Swearing in English: Bad Language, Purity and Power from 1586 to the Present (Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics)

Do Men Use Bad Language More Than Women? How Do Social Class And The Use Of Bad Language Interact? Do Young Speakers Use Bad Language More Frequently Than Older Speakers? Using The Spoken Section Of The British National Corpus, Swearing In English Explores Questions Such As These And Considers At Length The Historical Origins Of Modern Attitudes To Bad Language. Drawing On A Variety Of Methodologies Including Historical Research And Corpus Linguistics, And A Range Of Data Such As Corpora, Dramatic Texts, Early Modern Newsbooks And Television, Tony Mcenery Takes A Socio-historical Approach To Discourses About Bad Language In English. Arguing That Purity Of Speech And Power Have Come To Be Connected Via A Series Of Moral Panics About Bad Language, The Book Contends That These Moral Panics, Over Time, Have Generated The Differences Observable In Bad Language Usage In Present Day English. A Fascinating, Comprehensive Insight Into An Increasingly Popular Area, This Book Provides An Explanation, And Not Simply A Description, Of How Modern Attitudes To Bad Language Have Come About. Swearing In English Uses The Spoken Section Of The British National Corpus To Establish How Swearing Is Used, And To Explore The Associations Between Bad Language And Gender, Social Class And Age. The Book Goes On To Consider Why Bad Language Is A Major Locus Of Variation In English And Investigates The Historical Origins Of Modern Attitudes To Bad Language. The Effects That Centuries Of Censorious Attitudes To Swearing Have Had On Bad Language Are Examined, As Are The Social Processes That Have Brought About The Associations Between Swearing And A Number Of Sociolinguistic Variables. Drawing On A Variety Of Methodologies, Including Historical Research And Corpus Linguistics, And A Range Of Data Such As Corpora, Dramatic Texts, Early Modern Newsbooks And Television Programmes, Tony Mcenery Takes A Socio-historical Approach To Discourses About Bad Language In English. Moral Panic Theory And Bourdieu's Theory Of Distinction Are Also Utilised To Show How Attitudes To Bad Language Have Been Established Over Time By Groups Seeking To Use An Absence Of Swearing In Their Speech As A Token Of Moral, Economic And Political Power. This Book Provides An Explanation, Not Simply A Description, Of How Modern Attitudes To Bad Language Have Come About.--jacket. 1. Bad Language, Bad Manners -- 2. 'so You Recorded Swearing' : Bad Language In Present-day English -- 3. Early Modern Censorship Of Bad Language -- 4. Modern Attitudes To Bad Language Form : The Reformation Of Manners -- 5. Late-twentieth-century Bad Language : The Moral Majority And Four-letter Assaults On Authority -- 6. Sea Change : The Society For The Reformation Of Manners And Moral Panics About Bad Language -- 7. Mutations : The National Viewers' And Listeners' Association Moral Panic. Tony Mcenery. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [262]-269) And Index. BookCover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 Figures......Page 8 Tables......Page 11 Acknowledgements......Page 15 1 Bad language, bad manners......Page 16 Part 1 How Brits swear47......Page 38 2 ‘So you recorded swearing’......Page 39 Part 2 Censors, zealots and four-letter assaults on authority......Page 66 3 Early modern censorship of bad language......Page 67 4 Modern attitudes to bad language form......Page 86 5 Late-twentieth-century bad language......Page 117 Part 3 Discourses of panic......Page 145 6 Sea change......Page 146 7 Mutations......Page 181 Postscript......Page 219 Notes......Page 222 Bibliography......Page 251 Index......Page 258 Swearing is an everyday part of the language of most speakers of modern English. This corpus informed account of swearing describes swearing and also outlines its social function, with a particular focus on the relationship between swearing and abuse