Swearing.

Why do people consider swearing to be offensive? And what determines whether a word is a swear word? It is interesting to consider whether people created this problem for themselves, perhaps swear words are derived from people being offensive to each other, using phrases and slang to create terms of an insulting nature. I think it is a fair assumption to make that every person at one point has used a swear word and for the most part it may be in anger, pain or even shock and they are what people use to express a feeling outside of their own familiar situations. Perhaps it could be argued that when used in this context it is deemed acceptable, however they are also those who swear as a part of their everyday vocabulary. It is fast becoming a problem amongst youngsters who are growing up with the belief that swear words are just words, however the reality is very different and people are viewing the younger generation in a bad way.

In 2007 Wednesfield High School allowed channel 4 to film a documentary at the school called ‘Mind your f-ing language’ and followed the everyday productivity of the school via hidden cameras and microphones and film crews also sat in on certain lessons and interviewed pupils. The aim was to see whether students could give up swearing and view the interactions of pupils and staff on an average school day. During filmng, a regime was set up in which every time a student was caught swearing they had to put money into a swear box, which was implemented to try and stop the frequent use of such words. As an ex-pupil of Wednesfield High, I can say that the outcome was definitely divided; many people thought that there was no particular help gained from the programme (and as always tv editing makes the problem out to be a lot worse than it actually is) and some thought it was a clever idea to raise awareness of how our youngsters view swearing.

As mentioned earlier, swearing is sometimes used by people when they are in pain and according to a survey conducted by scientists at Keele University, “uttering swear words can help to lessen the feeling of physical pain.” Furthermore Dr Richard Stephens believes this to be the reason as to why swearing is “common place in languages around the world” he believes that swearing may have been used by our ancestors to flee or fight back when attacked by predators; “We think it could be part of the flight or fight response. In the volunteers who swore, we also found they had an elevated heart rate, so it could be increasing their aggression levels.” Therefore this furthers my belief that we are perhaps to blame for the invention of swear words, yet it would be interesting to know when people started to view these words as a bad thing.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/5803300/Swearing-can-reduce-the-feeling-of-pain.html

I stand firm with the belief that not much can be done with regards to swearing. It is certainly not illegal to swear and although people may be asked not to swear by teachers or employers, there isn’t much that can actually be done about it. I believe it to be one of those instances in which if someone wants to swear then it is their choice to do so. However I do think that if people have to swear constantly and use such words to create sentences, it shows a certain lack of intelligence as they cannot think of other words to use. I am no saint when it comes to swearing, but I definitely think that there is a time and place for the use of such words as certain people may take offence or be made uncomfortable by someone that uses swear words on a frequent basis.