For f*ck's sake : why swearing is shocking, rude, and fun / Rebecca Roache.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roache, Rebecca, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Swearing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (273 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Why do we love to swear so much? Why do we get so offended when others do it? With wit and insight, philosopher Rebecca Roache seeks answers to these and other puzzling questions about bad language.

Contents:

Cover

For F*ck's Sake

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Why give a shit about swearing?

1. What is swearing?

Swearing =​ offensiveness

Swearing =​ offensiveness +​ emotion

Swearing =​ offensiveness +​ emotion +​ linguistic anarchy

Swearing and the brain

2. Swearing's secret offensive ingredient

What we say . . .

. . . and how we say it

The taboo of taboo-​breaking

3. There is no secret ingredient

Context is (almost) everything

Offence escalation

The recipe for offensiveness

4. Different kinds of wrong

When is swearing inappropriate?

Speaker intentions

Inappropriate swearing, wrongness, and offence

Swearing and moral character

Is swearing wrong?

5. Taboo, aggression, and harsh sweary sounds

Swearing and taboo, again

The sound that swear words make

Offence and expressing emotion

Offensiveness beyond words

6. How to be a really offensive swearer

Some background: nuisances

Tone and body language

Direct and indirect swearing

Accidental or deliberate

Repetition

7. You talkin' to me?

Swear power

Setting an example

Won't somebody think of the children?

8. A regulatory fucking mess

Who cares what we do with swearing?

A lack of clear fucking guidelines

A way forward: the nudity analogy

9. How to do things with swearing

Acts, effects, intentions, predictions

Sweary acts

Beyond speech acts

10. Fairer swearers

Putting the brakes on bias

Educating our intuition

Sweary self-​improvement

11. Swears vs. slurs

The journey to offensiveness

Slurs and the feeling of offence

Becoming offensive, becoming inoffensive

Slurs, oppression, and desert

Comparing slurs

12. Cunt and cocksucker

Offensiveness and misogyny

When etiquette gets it wrong

A dilemma for sweary feminists.

Gently increasing cunt love

13. Cunt and 'cunt'

Sanitisation

Quoting and mentioning

Quotation, mention, and slurs

The limitations of sweary quotation

14. How the f*** do asterisks work?

Sanitisation: it's not about the word

What we communicate besides the words

When asterisks don't cut it

15. Swearing as a force for good

Respect the power of swearing

Swearing and intimacy

Swearing as a pressure valve

16. The value of offensiveness

Swearing and disability

Swearing in a foreign language

Children, again

Swearing on the outside

Conclusion: You're all fucking superheroes

Acknowledgements

References

Index.

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2024.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on August 21, 2023).

Other Format:

Print version: Roache, Rebecca For F*ck's Sake

ISBN:

0-19-769389-X

0-19-066507-6

0-19-066508-4

OCLC:

1394910244