It may be starred, beeped, and censored -- yet profanity is so appealing that we can't stop using it. In the funniest, clearest study to date, Benjamin Bergen explains why, and what that tells us about our language and brains. Nearly everyone swears-whether it's over a few too many drinks, in reaction to a stubbed toe, or in flagrante delicto. And yet, we sit idly by as words are banned from television and censored in books. We insist that people excise profanity from their vocabularies and we punish children for yelling the very same dirty words that we'll mutter in relief seconds after they fall asleep. Swearing, it seems, is an intimate part of us that we have decided to selectively deny.
That's a damn shame. Swearing is useful. It can be funny, cathartic, or emotionally arousing. As linguist and cognitive scientist Benjamin K. Bergen shows us, it also opens a new window onto how our brains process language and why languages vary around the world and over time.
In this groundbreaking yet ebullient romp through the linguistic muck, Bergen answers intriguing questions: How can patients left otherwise speechless after a stroke still shout
Goddamn when they get upset? When did a
cock grow to be more than merely a rooster? Why is
crap vulgar when
poo is just childish? Do slurs make you treat people differently? Why is the first word that Samoan children say not
mommy but
eat shit? And why do we extend a middle finger to flip someone the bird?
Smart as hell and funny as fuck,
What the F is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to know how and why we swear.
About the AuthorBenjamin K. Bergen is a Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego, where he directs the Language and Cognition Laboratory. His writing has appeared in
Wired, Scientific American, Psychology Today, Salon,
Time, the
Los Angeles Times, the
Guardian, and the
Huffington Post. He lives in San Diego.
