Studies from people with different types of aphasia have delineated different brain regions that regulate different aspects of communication. This patient was a priest who had a stroke in 1843, after which he could not speak. Bergen’s favorite model patient suffered from aphasia, or language impairment due to brain damage. Many brain regions have been found to be responsible for particular functions when they are damaged and their functions are impaired- Phineas Gage’s accidental frontal lobotomy revealed that his severed frontal lobes regulated impulse control and social behavior. But the most interesting aspect of their distinction is that they are processed in the brain differently from regular speech. The others, despite the protestations of the FCC and generations of conservative parents, have not been found to have ill effects on anyone.Ĭurse words are different from the rest of language, as evidenced by how they seem to be exempt from regular rules of grammar and instead can engender their own. Other words cover the act of excreting, as well as the excretions themselves.įinally, there are slurs, which are the only swears that have been demonstrated to cause harm to those who use and hear them.

There are also words that deal with sex, various sex acts, the people who perform them, and the body parts involved. There are words that deal with prayer, the divine, and the supernatural (the word “profane,” after all, is the counterpoint to the word “sacred”). Japanese people with Tourette’s syndrome blurt out insults and childlike words for genitalia that are generally considered impolite and inappropriate, but not profane.Īcross unrelated languages-Bergen mentions Cantonese, Russian, Finnish, American and British Sign Languages, Hebrew, Arabic, Italian, German, and Quebecois French in addition to English-curses largely fall into four categories. Although What the F has its share of silliness, it’s full of cute tidbits you can drop at cocktail parties, like how all Samoan babies’ first words are “eat s#!t” and how Japanese completely lacks curse words. His self-described “book-length love letter to profanity” defines what makes a swearword and why using one feels so great. In his new book What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves( UK) Benjamin Bergen-a linguist in the Cognitive Science Department at UC San Diego-tries to explain exactly why cussing is so amazing.

What the f benjamin k bergen pdf