Bleep You! - a History of Bad Words: The Different Changes in Its Meanings & Uses and How Its Development Reflects The Evolution of Society
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BLEEP You!
A History of Bad Words: e Different Changes in Its Meanings & Uses
and How Its Development Reflects the Evolution of Society
by
Emmanuel Joseph Mariano
II AB European Studies ; 102445
submitted to
Mr. Jose Ma. Edito Tirol
Faculty, Department of History
Ateneo de Manila University
in full compliance of the requirements
of the course History 18.2
Ateneo de Manila University
Quezon City, Philippines
Introduction
Imagine Bruce Willis' John McClane immortalized with the quote "Yipee kay yay, mother-fornicator!"
or the possessed Regan in e Exorcist, screaming "Your mother siphons male organs in hell!" or Cee Lo Green
musing "Misfortune to You!"; an Eminem that rhymes "spit" with "banana split." Imagine exclaiming "holy
excrement!" or "that's dandily awesome!" when surprised or excited. In whatever language, it is impossible to
imagine verbal communication without bad words.
ree words heavily utilized by people and by mass media have epitomized the rationale of "what makes
a bad word?" namely, the A word, the S word and the F word. e uses and variations of the ass, shit and fuck have
plagued our speech and written work; our films, music, art and literature, enforcing the idea that the use of bad
words is at some point an essential and enriches the experience of communicating through language. Nowadays,
cursing (the use of these bad words in speech and in writing) serves various purposes when inserted in a sentence
or used on its own: it insults, provokes, empowers & amplifies, stimulates, exaggerates, annoys and arouses.
Whereas cursing was originally an intent to wish misfortune on another, the adaptive and malleable nature of
language allows for such changes in meaning to happen.
What makes the use of bad words endearing? e mechanisms of change in society has ingrained bad
words and its use into our casual language, brashly ignoring conventions on what is proper or otherwise. It is a
vital part in fulfilling our natural want as human beings to successfully deliver and convey a precise and exact
embodiment of our thoughts, feelings and ideas. Although the use of bad words is rarely evoked in a formal
setting, the idea of unadulterated self-expression has propagated its use from private conversations to exposed,
and more public endeavors.
But aside from being a means to communicate, express and those mentioned above, can it serve another
purpose? .
Presented with theories on the development of language and communication, linguistics, sociology and
anthropological linguistics, this research aims to academically discuss and competently present the histories of
bad words such as ass, shit and fuck; an attempt to reevaluate these so-called words: to see their value in helping
one understand how its development and integration into our language reflects the evolution of society.
Communication & Language
We express ourselves in numerous ways. Art shows how one views the world: an attempt to outwardly
portray how an artist perceives a subject hoping to share that understanding with others, fashion can convey
notions of individualism and is the expression of one's idea of beauty, and architecture can serve as the physical
embodiment of an entity's wealth and power: intimidation. We oen feel the need to physically manifest what we
our feeling beneath our exterior; to communicate. As human beings capable of thought, emotion and reason,
communication serves as the channel that conveys and transfers our ideas, feelings and thoughts to other people.
Language is a systematized form of communication used by a community or a country; it can either be
spoken or written.
No single theory can be attributed to the creation of language. A common theme shared by most theories
is that it was born of the need for human beings to express themselves. From primitive noises to actual words to
illustration then writing, thousands of years of accumulated human development and knowledge have created a
complex and structured communication form.
e words ass, shit and fuck are derived from English, largely dubbed as the universal language. Like any
developed language, it is fundamentally composed of symbols called letters. When combined, these letters form
words which have their own individual meanings. e meanings that we have established and associated with
words are derived from concepts, objects, elements and humans experience which society commonly holds as
true. As new constructs are created and discovered (such as technology, computer etc.) new meanings and words
incorporate themselves in our language which either add to or remove what was preciously established. Coupled
with
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