C U Next Tuesday：A Good Look at Bad Language

theEnglishlanguagehaveonlyrecentlyfoundtheirwayintostandarddictionaries.ButRuthWajnrbapproachesthesubjectheadon,challengingherreaderstosetshocksandsniggersasideandtoexamineitlikeanyotherkindofcommunication.Theresultisafascinating,andoftenveryfunny,bookthatwillquicklypersuadeherreadersthatbadlanguageispossiblyevenmoreinterestingthangood.Weuseswear-wordsinawholerangeofcontexts,notjusttoabuseothers,buttoexpressirritation,surprise,evenaffection,orsimplytointensifyanotherwisecommonplaceobservation.Historically,asoneexpressionhaslostitstabooqualityithasbeenreplacedbyothersandthisisacontinuingprocess;blasphemy,forexample,haslargelylostitspowertoshockoverthepastcentury,andthelexiconofswearingisnowreducedtocoreofaboutadozen'taboo'wordsofwhichtwo,'fuck'and'shit',haveprovedtobealmostinfinitelyadaptable,bothgrammaticallyandsemantically.RuthWajnrybshowsusthatswearingiscommontoeverytimeandeverylanguage-eventhose,likeJapanese,whichofficiallyhavenolexiconofbadlanguage.Itis,however,notoriouslydifficulttotranslate,foreignoathsoftenappearmorecomicthanoffensivewhenrenderedintoEnglish.Bythesametoken,asshepointsout,non-nativespeakersarewelladvisedtokeeptheirlanguagecleanuntiltheyfullyunderstandthesubtlesocialconventionsandthecomplex,butunwritten,grammaticalrulesthatgovernouruseofswearwords.