Foul-mouthed Hongkongers will love this: the more you swear, the smarter you may be
Yonden Lhatoo cites recent research to argue that there’s a good side to profanity and foul language can even enhance literature
I should feel comforted, if not fully vindicated, by a new study that was published recently in the journal Language Sciences.
Contrary to the default belief that people who swear a lot are compensating for their limited vocabulary, researchers have found that it’s actually the opposite.
“The ability to generate taboo language is not an index of overall language poverty,” the researchers concluded. “A voluminous taboo lexicon may better be considered an indicator of healthy verbal abilities rather than a cover for their deficiencies.”
What this means is when people use language colourful enough to make a sailor blush, it’s not because they’re inarticulate or lack the intellectual capacity to express themselves better. It’s because they choose to curse, and, in using profane language, “understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately”.
Take the phrase “delay no more” as an example. It’s harmless in English, but the same words spoken in Cantonese form the globally ubiquitous insult that, politely explained, brings one’s mother and sex into the equation.
Looks like we foul-mouthed folk – yes, I confess I can be lumped into this category – are articulate, eloquent and extra-expressive, rather than uncouth and lacking education.