pardon this, codger!

[Grant Barrett]

On Wednesday, October 06, 1999, Pafra & Scott Catledge
<scplc at GS.VERIO.NET> wrote:
>Would you characterize those who are seemingly unable to
express themselves
>without obscenities as either deliberately offensive or merely
suffering
>from an extreme paucity of vocabulary?

This is a good question. I have been trying to answer this for
myself.

Around the age of 10, I picked up every four-letter,
scatological, sexual, eks., obscenity there is an began using them with both
lungs. As I've grown older., I've decreased their usage, but a
habit I find hard to break (I use different, shorter, more direct
words now, though).

However, as we've discussed on this list before, I find that in
New York City, where I live, obscenities are far more common in
everyday speech than they are where I'm from (Missouri). Meetings,
casual conversation, email, music, stage peformances, eks. My
once declining habit is reinforced.

I would say that your question is not either/or, as it does not
include all of the possibilities. One idea that has surfaced here
before is that obscenities fill a role that is almost impossible
to fill with other words. This is why I use them. They are
functions of speech and communication that I would be verbally
crippled without.

There are only a handful of words that bother me when I hear
them, and none of them are obscenities.

--
Grant Barrett

World New York
http://www.worldnewyork.com/