pardon this, codger!

[Pafra & Scott Catledge]

I have seen enough of what I would consider gratuitous obscenities recently
to want to filter my mail if I could only find the directions again.  Does
anyone remember how?
----- Original Message -----
From: Grant Barrett <gbarrett at americandialect.org>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 1999 3:00 PM
Subject: Re: pardon this, codger!


> 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/