Does ‘effing and blinding’ more make you less of an intellect?

 

The statement swearing is a sign of limited intelligence gets tossed about here and there but lacks any scientific evidence or reason to be considered correct.

However, there IS scientific evidence as to why swearing makes you MORE intelligent, so keep up with all the taboo language and you’ll be as smart as Einstein in no time! (Unfortunately, I’m joking, please don’t actually go around ‘effing’ in peoples faces for the magic that is Einstein’s brain…)

Swearing is actually more complex than you think and can be used in several ways, it isn’t just the braindead language of the illiterate. In fact, swearing is used for linguistic effect, to demonstrate emotion, for a good laugh and even to be purposefully nasty or mean to someone else.

Psychologists actually find quite fascinating and there was a study conducted by psychologists from the Marist College to see if there were any links between how fluent the subjects were in English Language and how fluent they were in swearing. The first test was the verbal fluency test, which conducted of subjects having to name as many words as they can beginning with every letter of the alphabet for one minute each time. The second test conducted was the swearing fluency test in which subjects simply had to name as many swear words as they can in one minute. Ironically, all those who did better in the verbal fluency test did better in the swearing fluency test as well.

Swearing also has some practical uses too, such as pain relief. Another scientific experiment was conducted where subjects had to put their hand in freezing cold water and tolerate for as long as they could while repeating a certain neutral word, and then try it whilst repeating a certain swear word. The results concluded that those repeating the swear word had a higher pain tolerance than those who didn’t.

Taboo language is also seen differently in other cultures, so our perception of the word ‘f*ck’ may be different in other countries. For example, in the Netherlands, they completely accept pretty much all swear words and don’t get offended. But using words meaning poor health as an insult (such as ‘that’s cancer’) is very frowned upon. Another example of this is blasphemy, using the lords name in vain is considered worse than ‘f*ck’ too. Which proves we shouldn’t put certain words on a pedestal and link them with being unintelligent as other cultures find certain words more offensive than others and some of those words aren’t even considered swearing in English.

I do agree however that excessive swearing can be quite annoying sometimes, especially when the person swearing doesn’t even try to mix up their own vocabulary from time to time. This is clearly where the stigma came from and maybe there are a lot of unintellectual people who overly swear, but the vast majority are people who just want to crack a rude joke or express frustration, anger or pain.

Overall, swearing can be used in many different ways such as linguistic, effect, emotion or even for jokes, swearing has also been proven to quite the tool for a higher pain tolerance and other cultures have words that are considered worse than the most frowned upon swear words like blasphemy.

Are we losing a sense of Britishness when asking about getting coffees to go?!?

Americanisms are something that have been rapidly “destroying” true and superior British-English with horrifically ridiculous words and phrases such as ‘skedaddle!’ and ‘can I get a coffee to go’ for too long now! It is up to us to stop this tragedy before we all start “skedaddling” down the “sidewalk” of Trafalgar Square!

Now doesn’t that whole sentence just sound incredibly absurd, overdramatic and a little patriotic? Or is it just me? Either way that is sadly how a lot of British people think nowadays, or perhaps have always thought…

Well, that’s where if you happen to be on the “overly patriotic British side” this blog post falls into place. Hopefully it can change your perspective and show you that skedaddling down the sidewalk of Trafalgar Square isn’t so bad after all.


Obviously, I am not saying Americanisms are always helpful and can fix the English language, some are just downright misleading for any regular British person, such as word ‘pavement’ as it is used instead of the word ‘road’ in America, I don’t think getting those two mixed up would end too well to be perfectly honest with you. The same can be said for the phrase “I could care less” which just straight up doesn’t make any sense whatsoever! I just want to know where on Earth the “couldn’t” went off to…

A lot of British people also don’t find the idea of using pure American words too appealing either, however this is a simply flawed reason to be against Americanisms, the reason being the complete and utter hypocrisy coming from their end.

Over the period of hundreds of years, we have been taking words from other parts of the world and making them our own. Some of these may perhaps make you re-think your entire language as a whole! Probably the most British word of all, being ‘tea’ actually originates from China! The word ‘bungalow’ comes from India, and even the phrase ‘stiff upper lip’ actually originates from the U.S… Seems quite hypocritical doesn’t it?

 I think another plausible reason to let Americanisms pass is for how amazingly fun, bubbly and light they are. Why on earth wouldn’t you want to ‘skedaddle’ downtown, hold a ‘bombazine’ (umbrella) or call someone a ‘pumpkin head’ (imbecile) every once and a while?

Whilst Americanisms are also good to spice up your vocabulary a little they also sometimes make more sense than words and spellings in British-English. We’ve all heard the infamous ‘colour vs color’ debate at least once before, and honestly the Americans definitely win this battle. The extra ‘U’ that we as Brits seem to put everywhere just overcomplicate a very simple word. Even words like ‘gotten’ make more sense to have in our language than only having ‘got’ to define acquiring something and possessing something, the word ‘gotten’ helps to distinct the action of acquiring something from possessing it. Pretty helpful if you ask me.

 In conclusion, the positives of Americanisms far outweigh the negatives in my opinion, although I do not believe they can fix our language completely they certainly do make it a little less complex and can add some fun and exhilarating words and phrases that make a fine addition to our British-English slang collection. Hopefully now you can accept Americanisms or at the very least tolerate them a little more…  

Hello there!...

The first ever blog that I am going to be posting shall be about the topical issues about the English Language and my own personal responses to them. At this point I have done research on one particular topical issue... Americanisms!