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SWEARING
in English
4/19/1995
Vera (Berča) Guljaš
Pa
ge
2
Introducing the topic
Although the authorities are doubtful about accepting it as a topic on which a public view should be
spread out, or as a topic for serious discussion, swearing permanently flourishes in unbelievably great
amount among people from all levels of society. This is so because of different forms of taboo (such as
society, cultural, ethical), social standards and ways of pressure, which do not seem to be properly
understood. Thus, the connection between culture, history, social class and swearing should be
considered rather complex.
Swearing makes a strange union between the high and low, the one devoted to God and the one
neglecting it. It is, in a way, a violation of things forbidden by social customs and considered too evil to
be named or used. In connection with this, a sharp distinction is made between swearing at the so-called
‘high’ swearings and the ones at the ‘low’ linguistical level.
‘High’ swearing is filled with religious power recognizable in distant modes of the acts, which are
believed to have magical power (charms), conditions caused by it (spell) and, of course, forms which tend
to bring hifher power to change the world or to support the truthfulness of a state. The majority of oaths
make the fundamental structure, on which the whole society is built. Thus, every society has a kind of
oaths which cause people’s obedience, because it has a kind of conventionally implicit verbal taboo.
The ‘low’ swearing. however, exibits the fact that physical faculties of compulsion, defecation and
urination have become completely noticeable in relation to language. Some of these swearings, for
instance ‘bugger off’, ‘son of a bitch’ (US), as well as many others, are deeply wounding. However, these
coinages usually deal with literal and practical impossibilities. In this way, they vary in literal potential
from the ‘high’ swearings. Deity, death, madness, sex, excretion and strangers are most usually seen as
forces which hold up, change or threaten life, either as general or specific powers. These categories
possess different emphasis at different levels and fields of activity within the same basic culture. For
example, one might notice that excretions are generally used for insults and in oaths, whereas sex is used
in culture- specific variety of manner.
