Dirty Southerners

[Dennis R. Preston]

Allen,

I take the opposite view with not a great deal more research support, but I
base my opinion at least in part on my general deploring of the notion
"free variation" (yuk!). If obsenities are not stratified by age,
ethnicity, sex, generation, region (and more), I'll personally spend an
entire day at the upcoming ADS-LSA conference in Chicago without uttering
one.

Of course, when I say stratified, I mean quantitatively as well as
categorically, and I mean evaluatively and semantically. Just to get things
started, let's all recall that "cock" has male reference in Northern speech
and female reference in traditional Southern speech (which I believe we
have discussed in an earlier round).

Frank Anshen did some interesting research in the 70's which showed that
the ranking of "power" of obscenities was very different across ethnic
groups (at least for African-Americans and European-Americans), and a great
deal of more recent work (including work published in our own AS) has shown
significantly different patterns, uses, senses, and content for
gender-based variation in this very area.

dInIs (who has little fear of having to carry out his promise but stands by it)



>On Wed, 6 Oct 1999, Grant Barrett wrote:
>
>> So, my point: There's a slough of words they will use and a
>> whole nother set they won't use. I can remember my father using any
>> variation of "fuck" once and only once, while "sonufabitch" and
>> "bastard" and "shit" are like old friends to me when he says them
>> now.
>>
>> And my question: are obscenities regionalized? Could we put pins
>> in a map and show usage contours?
>>
>
>Personally, I don't think that they are, although I cannot prove it
>statistically and haven't the time or skill to attempt it. Like Grant, I
>can't remember my grandfather or uncles or father using any variation of
>"fuck" in my presence (of course, they might have refrained because of my
>presence). But again, like Grant, they would say just about anything
>else.  My grandmother and mother never said anything stronger than
>"Damnation!" and that, only in extremis. I think it's probably more a
>question of generation, gender (and perceived propriety) and company that
>determine what one will/can say in a given situation.
>
>When I go down to visit my son in Jackson MS, I don't think I hear any
>more swearing than I do here in Seattle, in fact, I'd be inclined to say
>that I hear less, but then again, I'm not not really in a situation where
>I could make an estimate.
>
>Allen
>maberry at u.washington.edu

Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736