The ecosystem of swearing : How intra- and interpersonal variability sustains the power of offensive language (1/4)

Kristy Beers Fägersten (Université Södertörn, Suède)
The swearing paradox

This seminar will introduce swearing research in the fields of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, presenting common methodologies, findings, and especially challenges, including defining swearing, avoiding researcher bias, and advocating for swearing as a focus of scientific research. The seminar features interactive elements in the form of voluntary data collection and offensiveness ratings so as to illustrate a problem that has plagued swearing research as informed by studies of frequency and offensiveness, namely, the Swearing Paradox, or the unexplained status of swearing as both a highly frequent and a highly offensive behavior.