Interesting news item in the Toronto, CA Sun:
No s---! People who swear have bigger vocabularies, study finds
Good news, potty mouths: you're smarter than those who don't swear.
People who curse have a better vocabulary, according to a new study that looked at the theory that people swear only because they don't have the words to express themselves otherwise.
Not true, as it turns out, say U.S. psychologists Kristin Jay and Timothy Jay in the Language Sciences journal.
Cursers tend to understand "nuanced distinctions" in their language, which indicates increased vocabulary overall, the study concluded.
Their conclusion?
"The ability to generate taboo language is not an index of overall language poverty," the researchers concluded
This comes as no fscking surprise to me. Swearing may not be acceptable for 'polite society' but that is just a construct. It is about expressing oneself - eloquence and all that good stuff...
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