The Pleasure and Pain in Taboo Exploitation

Abstract

The taboo exploitation examined in this essay is swearing. Swearing intersects in complex ways with the giving and taking of pleasure and concomitantly coping with pain or, conversely, craving to inflict pain. Swearing is normally restricted to colloquial styles because it is commonly perceived to breach the rules of courtesy by offending against standards of good taste and good manners. The breaking of this taboo is an emotional release. Swearing has a special place in our neural anatomy, perhaps accounting for: (a) its effectiveness displaying pleasure and managing pain or the hypoalgesia and other physiological effects in laboratory studies; (b) for the tendency of any disparaging denotation or connotation to dominate the interpretation of the immediate context. I recognize five frequently synchronous functions for swearing from the utterer’s as well as the audience point of view: (i) The expletive function, often marking attitude to what is said. (ii) Abuse, insult, banter. (iii) Spicing up the message. (iv) Expression of social solidarity. (v) The discourse function. There is an additional from an audience point of view: (vi) Characterizing an individual’s behavior. For every function, the degree of pleasure and/or pain and the kind of taboo exploitation is assessed.