Swear words often used by a teenager, adults, and sometimes children. Why do people swear? People often say swear words spontaneously. That is when they surprised or shock. Also, there are many who say it on purpose such as when they angry, sad, or even happy. But, why swear words considered inappropriate in society? People often say because it is rude, but swearing is not completely inappropriate.

             From the opponent’s argument that swearing does not encourage, that is not completely true. For example, the U.S. Army often uses swear word to communicate and one of the purposes is to help condition people to be willing to do awful things that nobody should ever have to do. In this case, it will encourage soldier to do what other people cannot do. Also related to encouraging by swearing, there is a kind of swearing, that is Cathartic swearing, which is non-propositional, is used to relieve tension, increase one’s tolerance for pain, or startle or intimidate an attacker. It is considered neither to be polite nor rude. Yes, it is rude, but the tone of swearing is more powerful than other words.

             Another opponent’s argument that is swearing only for abusive purpose is not true. Swearing also can be used to promote social harmony, to express that someone is doing well, or it can be used to intensify a word used to describe an event or person in a negative or positive way. For example, the word ‘f***ng cool’ is to appraise a work or something that has been done by other people. Another example is ‘Damn I Love Indonesia’ that become iconic to Indonesian teenagers and the purpose is to point out that we love Indonesia so badly. Maybe people from the 20th century are not used to this kind of words and at that time swearing is concluded as spoken intimidation which is inappropriate. There are many linguists who have research this issue and found there are many reasons why people swear. One of that reason is not abusive and it is even good for other.

             The opponent also says that swearing is useless. Despite the fact that it is useless, there is a study that claims swearing can be good for relieving pain. The study published in the journal NeuroReport measured how long college student could keep their hands immersed in cold water. During the chilly exercise, they could repeat an expletive of their choice or chant a neutral word. When swearing, the 67 student volunteers reported less pain and on average endured about 40 seconds longer. Steven Pinker, a psychologist of Harvard University, says “I suspect that swearing taps into a defensive reflex in which an animal that is suddenly injured or confined erupts in a furious struggle, accompanied by an angry vocalization, to startle and intimidate the attacker”. From that, we know that swearing can trigger our defence to reduce the pain caused by something.

             In conclusion, swearing is not always abusive. We should change our point of view about swearing that if we know what it meant, when and to whom we can use swear words. So that, we can broaden our ways of communicating

Sources:

• Finn, Eileen. 2017. Swearing: The good, the bad, the ugly. ORTESOL Journal, Vol. 34; 17-26
• Joelving, Frederik. 2009. Why the #$%! Do We Swear? For Pain Relieve. Retrieved on April 16th, 2018, From https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-swear/

Pict source:

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