearing at him or anyone else, but that head-injured people often
> just spew profanities without negative intentions.

> Maybe these words are taboo because they are associated with
> lower, more primitive levels of lingustic and neurological
> development.


> Live long & prosper,
> Mike LaTorra

> Documentation Supervisor
> Accugraph Inc.
> mikel -at- accugraph -dot- com
> ......................................................................
> The opinions expressed are my own, and not necessarily those of my
> company -- but they probably should be.
> ......................................................................