LINGUSITIC 269 FINAL REVIEW
What is Amygdala
Involved in processing of emotions (especially fear and aggression) and works with "hippocampus", mapping emotions to memories
What is the rule in Hlonipha for married women?
It is a "language of respect", where married women are restricted to say names (either whole or in part) of husband's family (especially father in law, male ancestors); avoidance is achieved through synonyms, circumlocution, word adaptation, mutation, or loan words
Which hemisphere controls swearing?
It is primarily controlled by right hemisphere
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in Italian?
male sexual inadequacy
According to McEnery and Xiao, the number of F words used by age at which they left school was the most at....?
Age 15 or 16
What is limbic system?
An evolutionarily older part of our brain; responsible for processing, regulating emotions, motivation, memory; also four Fs: Feeding, Fleeing, Fighting, and F.U.C.K; controls human vocalizations other than language, like sobbing, laughing, moaning, shouting pain
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in German?
Anal/excrements
What does left hemisphere do?
Analytical processing (analyzing information), language, speech, sounds, mathematics, temporal relations, intellectual reasoning
In which countries avoid naming after dead ones?
Austronesian and Massai (Africa); in Austroneisan, anyone with same name as deceased must change it (if name derives from common noun, that too is taboo); in Massai (Africa) the newly deceased are renamed; only the new name can be uttered
Why people who left school at 14 or under show unexpected lower swearing than those of 15 or 16?
Because they were not enough samples (most of them are 60s or more)
What did Jacobi found about swearing used by black and white people?
Black people judged more offensive than white when using non-ethnic profanities, but whey they use N word, whites judged more offensive than black using it
What did Beer-Fagersten found about swearing and ethnicity about most frequently used taboo?
Black people used shi.t most frequently, while whites, hispanics, and asian american used F word most frenquently
Properties about profanity in Quebec-French
Can be strung together with de 'of' (crisse de char = Christ of car); with preposition 'en' to mean "a lot of' (d'la bouffe en crisse = a fuc.kton of food); as stronger form of verb 'give' (calisser une volee = give a beating = to beat the F out of"
Teenagers or young adults may swore the most because...
according to the study done by Jay, they have no power to lose by swearing; don't have career to worry about
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in Norwegian?
devil/satan, hell
What is lalochezia?
emotional or physical relief from stress or pain gained by swearing
Who swears more: Lower working class men or lower working class women?
lower working class women
Do adult's reactions to children's swears contribute to their persistence?
yes
Two main uses with different syntatic properties of "f.uck"
1. (verb) to have sexual intercourse; 2. (quasi-verb) invective, maledictive, emphatic use
What are the four unprotected speech?
1. defaming, libelous speech; 2. words which pose 'imminent danger'; 3. fighting words; 4. obscenity
What happens if you get Broca's aphasia (expressive aphasia)?
1. disfluent, halting speech 2. speech contains only content words, with a general lack of infections, function words (=agrammatic speech) 3. but comprehension is generally good
non-linguistic traits of coprolalia
1. disrupt the patterns of normal speech.. 2. the timbre of voice different from normal speech.. 3. tend to occur during grammatical pauses.. 4. unlike automatic swearing, not caused by external trigger (rather, an internal one).
What did Jay, King & Duncan found from their survey?
1. punishment does not stop a child from swearing (can have opposite effect) 2. punishment does not have long-lasting effect
What happens if you get Wernicke's aphasia (receptive aphasia)?
1. speech is fluent, like can use function words, inflections, but semantically incoherent 2. Lexical errors, unnecessary words, nonsense words, circumlocutions 3. and comprehension is poor
Difference between taboo words and neutral words based on physical aspect
1. swear words cause higher autonomic skin response, and L2 have lower galvanic conductivity than L1; 2. swear words are remembered more easily (because when swearing, emotional responses are triggered, causing amygdala to enhance memory for these words)
linguistic traits of coprolalia
1. taboo tics are language-, culture-specific. 2. Modality-specific (e.g., Deaf Touretters have signed taboo tics). 3. There is a contextual component to them (ex. Saying N. word upon seeing a black person).
what are the "3-prong Miller test" (legal definition of obscenity)?
1. whether the work, when "applying contemporary community standards....appeals to the prurient interest" 2. whether the work describes "in a patently offensive way" sexual conduct as defined by state law 3. whether the work, taken as a whole "lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value".
What are the earliest evidences of "f.u.c.k" in prints?
1475: from a poem written in cipher, in a garbled mixture of Latin, English = "qxddbov xxkxzt pq ifmk"; 1528: Monk writes "'O d fu.ckin Abbot" in marginalia of guide to moral conduct (probably first emotive use)
When did the word "f.uck" first appeared in a dictionary?
1598: John Florio's Italian-English dictionary, A Worlde of wordes: (Ita.) fottere: "to sarde; to fuc.ke; to swive; to occupy";
When did the first beeped appeared?
1698: From court proceedings against Capt. Edwaed Rigby, for Sins of Sodomy
Censorship of "f.uck" in dictionaries first appeared at....
1755: intentionally omitted from Samule Johnson's "Dictionary of the English Language"
When did the word "f.uck" REAPPEARED in dictionaries?
1969: in American Heritage
Who swears more: 5-yrs old boys or 5-yrs old girls?
5-yrs old boys
Tourette's Syndrome
A neurological condition characterized by involuntary motor and vocal tics; only 10-15% have coprolalia; and caused by dysfunction in "basal ganglia", resulting in disinhibition of impulsive behaviors
What exactly happened in ""Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)" ?
Chaplinsky was arrested for calling a town official "a godd.amned racketeer" and "a d.amned fascist", and court ruled that insulting or fighting words should be limited because it harms the peace
What is the example of word magic
Death/disease taboos = mortology taboos generally operate on belief that uttering the name of a disease could summon it
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in Dutch?
Diseases, Genitals
What is Contralateral control?
Each hemisphere controls opposite side of body (left hemisphere controls right side of body, and vice versa)
When do swear words first emerge in children?
Early (1-2 yrs of age) (appears as soon as they learn how to speak or as soon as they hear taboo words)
What did Harris et al found in 2003?
Emotional impact of words can be measured through effect on autonomic reactivity in (galvanic) skin conductance tests
which side did US supreme court favored in? FCC or Pacificia (1973)?
FCC
All speeches are protected by first amendment
False
English word "f.u.c.k" comes from the acronym
False
English word "f.u.c.k" comes from the same root as Latin "futuere", Italian "fottere" and French "foutre" (which all means "to f.u.c.k"
False
Greater autonomic arousal to taboo words in L2 than L1
False
RHD sometimes results in excessive swearing? (T/F)
False. LHD does. RHD do not swear at all and often can't
Men and women rate taboo words about the same.
False. Men view swear words as less taboo than women do. Also, Jay (1980) found out that women have greater galvanic skin responses to taboo words than men, and their pain decreased more while swearing than men (which shows that tabooness matters)
Swearing cannot increase one's tolerance to pain
False. Swearing triggers "fight or flight" response in limbic system, which then reduces pain
According to study done by McEnery and Xiao, lower working class women swore more than upper working class men and same as lower working class men
False. lower working class women swore more than lower working class men, and about same as upper working class men (class matters)
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in Spain?
Family relations
What is most taboo category in Indo-European?
Faunality (bear!); euphemisms of bear were developed in Slavic, Germanic branches (Germanic: brown one; Baltic: one who licks; Slavic: honey eater); In Ukrainian, the word 'medv'id'' "bear" is still replaced by euphemisms
Where does word "f.u.c.k" come from?
From Proto-Germanic "fuk-", which means "to strike, rub, move back and forth"
What did Dewaele found in his survey?
He found out that emotional force of taboo words is highest in L1, and decreases with each new language learned; and languages learned in naturalistic context had higher emotional force than instructed languages
What did Holster suggest about learning swearing words in L2+?
He said that people should be taught to know, not taught to use (teach them when someone is emotional and/or being insulting to them).
Tabbo Stroop effect
Identifying color takes longer for taboo than neutral words because taboo words are processed automatically, activating emotion centers, requiring additional brain processing
Describe what happened to FCC and George Carlin
In 1973, there was complaint about Pacifica that Geroge Carlin's seven words aired on radio at 2 pm while 15 years old boy was hearing. FCC grants the complaint, and called the routine "indecent though not obscene" Then, Pacifica appealed the decision and lower court overturns it, calling FCC's definition of indecency "overbroad", "vague", and violating free speech
What did Gregersen found?
In 66 out of 103 languages studied, the gravest insults were those directed at opponent's mother (like in Spain)
What is it about "menstruation taboo" (Scatology)?
In English, the word "menstruation" is not taboo, but the topic is, as evidenced by euphemisms (the curse, the monthly visitor)
How do you think the US Supreme Court decided in "FCC v. Fox (2009)"?
In favor of FCC. Supreme Court later unanimously rules that FCC's fines were "unconstitutionally vague", but reaffirms Pacifica, FCC's authority to regulate language on broadcast TV
What is it about Naming taboo (Apellity)?
In many societies, one's name is a part one's identity, essence; assault on name is like assault on one's body (example is in Australia, where names are classed like body parts by grammar, not like possessed things); also, in many cultures, one's "true" name is kept secret; to know one's true name is to have a power over them (ex. Ancient Egypt, Grimm's Fairy Tale)
What Jay (1992) found, and what Coates (2003) found after studying genders and swearing?
Jay found out that both male and female more likely to swear in same-sex groups, while Coates found out that female swore more in mixed-sex groups, and they tone down taboo usage with same genders while tone up when males are present (which shows that address matters)
According to McEnery and Xiao, which swear the LEAST? Upper-middle (managerial, professional) , Lower-middle (supervisory, clerical), upper-working (skilled, manual), or lower-working (unskilled, unemployed)?
LMC
According to McEnery and Xiao, which swear the MOST? Upper-middle (managerial, professional) , Lower-middle (supervisory, clerical), upper-working (skilled, manual), or lower-working (unskilled, unemployed)?
LWC
Lateralization of language tasks
Left: grammar; propositional speech; informative, denotative language; strategic swearing (conscious, grammatical, has communicative purpose) Right: prosody, intonation; non-propositional speech (idiomatic, figurative, expressions, metaphors), emotional, connotative language; automatic swearing (largely unconscious; pre-set words, phrases; has no communicative purpose)
What is an awesome thing about "Frigatives"?
Many emotive taboo words, despite having nothing in common "semantically", can substitute for each other "syntactically"; many (nonsensical) modern taboo expressions likely stem from historical religious expressions that lost their emotive power (such as holy jesus => holy {F/Shit/hell}); this frigative substitution happens in other language as well
According to studies (mostly involved english speaking white people), which sex tend to swear more?
Men
What exactly happened in Miller v. California (1973)?
Miller gave the lewd video to the restaurant, and the restaurant owner saw it with his parent without knowing what it was, and sued Miller for delivering obscenity that he did not ask of
Is there any language without Taboo?
No
Do male and female swear for same purposes?
No. Although both male and female swore when they get angry, females swore because it shows trust/intimacy while males swore for entertainment (like joke or story telling), out of habit, and because it is expected (which shows that motive matters)
More punishment leads to less swearing?
No. Ironically, more sanctioned, the more powerful their swear words grow (punishment can cause swear words to acquire long-lasting emotional connotations, enhancing their power)
Men and women are equally judged by public when they swore.
No. women are judged more harshly, considered more offensive when swearing than men. Men are expected to swear in public (more acceptable) (this shows that expectation matters)
The most categories of Taboo in Quebec-French
Profanity (ex. ostie = host; tabarnak = tabernacle; bapteme = baptism); arose as form of rebellion against powerful Catholic Church until 1960s; today, many do not know words' informative meanings
What do toddlers' first swears tend to be?
Scatology (like poopy, fart, butt....their lexicon is small (about 7 words)
the basic categories that most of the languages fell into are
Scatology, Mortology, Profanity, Faunality, Appelity
What are the earliest evidences of "f.u.c.k" in names?
Surnames like "F.uckebegger" or "Fukkebotere" with meaning "to strike"; 1310 court records list "Roger F.uckbythenavele (probably first use of "f.u.c.k" meaning "to have sex"
How does swear affect emotion expressions of children of 1-2?
Swear replace infantile expressions of emotion such as biting
which swears the most? children, teenagers, middle-aged, or senior citizens?
Teenagers (15-24)
What did FCC say about the usage of "This is really f**king brilliant"? (Bono/Golden Globe)
They initially ruled as "not indecent or obscene" it does not describe sexual or excretory organs or activities in terms of the context, but later they OVERTURNED their initial ruling because the F-word does depict sexual or excretory organs or activities and invariably invokes coarse sexual image. They also overturned their decision because of the well being of the nation's children from the most offensive language
What do people say about L2+?
They say that they do not feel emotional weight of swears in L2+ (can lead to swearing too much, inappropriately); however, because L1 is stronger, some people prefer less forceful L2+ swearing; also, some switch language when swearing so as to not be understood by others
2004 policy that was made after FCC overturning their decision prohibited "single uses of vulgar words" including 'previous' instances of 'fleeting' expletives on FOX television (T/F)
True
Childern judged "milder" taboo words more harshly than adults
True
Children's swears start out neutral (often as repetition of adult's swears), without an understanding of what they mean
True
Hate speech is protected by the first amendment
True
Many aphasics with LHD can still use non-propositional speech, including swear words? (T/F)
True
People with higher education swore less than those with lower education
True
Taboo words elicit greater autonomic response than neutral words
True
blacks engage in more verbal word play than whites; often seen as "more insulting" than white as a result (T/F)
True
According to study done by McEnery and Xiao, women between 45 to 59 years old swore more than 35-44 years old men
True (age matters)
Men uses more offensive terms (like F**k) , and has larger vocabulary than women
True. Women use less offensive terms, and use more euphemisms (like oh my god) (tabooness matters)
What is another example of Faunality beside bear (in cross-cultural section)?
Weasel; in folklore, weasels were thought to bring bad luck, portend death
Men swore more with which gender?
With men
Which swore more? Working class or middle class? Also, rank among UMC, LMC, UWC, and LWC
Working class swore more than middle class; LMC < UMC < UWC < LWC
Can coprolalic tics be controlled?
Yes. It cannot be controlled wholly, but people may anticipate them, suppress them for short periods, and some can transform them into non-taboo words (like mother for mother F). However, those words do not satisfy the urge
What exactly happened in "Schenck v. United States (1919)"?
anti-war activist Schenck was arrested for sending out leaflets against WWI draft, which may have caused clear and present danger during the war time (falsely shouting fire in a theatre)
Aphasia
any language deficit caused by damage to the brain, which is almost always caused by "left hemisphere" damage
Campus speech code
any regulation that restricts or bans speech that would be protected by 1st amendment; adopted by many universities in the '80s, '90s as means of promoting diversity; designed to ban hate speech; also presumed legal basis for speech codes rests on 'fighting words' exception to 1st amendment
Why there is less emotional weight in L2+?
because people have stronger emotional attachment to language(s) learned in childhood and L2+ are usually learned in more emotionally neutral settings than L1
why swearing among elders the least?
because there were not enough samples, or possibly F words were not common
Why middle-age people swore less then younger people?
because they have children! (but they are still 'striving' socially)
What did Beer-Fagersten found about swearing and ethnicity about usage?
black people had highest % of swearing used in group, for social purposes, and whites were responsible for 17 out of 18 incidents of swearing addressed to individuals of "greater social distance" and "different social status"
What is Corpus callosum?
bundle of nerve fibers that connect two hemispheres
Children of 1-2 age begin to associate swears with emotion states via....
classical conditioning (ex. dad, I spilled my milk, but you didn't god.damned me)
Stroop effect
color identification takes longer if color does not match the printed word
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in Croatian?
family relations, sexual actions
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in English?
genitals
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in French?
genitals
Which swore the most? no high schooling, high school drop-outs, graduated high school but no college, or college graduated?
high school drop-outs
what does right hemisphere do?
holistic reasoning (recognizing faces), nonspeech sounds, music, visual-spatial skills, processing emotions
Word magic
idea that words have power; the belief that utterance of a word/name can affect things in the world (often by evoking the thing named)
What is Basal ganglia
involved in initiating, packaging, and inhibiting motor movements and behaviors
L1 is often prefered by multilinguals because ?
it is better for conveying emotional weight, and it is less risky (they say it is riskier in L2)
What is taboo in Guugu-Yimidhirr (Australia)?
it is taboo for a man to speak (at all) to his mother-in-law
What does it mean by "indecent"?
material is indecent if, in context, it depicts or describes "sexual or excretory organs or activities (that do not rise to the level of obscenity)" in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards"f FCC prohibits broadcasting indecent material outside of the 'safe harbor' (10 pm - 6 am window, when children are not watching)
What is the most taboo category in Dutch
mortology (like cancer or plague; can be used as exclamation, invectives, maledictives or emotive modifiers)
what are the referred taboo words to each gender? (gender of referent)
most slurs for women are based on sexuality, promiscuity (like slu.t, wh.ore) while most slurs for men are based on disrespectful and bad behavior (like a.sshole, ba.stard, je.rk); slurs for women are rated more taboo than for men
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in Polish?
not educated, ill-bred (generally reluctant to swear)
Older children's (or adolescent; age 6-12) first swears tend to be.....
obscenity (also, as age grow older, use of immature swears decreases; become more sexual; but even 11-12 years old have 40% of their lexicon shared with adults)
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in Greek?
physical handicap
What is most taboo category in Norwegian
profanity (like "faen" which means devil or Helevete which means hell)
what is defaming, libelous speech?
publishing false or damaging speech
What is Federal Communications Commission (FCC)?
regulates communication on radio, TV, wire, satellite, and cable. Also, fines against any broadcast medium that airs anything, including language, that is deemed "obscene" or "indecent"
What is the most commonly used 2nd person invectives in America?
sexual actions
Young children's (3-6) first swears tend to be.....
slurs, name-calling (fat, four-eyes (physical appearance) or stupid, weirdo, retarded (behavioral or social differences)) (their lexicons expand to about 40)
What is it about apellity in Mongolia?
some children given unpleasant names in belief this will mislead evil spirit and avoid misfortune (like vicious dog)
Tell me things about swearing and power
speakers with power swear because they suffer "no social consequences" for doing so; speakers without power swear because they have "nothing to lose"; speakers with moderate power (middle class) swore the least because they need to be careful not to offend those with powers because it may have social cost, and also swearing excessively can be viewed as marker of low social status
What is Wernicke's area responsible for?
speech comprehension, semantics, selections of words from lexicons
What is Broca's area responsible for?
speech production, articulation, controls of use of grammar
Split-brain is...
state that two hemispheres cannot communicate each other
What is Jay's definition of taboo words?
taboo words are sanctioned or restricted on both "institutional" (censorship) and "individual" ((self) censoring) levels under the assumption that harm will occur if a taboo word is spoken
What does "Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942)" tell us?
that "fighting words" are not protected by the 1st amendment
observer's paradox
the act of observing something may affect the outcome
Lateralization
the brain is asymmetrical such that each hemisphere is specialized for certain cognitive functions
what is the evolutionary reasons for swearing?
triggers a fight-or-flight response; prepare us for danger; helps us control pain; vent emotions
Coprolalia
uncontrollable, compulsive swearing or socially inappropriate/taboo remarks (can be symptom of aphasia and tourette's syndrome)
Chilling effect
when speech is 'chilled' or suppressed out of fear of punishment; a form of self-censoring that hampers free speech even when no law expressively prohibits it
What is the most taboo words in Akan (Ghana)?
words related to menstruation ('kyima', which means menstruation, is a taboo; euphemisms are used: she is not sitting/is standing still)
What does "Schenck v. United States (1919)" tell us?
words which pose 'imminent danger' should not be protected by the 1st amendment.