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What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves by Benjamin K. Bergen (review)

What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves by Benjamin K.... TEXTBOOK REVIEW What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves. By Ben jamin K. Bergen. New York: Basic Books, 2016. Pp. 271. ISBN 9780465060917. $27.99. Reviewed by Laura W. McGarrity, University of Washington Introduction. I teach an undergraduate course on swear words and taboo language designed to interest students in the study of language and introduce the field of linguistics to nonmajors. As a result, I have looked on with interest over the past few years at the spike in the number of pub- lished books devoted to the topic of taboo language (alternatively called swearing, profanity, cursing, or obscenity in the literature; see Adams 2016, Green 2014, Mohr 2013, to name a few). Cognitive scientist Benjamin K. Bergen’s latest offering What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves is a valuable contribution to this growing library. B’s book emerges from the following basic premise: because of its taboo nature, swearing has traditionally been ignored in scholarly research, but we ignore it to our detriment. Swear words can tell us a lot about language, the brain, and even human nature. B employs wit and humor in an engaging style http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Language Linguistic Society of America

What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves by Benjamin K. Bergen (review)

McGarrity, Laura W.
Language , Volume 93 (4) – Dec 21, 2017
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Publisher
Linguistic Society of America
Copyright
Copyright © Linguistic Society of America.
ISSN
1535-0665

Abstract

TEXTBOOK REVIEW What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves. By Ben jamin K. Bergen. New York: Basic Books, 2016. Pp. 271. ISBN 9780465060917. $27.99. Reviewed by Laura W. McGarrity, University of Washington Introduction. I teach an undergraduate course on swear words and taboo language designed to interest students in the study of language and introduce the field of linguistics to nonmajors. As a result, I have looked on with interest over the past few years at the spike in the number of pub- lished books devoted to the topic of taboo language (alternatively called swearing, profanity, cursing, or obscenity in the literature; see Adams 2016, Green 2014, Mohr 2013, to name a few). Cognitive scientist Benjamin K. Bergen’s latest offering What the F: What swearing reveals about our language, our brains, and ourselves is a valuable contribution to this growing library. B’s book emerges from the following basic premise: because of its taboo nature, swearing has traditionally been ignored in scholarly research, but we ignore it to our detriment. Swear words can tell us a lot about language, the brain, and even human nature. B employs wit and humor in an engaging style

Journal

Language – Linguistic Society of America

Published: Dec 21, 2017

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