Language most foul is a thoroughly researched light hearted look at phenomenon, seeking to answer such as What are the many and various purposes of offensive language? Why has it escalated so dramatically....A meticulously researched, highly entertaining, idiosyncratic look at how, why and what of bad language.
This book appealed to me on two levels. On the more adult level, I have always been interested in linguistics and etymology. I am endlessly fascinated by the science of how languages interact, how they evolve, the history of words, etc. On the slightly more juvenile level, I was entertained by the notion of learning as much as possible about four letter words.
I would argue there is still something noble about that juvenile side of ourselves, however. I remember getting into arguments with my parents at a fairly young age over why some words were considered “dirty” while others weren’t. Why was it okay to say I had to “poop” but not okay to say I had to “shit”? Why was it okay for couples to have “intercourse” but not “fuck?” I love my parents and both of them are pretty amazing people, but their answers never satisfied me. The concept of swearing or cussing just didn’t make sense. So my interest in cursing was more than just snickering with friends over the F-word in the dictionary or trying to test my parents’ patience. It was about words, what they mean, how they evolved, and understanding their power.
Ruth Wajnryb does an excellent job probing this issue. She highlights all of the most obvious offensive words (F-word, C-word, “blasphemy,” etc.). She examines the subtle differences between swearing, cursing, blasphemy, expletives, obscenity, and profanity (did you know they’re all technically different?). She focuses both on the individual words themselves and the cultures in which they arose. She discusses why we cuss and how different cultures cultivate their swearing.
The best part of the book is that–even as an accomplished linguist–Wajnryb pulls it off without making it read like a textbook. This is highly engaging, funny, and accessible to the lay reader. If ever you have longed to learn more about dirty words, now is your chance. Appease your inner child and learn something in the process.
Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck. Shit. I am not a stranger in any way to swearing. I've heard it my whole life. I use it. I'm not afraid of it or afraid to use it. And I don't think anyone else should be either. Words may have power, foul language has the power of the taboo. But about things we shouldn't be ashamed or scared of. We've already stripped back the power of many taboo words but there will always be new evils to contend with.
I have to say this book wasn't what I was expecting or hoping for. I have a love of words and language especially etymology. That was what I wanted. A detailed history of the words others consider foul. But there was little to none of that. Instead this book was about the science of foul language. The nuances between different terms. The reason behind the words, the way we use them and how they gain, and lose, their power. And there's far more to swear words then just fuck or shit. It delves into blasphemy, curses and oaths as well.
It was a detailed, well researched, comprehensive, educational volume. But at times it was very dry and quite complex. It is not a beginners work, more a textbook for linguists. But I did enjoy it and learned a lot about a different part of language to that which I usually prefer.
I just finished this book seconds ago and am inspired to write essays about it. Well-written, humorous and fascinating, Ruth Wajnryb covers in her exploration of bad language everything from definitions of bad language (what is a "curse" versus a "swear" versus an "oath" versus an "expletive"?) to the reasons we curse (stubbing one's toe, communicating social bonds, abuse), to who curses, how they do it, and what are we as a society saying by how we react to it?
Especially interesting to me was the brief delving Wajnryb did into culturally-constructed concepts of language, like the inbedded subtle insults hidden in the hyper-formal complexity of Japanese grammatical structures, or even the compelling (if too brief!) mention she gives of the inter-cultural differences in descriptions of visual experiences (silver, for example, being not only a color but a shiny texture as well). The book drags for a bit in the 10th and 11th chapters but is rescued by a great last chapter and a near-perfect epilogue, in which she addresses the newest of the taboo words in English -- the words that imply personal hatred towards someone due to factors beyond their control, such as race, gender, or sexuality, and the movement in the eighties towards a more compassionate system of language. Wajnryb suscintly and deftly traces the path of what she refers to as the "so-called 'Politically Correct' movement, from "a liberal movement to raise awareness of endemic, naturalized, and institutionalized prejudice and discrimination", through its subsequent attack and condemnation (which, interestingly, the Australian Wajnryb ascribes not to conservatives, but to American conservatives specifically), to its final sad resting place as a term of insult, "associated with priggishess and moral self-rightiousness", though with long-lasting social effects.
What keeps this book from being as good as it could be are the few places where Wajnryb fails to research an idea she proposes, even in cases where the research would be very accesible and easily done, such as when she wonders what the sign language (sic) word for deaf is, or when she -- a liguist! -- fails to even differentiate different signed languages (American Sign Language, French Sign Language) but instead refers to "sign language" as though there were only one universal language of the deaf.
Overall, however, Wajnryb does a phenomenal job on this book. It was a pleasure to read, thought-provoking, and a book that I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in language.
This was a bit more dry and academic than I expected, but I still enjoyed it. I thought it would be more of a history of swearing, or a sociological study of the way different groups curse. There's definitely some of that but most of the focus is on linguistics, which I really don't know much about.
In addition to the "dirty dozen" in English--fuck, cunt, shit, piss, bastard, bitch, ass, damn, hell, fart, crap, and dick, according to Wajnryb--this book also explores swearing in different languages and countries, and how various cultural taboos affect what words are considered bad or insulting. Those were the sections I found most interesting. The author also studies language from a feminist perspective, and devotes several chapters to exploring how swearing is gendered. For example, there are many more nasty names to call women than there are men, and most of these insults reflect society's misogyny. "Slut" and "whore" are obviously indicative of a fear of women's sexuality, and other terms are often meant to insult women's appearances. Meanwhile, even the many of the insulting words used commonly against men, such as "bastard" and "motherfucker", are jabs at women as much as the men they're directed at.
While this wasn't exactly what I was looking for, I did find some pleasantly interesting surprises like those sections I referenced above. I'm still looking for more of a pop culture type of nonfiction related to language though, rather than dense academia like this.
Syukur kalau kalian bukan termasuk orang yang suka mengumpat dan obral kata-kata kasar di depan umum, ya. Meski sangat manusiawi kalau sedang sangat kesal akhirnya keluar juga kata-kata indah yang hanya pantas menghuni kebun binatang atau toilet..
Tapi buku ini menarik, karena si penulis mengupas bahasa umpatan manusia ini dengan pendekatan dari segi etymology (studi tentang sumber dan pengembangan bentuk kata-kata), budaya dan sosiologi. Melalui serangkaian riset, ibu ini dengan cara menarik, misalnya kenapa untuk jenis umpatan tertentu buat kalangan teman sendiri ngga jadi masalah besar sementara kalau ditujukan pada orang lain bisa menimbulkan bencana.
I absolutely loved this book and Ruth Wajnryb's masterful blend of linguistic analysis and tongue-in-cheek commentary on "swearing." I don't consider myself a linguistics nerd by any means so there were some moments when the linguistic vocabulary felt a little over my head, but for the most part I found the book extremely accessible and relevant to anyone, like myself, who is interested in sociology and cultural construction. There were also some parts that were laugh-out-loud funny, which made this one of the most enjoyable non-fiction books I've ever had the fortune to read.
Having finished this some time ago I should have written a review sooner.
Now the most prevailing memories of this book I have is the sense of humour of the author.
Though I have long ago decided I shan't be reviewing non-fictions, especially on linguistics, since I'm only half a linguist and more just an enthusiastic translator that really likes languages, psychology and psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and socialinguistics.
But this book is easy to read, accessible for even a layperson like me. It drag on long mainly due to my own shortcomings.
I thought this fucking book was tits ha, but then again I love the shit out of expletives. damn you if you dont! jk, the book might be even better for someone not as into taboo-talk as myself because it really is a good look at "bad" language. It's also small and bright yellow and looks good on my bookshelf.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. The topics range from types of cursing, the metamorphosis of swear words over time, and the reasons why we swear. It is an excellent introduction to linguistic taboos. I did disagree with the author on some points, most notably on gender and swearing. Overall, it was interesting and I came away from the book a much more informer swearer than when I began.
Extremely interesting book for anyone with a linguistic curiosity into offensive language and swearing. Well written in an understandable and slightly humourous way that does not require the slightest academic proficiency on the part of the reader.
I was going to fill my review with curse words but that's too obvious. This book was very informative and well written and researched. I enjoyed every gosh darn moment of it.
Interesting....but not as academic as she wants it to be. I think she just liked devoting an entire chapter to the word "fuck." The cross-cultural cursing, though, was fascinating.
My second entry in the Year of Reading Virtuously, though if any book I read this year challenges the notion of "virtue" more than this one, I'll eat my hat. I'd started the week with every intention of reading "Longitude" this week, but I'd checked this one out from the library before the holidays, and the clock is ticking down to the due date, so I bumped it up. This wasn't in the technical Pile o' Shame, since I neither own this book nor have I neglected reading it for a significant part of a decade. But it was a chance find while pulling requested books from the shelves at the library where I volunteer, and it piqued my interest.
It reads like a linguist's dissertation, freshened up with a really friendly, enjoyable conversational tone. It's clear that the author was already a fluent swearer long before she delved academically into the lexicon. I'm a member of the same club, especially since spending a year in a foreign country where I felt liberated to swear however frequently and fluently I liked. The fact that she's Australian (as well as committed to a frank discussion) means there's absolutely no effort to euphemize any of her subject matter, and she introduced me to several new uses for some of my favorite words.
She does a good job of trying to trace the proposed origins for several terms, though she rarely comes to any kind of conclusion; she studiously avoids coming down on any one side of the existing debates, and she doesn't really add any new etymological insights. Also, the book was written in 2005, and it's telling about one of her theses--that the ranking of swear words on a continuum of "badness" is a moving goalpost--that several of her subjects have shifted significantly since, thanks to cultural influences like Deadwood and Cee-Lo.
But her main point is valid and well-defended throughout: that swearing is ancient, universal and linguistically proper, if not always culturally proper. I especially enjoyed her grammatical and linguistic dissections of words and phrases--there really is the forbidden pleasure in the stuffing of an improper subject into rigid, proper forms (another great example: Google "Van Morrison fuck diagram").
I also learned (or, at least, observed so overtly that I finally realized it) that I am a truly unpleasant person when I'm close to finishing a book. Good to know for the rest of this endeavor.
Over all I thought this book was fairly well done, it deals with the etymology and linguistics of what may be refereed to as the dirty dozen of english words. Thou it doesn't stop there it also addresses cursing in other languages; with a comparison of how we use such words/phrases culturally.
I read this book in the same year as Holy Sh*t: A brief history of swearing; so I thought the comparison mite be use. So while Holy Sh*t deals more with how we got the dirty dozen historically; this book deals more with what we have, how it's used, and why it's used. Even breaking the same word down being used different ways into categories of use.
The best contribution this book makes is the polemic that words expressing emotions of varying kinds are essentially the same including taboo/curse words. Whether you say shit, shoot, (or even ouch for that matter) after you have stubbed your toe, the meaning is the same. If you use dickhead, bastard, or rapscallion to state your dislike of someone; or their actions, the meaning is still the same. So whether you are using a taboo/curse word for said purpose, or using a fill in word, the meaning is really still the same, even if one is considered more polite culturally speaking then the other.
So if you are looking for a book on how curse/taboo words are used today in varied cultures and why, then this is not a bad book for that. Thus said it is a bit dry. I enjoyed Holy sh*t more, for the way that it brought taboo words from ancient times to today, and showed the development of them. However some of the very concepts that Holy Sh*t brings forward, at length even, are dismissed rather quickly in this book. So I think both have their points, and are probably worth reading, on their own terms.
I really liked this book. It's a little dry in parts, but the subject matter in itself makes the whole thing quite a bit less boring than it otherwise might have been. The author traces the history of various curse words, studies the contexts under which we swear, and explores swearing from a more global perspective. I found all of this fascinating, particularly the parts where she talks about how swearing happens in other languages. (She points out that native speakers of any language are much more proficient swearers because it's not like anyone teaches you the appropriate social context used with certain words. It's just something you have to pick up, usually starting at an early age. At points, the author is even quite funny, though she's certainly no Bill Bryson, and sometimes I thought she meandered a bit too much down a linguistic rabbit hole.
I'd say this book is scholarly, but I don't think it's inaccessible to the average lay reader. I recommend it, though it's not exactly something that'll change my life.
I bought this on a whim, thinking it might be interesting, and it was. The author makes a valid point that the F word is now so ubiquitous and overused that it has completely lost its power and no longer possesses the shock value it once did. The chapter on the dreaded C word was perhaps the most interesting, just in discovering the origin of the word and how it was once a more acceptable term. Unfortunately, the subject matter was not so interesting or amusing as to fill an entire book. Certainly the two chapters mentioned above were the most interesting - the potty words and blasphemous words just didn't interest me as much. It would have made a better extended essay in The Atlantic or something similar.
This book contains a lot of good information on the dark side of language, but in really bad structure. Wajnryb may be good with words, but she is less talented with sentences, paragraphs and chapters. It will require some discipline to actually complete the book without being meandered into the author's run-off thoughts, anecdotes and ideas.
Ignoring the willy-nilly (and rather annoying) organization of the book, Wajnryb has a lot of information and analysis to impart, and it is useful information and analysis. One just wishes that it were presented in a more seamless, to-the-point, and organized manner.
It certainly is engaging but it stops short of asking why these differences in swearing occur throughout the anglosphere and instead says, "In Australia they swear like this, while in the American South they swear like this." The book is much more about the linguistics of swearing less about the sociological and philosophical implications of the swear words we use--although, it should be stated that she does exactly that when discussing the use of the "c-word" and the weight that is attached to it culturally.
All in all, it's not an uninteresting book; it's just a little less insightful than I was hoping.
I struggle with this book. While at times illuminating (I believe it happened twice), this book was mainly anecdotal and tiring. Instead of giving any real insight into the swearing/cursing/foul language sub culture, I really just learned a bunch of new curses to use on all my friends.
The real worth of this book seems to be the citations, not the actual content. This was really a fluff piece, it filled a void while I was on jury duty, but I wouldn't in good faith recommend this to anybody. There aren't many books in this space, but find another one-it's probably better.
A fabulous read about the history and use of swear words. It's very well written, by an academic linguist, who's personally fascinated by swearing, so it's far from a dry read.
The big swear words are all looked at individually, including their history, etymology and current use. The impacts of culture on the various types of swearing is looked at also.
Overall I found it an absolutely fascinating book.
This book took me a LOOOOONG time to get through, and I'm not sure why. It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't riveting either. I did find her argument at the end of the book very interesting -- that racist and sexist language is becoming the new swearing as traditional swear words become less taboo.
Really cute little book! Talked about why we cuss (or swear, or use profanity, or curse...however yah wanna say it! Actually, the book explained the difference between all of these terms too), cussing in different language, theories about where cuss words come from, how people cuss in other languages, and lots of other cool stuff. I liked!
This book was a joy to read. It was not without reference to the lack of academic study in regards to the area of "bad" language. In that regard this is a book taking a step in right direction.
I had a bird shit on my hat and right forearm while reading it at the beach one day.
So refreshing. A grown-up yet fun way to read about a subject that few dare touch (Kudos Wajnryb!) I especially enjoyed the cross-cultural cursing section. What does that say about me... up for interpretation.
To avoid any possible TOS problems... I'm linking to my full review instead of just copy and paste. Note... review includes swear words (as that is what the book is about).
I thought this was going to be a bit more of a cultural/ethnographic study and less of a linguistic piece...so it wasn't quite as 'up my alley' as I'd hoped. Interesting, but not interesting enough to keep around with it's being so saturated in swear words.
read for a project for my history & structure of the english language class. had some interesting tidbits. sort of repetitive though. checked out from widener library.