Freedom's Curse and Language Studies

After reading The Atlantic's article, "Freedom's Curse," and spending several minutes toiling in ProQuest, I found a document not only from a credible source, the New Yorker, but also quite important to one facet of "Freedom's Curse;" the meaning assigned to words.

The New Yorker article, called, "WHAT THE--?; Language Studies," in which author Ben McGrath starts by noting that if President and Vice President alike can use explitives at the G-8 summit and in the U.S. Senate, why not the people. After that stinging point, McGrath digs into the heart of his argument, that swear words are losing their edginess, and literal meaning, remaining only as emphisizers. Furthering his argment that words are only as volitile as the meaning assigned to them, the author goes in-depth about the search for a new swear word. London journalist Ed Conway launched a Facebook group to aid in the discovery of a new curse word. Opponents of this revolutionary take on language included Timothy Jay, who decried the Facebook group, as he believed that language evolved when pushed, not pulled by intentionally created new words.

The New Yorker article focuses on a key aspect of The Atlantic's "Freedom's Curse," because words are only as potent as the meaning behind them; and that meaning can change. Both articles defend the user's freedom of word choice by citing the intent behind Supreme Court rulings and other court decisions. The intent, of course, is not to issue a blanket ban, but rather to meter the flow of vile words to limit the exposure of children to those words. Here is where the articles really drill it home. According to Steven Pinker and Ben McGrath, words are only as strong as the intent behind them, and therefore using the f-word as an adjective enhancing a sentance by placing emphasis. The New Yorker article cited a excellent example of meaning-not-word in Battlestar Galactica's creation and use of "frack" to replace the f-word. This serves the double purpose of dodging the FCC's righteous wrath while keeping the intensity of a swear word.

Key differences between the article include how each author believes the words should be regulated. Pinker's Atlantic article focuses on sort of the free market side to a speaker's choice of words, noting Don Imus and Ann Coulter in particular. McGrath, however sees no reason to halt the growth, nor anyone stopping it. Instead, he notes several examples of the proliferation, going so far as to note that Brits are more inventive with swearing than their American counterparts. Both articles also mention George Carlin's famous monlogue, but to different effects. McGrath notes it as part of the affinity for dirty words, wheras Pinker uses the monologue as an example of the further errosion of curse word's true meaning.