Swearing

[Shradow]

First off, the types of swearing (yes, they have those):

Dysphemistic swearing - Exact opposite of euphemism. Forces listener to think about negative or provocative matter. Using the wrong euphemism has a dysphemistic effect. (Example: He f***s her!)

Abusive swearing - For abuse or intimidation or insulting of others (Example: You motherf***ing son of a b****! F*** you a**hole!)

Idiomatic swearing - Swearing without really referring to the matter. Just using the words to arouse interest, to show off, and express to peers that the setting is informal. (Example: F***, man.)

Emphatic swearing - To emphasize something with swearing. (Example: It was so f***ing big!)

Cathartic swearing - When something bad happens like getting injured, people curse. One evolutionary theory asserts it is meant to tell the audience that you’re undergoing a negative emotion. (Example: Aww, f***! Damn that hurt!)

 

What are your thoughts on swearing? Do you swear?

 

For the most part, I pretty much only use emphatic swearing, because there's just those times when I feel normal emphatic words, like "really" or "very" just don't cut it. I sometimes use cathartic swearing, as well, but that's more of a reflex.

[Atypical-Abbie]

I try to avoid abusive swearing, for obvious reasons, but the others I do so quite often. I guess I use it for emphasis in most situations, but really, I don't think about it too much. It's just natural for me to swear.

[Flash Flyer - Sakura]

I swear a bit in real life, so don't really mind it that much. (Come to think of it, a few YCM members swear a bit in their posts as well) to some degree)

 

To some extent, I use the second one on a couple of the spambots that I have to ban (either over here or another site) ; usually to "(censored) off", because I'm sick and tired of having to deal with them.

 

Fourth one's used quite often because the "tame" words aren't enough to embody certain things at times; more or less about people/things IRL that tick me off (i.e. one of my college professors, said university's proposal to raise tuition because they were stupid enough to get themselves into $32 mil debt for silly things, etc). I use this one at home where said parties can't hear (to self); better that I let it out to self, instead of posting something inflammatory online or in worst case, saying it to their face.

 

Fifth one is for pain reflexes; generally if I bang into something.

 

 

As for opinion, guess I don't mind it too much; considering that I do it to an extent as well.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Not gonna lie, I do use all five of them, though rarely using English for the abusive one since it kinda felt weird when saying it.

 

Not really throwing them to everyone willy nilly, but yeah.

[(GigaDrillBreaker)]

Sakura, it is fine. I hate spambots too. We will destroy them all, together.

Anyway, I swear fairly often, but it is almost all idiomatic.

[~British Soul~]

I tend to avoid abusive swearing whenever possible, but there are instances where I can't stop myself using it.

 

The other types I mainly use are cathartic swearing which I almost always use when I bang into something and Empathic swearing which I don't use often.

[goddamnit names are a pain]

I wouldn't mind swearing but really at the moment all I actually say is "damn" and "bastard", mostly for a humorous effect, though the former does help me let off steam.

 

I mostly frown upon it in America because, let's face it, people do it just to do it, and/or just sound like complete and utter idiots/delinquents when doing it.

If you want to look less intelligent, then by all means keep swearing. 

[Rodrigo]

When I was 4 years old, I took one f***ing strong slap on my mouth after saying one swear word for my mom.

 

I never f***ing said any f***ing swear word near her again.

[Azure Wolf]

I don't swear and if I'm starting to say a swear word I generally catch myself. Most of the times I'm about to is when I have mucked up or gotten hurt in some way (the latter being rarer due to my high tolerance to pain).

 

I usually look down on people who swear just for the purpose of swearing, as I think it is uncivil and makes me believe the person isn't as intelligent as they think they might be.

[Spinny]

Although i dont like to swear, i do use it a little bit for the 4th and 5th one.

[Agro]

yo fuck this shit thread

[a bad post]

I use all of them except for abusive swearing, to be honest when I'm angry is only time I don't swear to be honest.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

I don't swear often. Especially not around family. For some reason it just feels really weird to me to swear most the time.

I don't mind if others do it. But usually only if it's for emphasis, a joke, or if they're ranting and releasing steam.

Otherwise I don't know, it just seems pointless to me.

To be fair it's probably just a writing thing, but I tend to prefer using all kinds of words in place of swears for emphasis or whatever anyway.

 

Plus censoring can be fun if you do it right. I called someone a stupid fish taco the other day. It made me laugh and made me much less angry.

[Captain Murphy ☆]

I don't really swear that much, I can't recall ever swearing here on YCM tbh. At school I swear up a storm in the hallway though...

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

I swear a lot when there's no one around. So pretty much all 5 applies to me except for abusive swearing (off the internet of course).

 

Like, whenever I drop a pencil in a test, I mutter "Fucking Christ" or some variation of it. And then the swears get a little creative... ("Holy titballs on a fucking juggling monkey-fuck!")

[Shradow]

I will say, though, if I'm playing a video game (and it doesn't matter what game), I start swearing a lot, whether its cathartic swearing when something bad happens or just casual idiomatic swearing. Like, I could be playing Animal Crossing while having a normal conversation with a friend and said conversation will have me swearing more than usual (though not in an offensive way, like abusive swearing).

 

Not sure why.