Naughty Words
Lingua Franca 2018-01-21
Summary:
George Carlin famously named 7 words you can never say on TV — broadcast TV, that is.
As the latest linguistic outrage fades from view outside the Beltway, I thought it might be useful to review how we classify language we don’t like hearing, regardless of what comes out of our own mouths when we stub a toe.
In France, where I’m teaching in a study-abroad program until June, the prevailing term is mots sâles, “dirty words.” Some children think of them as “bad” words, as if the words th...