Believe it or not, there are still some people around who regard a certain category of words to be evil or immoral in some way. It’s known as ’swearing’. I’ve found this a curious concept since I was a teenager, since not much about it made any sense to me. It’s all bollocks, of course: no word can have a moral bias. Nevertheless as a society we appear to love having this category of language which is only acceptable in certain circles and not in others.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia published a study today which claims that swearing at work boosts morale. What’s interesting about the study is that it confirms my central confusion about the whole idea that ’swearing’ is something to be avoided:
“Employees use swearing on a continuous basis, but not necessarily in a negative, abusive manner. Swearing was as a social phenomenon to reflect solidarity and enhance group cohesiveness, or as a psychological phenomenon to release stress. Most of the cases were reported by employees at the lower levels of the organisational hierarchies and it was clear that executives use swearing language less frequently. The primary issue for management is whether or not to apply a tolerant leadership culture to the workplace and deliberately allow swearing.”
The study is clearly a challenge to the idea that swearing is a negative thing to be dodged by respectable, polite people. But perhaps an even more interesting question is this: will people always create ways to be offended?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Peter Couling // Nov 14, 2007 at 9:42 am
I have been in parts of the UK where every second word was an old Anglo-Saxon one - thought today as extremely vulgar. The thing was that if you did not respond in like manner, there was a tendency not to be understood. It was seemingly an entrenched part of the vocabulary as an adjective or adverb. Typically a sentence went “And f—g Jim was f—g driving his f—g van, see, and this f—g light changed so f—–g quickly he f—–g couldn’t stop in f—g time, could he?” This falls under the social solidarity and group cohesive phenomena no doubt but it amused me.
2 John // Nov 14, 2007 at 9:59 am
Peter, yes it is amusing! I love the whole concept of a word that can offend without any sentiment behind it whatsoever. People are so hung up on language: they tend not to realise that it’s an entirely cultural thing and therefore is entirely neutral. Anyway, thanks for stopping by… stick around.
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