Re: Profanity versus Professionalism
Andrew Cooke (ajc@reaxp01.roe.ac.uk)
23 Aug 1995 11:24:36 GMT
i've never really understood this sort of attack - it seems
much too intellectual. i think that points to the difference
between the `latin' and `english' approaches - english
speakers seem much too restrained to let loose with anything
emotional, and have to be satisfied with feeling superior.
the `latin' approach - and only monty python got anywhere
near it in english - lets off anger directly. to scream that
someone is an undeducated son of a whore conveys the same
message. yet instead of a vague feeling of intellectual superiority
you get an immediate release of tension.
the trouble is that in an `english' medium like this, such
an extrovert display would be taken as much more agressive
than the sort of snide comments we get all the time. even though
the emotions felt are the same. how do we change?
andrew
In article <41f1le$9pg@hawk.le.ac.uk>, M.D. O'Leary <mdo4@le.ac.uk> wrote:
>In article <415137$nlp@utaipx02.uta.edu>,
>Joni R Beaulieu <JRB8947@UTARLG.UTA.EDU> wrote:
>
>Just for interest, my favourite insult in the vein you seem interested:
>"Sir, if your father (had she known him) had spent more of your mothers immoral
>earnings on your education, you would not even then have been a gentleman"
>No cursing there, but definitely pistols at dawn material...
--
A.Cooke@roe.ac.uk work phone 0131 668 8357 home phone/fax 0131 667 0208
institute for astronomy, royal observatory, blackford hill, edinburgh
http://www.roe.ac.uk/ajcwww
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