Taboo Lexis - The Stigma Behind Swearing

Taboo lexis

Despite the stigma behind swear words giving them a taboo nature, there are many studies suggesting their impact is more positive, a useful part of our complex vocabulary. I will be exploring how swearing can reflect intelligence, can promote stress relief and pain relief and why there should be less of a stigma behind it.

A study from psychologists at Marist College has proven a positive correlation between a person's fluency in the English language and their fluency in swearing. Their verbal fluency was measured by asking participants to name as many words as they can beginning with a certain letter of the alphabet in one minute. Following this, the same task was repeated but measuring how many swear words they can recall in one minute. People with greater language skills tend to do better on the verbal fluency test, and these people also did better in the swearing fluency test. The weakest in the verbal fluency test also did poorly on the swearing fluency test. This suggests that, contrary to popular belief, the use of swearing shows a more articulate speaker who can communicate more effectively, as oppose to someone with low intelligence or a lack of vocabulary (unless overused due to a lack of other words to voice ideas).

Additionally, swearing also promotes pain relief. Richard Stephens conducted research at Keele University in which participants submerged their hand in ice water for as long as possible while repeating a word. The same participants were used each time, but on the first occasion they repeated a swear word and on the second they repeated a neutral word. Those who swore had a greater increase in heart rate which, due to the body's fight or flight response releasing adrenalin, caused natural pain relief. It boosts muscle strength and stamina too.

The origins of many swear words also leave many to question why they carry such a negative stigma. A lot of words and phrases such as 'hell', 'damn' and 'Jesus Christ' have a Christian origin, and have been considered blasphemous since Roman times. However, in recent years, as our society becomes more secular, these words have lost their harsh effect, and are used much more freely without such a disapproving response. They have lost a lot of their stigma, which people expect to happen to many other swear words as they become more openly used.

Other words originate from more biological backgrounds, such as 'dick' and 'twat' which makes their use as insults rather unusual. What is usually considered the worst swear of all - 'c*nt' - is merely another term for a woman's nether regions, which leaves many people questioning how and why it gained such negative use. It was originally from the Old North 'kunta' and Dutch 'kunte', going back to the Middle Ages. For a long time, it was even used in medical guides. In 1785, Francis Grose described it as 'a nasty word for a nasty thing' in his Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Feminists are working on claiming the word back as there is no reason for it to be frowned upon, but it is unlikely this will happen any time soon.

In conclusion, while I dont think there is a clear reason for these words to be stigmatised as they are, the stigma may be the reason they are so effective; perhaps they wouldn't relieve pain if they were more neutral, and becoming normal words would remove the neurological thrill gained from using them.