Language II

Swearing

As a part of using language as a means of knowing, we looked at the implications of swearing. In the day-to-day life we use it normally as strong means of expressing. We also looked at the literal meanings of swear words in different languages:

English=sexual

French=sexual

Quebecois=religious

Dutch=disease

Swedish=religious+ sexual

Danish=Devil, Satan, Hell

Finnish=Devil, illness

Japanese=animal+ sexual

There seems to be a similarity, that most of these are sources of fear.

However I think  the word ‘swearing’ in itself already reflects the English language and culture, and trying to look at the different swear words in different languages already specifies what we mean by swearing. In French we would call these words ‘gros mots’, and in Japanese we would just call this type of language ‘dirty’. I agree that most languages will have ‘bad’ and ‘taboo’ words to express strong emotion, but especially as we get away from the European languages and look at languages of completely different origins, this doesn’t apply directly the way ‘swear words’ have a role in English.

Humor

Humor is strongly linked to language and culture. My personal experience about this is again from my origins, Japanese. There is a type of comedy (like stand-up comedy or ironic humor) that exists only in Japan, which consists of being silly going along with a joke, and someone else intervening and saying the ‘punch line’. This sounds really weird in any other language and is completely alien to even cultures closer to Japanese like Korea or China. There is also an expression, “Go get laughter even if it sacrifices yourself (physically)”,  which explains the Japanese TV shows where people do the craziest things.