The power of swearing

What we know and what we don't

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4094418
AutoresKaryn Stapleton, Kristy Beers Fägersten (0000-0003-2277-2282), Richard Stephens (0000-0002-5851-8975), Catherine Loveday (0000-0001-8082-8665)
Ano2022
Volume277
Páginas103406
Data de publicação2022-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLingua (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0024-3841 • E-ISSN: 1872-6135
EditoraElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.lingua.2022.103406
OpenAlexW4295024975
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas31
Referências citadas77

Swearing produces effects that are not observed with other forms of language use. Thus, swearing is powerful. It generates a range of distinctive outcomes: physiological, cognitive, emotional, pain-relieving, interactional and rhetorical. However, we know that the power of swearing is not intrinsic to the words themselves. Hence, our starting question is: How does swearing get its power? In this Overview Paper, our aim is threefold. (1) We present an interdisciplinary analysis of the power of swearing (‘what we know’), drawing on insights from cognitive studies, pragmatics, communication, neuropsychology, and biophysiology. We identify specific effects of swearing, including, inter alia: emotional force and arousal; increased attention and memory; heightened autonomic activity, such as heart rate and skin conductance; hypoalgesia (pain relief); increased strength and stamina; and a range of distinctive interpersonal, relational and rhetorical outcomes. (2) We explore existing (possible) explanations for the power of swearing, including, in particular, the hypothesis that aversive classical conditioning takes place via childhood punishments for swearing. (3) We identify and explore a series of questions and issues that remain unanswered by current research/theorising (‘what we don’t know’), including the lack of direct empirical evidence for aversive classical conditioning; and we offer directions for future research

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Interpersonal communication · Linguistics · Power (physics · Pragmatics · Rhetorical question · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Swearing, Euphemism, Multilingualism