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What the f : what swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves / Benjamin K. Bergen

By: Publisher: New York : Basic Books, [2016]Description: vii, 271 pages : charts, illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780465060917
  • 0465060919
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 401/.9 23
LOC classification:
  • P410.O27 B47 2016
Contents:
Holy, fucking, shit, nigger -- What makes a four-letter word? -- One finger is worth a thousand words -- The holy priest with the vulgar tongue -- The day the Pope dropped the c-bomb -- Fucking grammar -- How cock lost its feathers -- Little Samoan potty mouths -- Fragile little minds -- The $100,000 word -- The paradox of profanity
Summary: "Smart as hell and funny as fuck, this book explains why we can't stop swearing and what it tells us about our language and brains. Everyone swears. Only the rare individual can avoid ever letting slip an expletive. And yet, we ban the words from television and insist that polite people excise them from their vocabularies. That's a fucking shame. Not only is swearing colorful, fun, and often powerfully apt, as linguist and cognitive scientist Benjamin K. Bergen shows us, the study of it can provide a new window onto how our brains process language. How can patients left otherwise speechless after a stroke still shout out "Goddamn!"? Why did Pope Francis say "fuck" in the middle of a speech? When did a cock cease to be a rooster? Why is "crap" vulgar when "poo" is just childish? And what are we shooting when we give someone the bird? What the F? Let me effing tell you"-- Provided by publisher

Holy, fucking, shit, nigger -- What makes a four-letter word? -- One finger is worth a thousand words -- The holy priest with the vulgar tongue -- The day the Pope dropped the c-bomb -- Fucking grammar -- How cock lost its feathers -- Little Samoan potty mouths -- Fragile little minds -- The $100,000 word -- The paradox of profanity

"Smart as hell and funny as fuck, this book explains why we can't stop swearing and what it tells us about our language and brains. Everyone swears. Only the rare individual can avoid ever letting slip an expletive. And yet, we ban the words from television and insist that polite people excise them from their vocabularies. That's a fucking shame. Not only is swearing colorful, fun, and often powerfully apt, as linguist and cognitive scientist Benjamin K. Bergen shows us, the study of it can provide a new window onto how our brains process language. How can patients left otherwise speechless after a stroke still shout out "Goddamn!"? Why did Pope Francis say "fuck" in the middle of a speech? When did a cock cease to be a rooster? Why is "crap" vulgar when "poo" is just childish? And what are we shooting when we give someone the bird? What the F? Let me effing tell you"-- Provided by publisher

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-256) and index

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