October 19, 1999
The Rain Barrel Extremely
Digestible Bibliography
today's subject:
Swearing
The Rain Barrel Extremely
Digestible Bibliography
today's subject:
Swearing
| TITLE: | The social meanings of swearing: workers and bad language in late imperial and early Soviet Russia |
| AUTHOR(S): | Smith,-S.-A |
| SOURCE: | Past-and-Present. no160 Aug. 1998 p. 167-202 |
| ABSTRACT: | An examination of the
representation and uses of
swearing among postcommunist era Russian workers in order to cast light on the relationship of government and the intelligentsia to the common people at a time of swift social change and political turmoil. The writer first looks at how swearing was represented in the discourse of the educated public from the 19th century and then investigates the social uses of obscene language by workers, particularly as a way of enforcing and eschewing class and gender identities. He then demonstrates how, because obscene language bore a heavy freight of social meaning, it became a political issue for those trying to advance the cause of the working class. In conclusion, he outlines the campaigns against bad language undertaken between the 1905 Revolution and the demise of the Bolshevik fight for cultured speech at the end of the 1920s. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | Labor-and-laboring-classes-Russia;
Labor-and-laboring-classes-Soviet-Union; Swearing-; Sociolinguistics- |
| TITLE: | The H of Jesus H. Christ |
| AUTHOR(S): | Smith,-Roger |
| SOURCE: | American-Speech. v. 69 Fall 1994 p. 331-5 |
| ABSTRACT: | The writer suggests
that Jesus H. Christ represents an unusual variation on folk etymology,
a variation that might be termed folk literalism. He posits that
the term, although designated an American profanity, probably owes its
origin to
the ancient Greek monogram IHC for Jesus and developed from a misreading that could be centuries older than America. He suggests that Jesus H. Christ arrived in America with immigrant Anglicans or was invented there because of Anglican vestments decorated with IHS or IHC. He contends that the relation of the oath to the monogram cannot be attested directly but accords with the impulse behind folk etymology--that is, a little ignorance, a lot of exposure, some cleverness, and, in this case, a measure of impish wit. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | Swearing- |
| TITLE: | Student profanity |
| OTHER TITLES: | Augmented title: Lacks
v. Ferguson Reorganized
School District |
| SOURCE: | Monthly-Labor-Review. v. 122 no4 Apr. 1999 p. 43-4 |
| ABSTRACT: | The Supreme Court has
finalized a decision by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that rejected a jury's award to a teacher who was dismissed after her students used profanity in plays written for her English class. In Lacks V. Ferguson Reorganized School District R-2, the eighth circuit judged that a school district does not violate the First Amendment by disciplining a teacher who allows students to use profanity repetitiously and egregiously in their schoolwork. The court also recognized that the dismissal was supported by significant evidence and that race was not a motivating factor. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | United-States-Supreme-Court-Decisions;
Swearing-;
Teachers-Dismissal; Freedom-of-speech-United-States |
| TITLE: | Oh, #'*c!! |
| OTHER TITLE: | Augmented title: dirty words |
| SOURCE: | Psychology-Today. v. 27 May/June 1994 p. 20-1 |
| ABSTRACT: | Timothy Jay, America's
leading expert on dirty words, believes that censorship on swearing is
ludicrously outdated. His research demonstrates that swearing accounts
for 3 percent of all adult conversation on the job and 13 percent during
leisure. He maintains that ignorance about swearing is impeding understanding about some of America's major social problems, such as sexual harassment. The issue of remembered events, a topic that is often an issue in trials, is another major area that Jay would like to see tackled with some dirty words. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | Swearing- |
| TITLE: | The making of a border state society: James McGready, the great revival, and the prosecution of profanity in Kentucky |
| AUTHOR(S): | Waldrep,-Christopher, 1951- |
| SOURCE: | The-American-Historical-Review. v. 99 June 1994 p.767-84 |
| ABSTRACT: | The writer examines the impact of the South's Great Revival on the code of honor and religion in Kentucky. He notes that the Great Revival came to Kentucky in 1797 when James McGready challenged the use of profane language associated with masculine assertiveness and that evangelicals thereafter kept pressure on grand jurors to initiate prosecutions of the profane, a campaign that posed a continuing challenge to southern codes of honor and masculinity. In Kentucky, he argues, the Great Revival and its successors challenged conceptions of honor and masculinity, successfully mitigating and modifying the codes from the pattern of the Deep South. Moreover, he argues that this change produced a climate of opinion in which abolitionism did not challenge the manly spirit of white voters and force them to draw a line between submission and manly resistance, as was the case farther south. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | McGready,-James,-1758-1817;
Revivals-; Swearing-;
Sociolinguistics-; Masculinity-; Administration-of-justice-Kentucky-History; Kentucky-Church-history |
| TITLE: | Never mind the language |
| OTHER TITLE: | Augmented title: in praise of swearing |
| SOURCE: | The-Economist. v. 339 June 22 1996 p. 22 |
| ABSTRACT: | It is a pity that the public is now rarely shocked by the use of foul language. Swearing on British television has become commonplace and completely unremarkable, and outside the curse-free national networks in the U.S., bad language is pervasive. Words that once were cherished and saved for moments of extreme emotion are now said at the mildest provocation, thus losing their power to shock and relieve. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | Swearing- |
| TITLE: | Stimulus fading as treatment
for obscenity in a
brain-injured adult |
| OTHER TITLE: | Augmented title: part
of a special issue on
functional analysis approaches to behavioral assessment and treatment |
| AUTHOR(S): | Pace,-Gary-M; Ivancic,-Martin-T; Jefferson,-Gretchen |
| SOURCE: | Journal-of-Applied-Behavior-Analysis. v. 27 Summer 1994 p. 301-5 |
| ABSTRACT: | Obscene verbalizations
of a person with traumatic
brain injury were treated using stimulus fading as the singular form of intervention. Results of a functional assessment revealed that obscenity was maintained by negative reinforcement. Stimulus fading (initial elimination of instructional demands followed by their gradual reintroduction) produced immediate and substantial reductions in obscenity that were maintained as the frequency of demands increased to baseline levels. Potential applications of the use of antecedent treatment strategies are discussed. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | Brain-damaged-Behavior;
Swearing-;
Reinforcement-Psychology; Behavior-modification |
| TITLE: | Outsmarting the streetwise kid: a school counselor's view |
| AUTHOR(S): | Williamson,-Sharon |
| SOURCE: | Learning (Palo Alto, Calif.). v. 23 (Apr./May 1995) p. 32 |
| ABSTRACT: | Part of a special section
on outsmarting the
streetwise student. A school counselor suggests that to handle problems like swearing, it is necessary to meet the students on equal terms by involving them in the solution. She works with students to think of alternative words or phrases and provides them with index cards listing these appropriate words. She uses a written contract with older students. |
| DESCRIPTORS: | School-children-Disciplinary-problems; Swearing- |
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