Expletive Deleted
A Good Look at Bad Language
Prologue
Until quite recently, swearing was a subject largely ignored by those who investigate the nature of language. Well, perhaps "ignored" is going too far. Let's say interest was lacking. Not a lot has changed since twelve years ago, when Timothy Jay, one of the few serious researchers in this field, wrote, "If all science on language stopped now, we would know very little about dirty word usage or how dirty word usage relates to more normal language use."
This lack of interest becomes glaringly obvious when you consider the massive amount of literature that has been generated analyzing discrete linguistic elements such as the past-tense inflection of "-ed" or present tense, third-person singular final "-s." While I'm happy to own up to my bias as an applied (that is, not pure) linguist, and while I'm loath to cast aspersions on other linguists' areas of expertise (we're a small academic community, and we have to live together peaceably), I need to ask here: Is there really any competition between swearing and the bits we put on the ends of verbs as topics ... read full excerpt from Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language ebook
