Post by Deleted on Dec 25, 2015 9:02:14 GMT 7
Good swearers have a better general vocabulary, scientists say
A bigger vocabulary is a bigger vocabulary - no matter whether you are quoting Shakespeare or cursing like a sailor. This is the takeaway from a study recently published in the journal Language Sciences, which finds that fluency in “taboo words” is correlated with having a larger vocabulary in general.
The finding goes against some prior research and much popular thinking that sees cursing as a defect. Researchers and authors have argued that people who curse a lot are lazy, have a more limited vocabulary, and lack education and self-control. But the study by psychologists Kristin Jay of Marist College and Timothy Jay of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts suggests that at least one of these assumptions is wrong.
The researchers carried out three different studies to test how “general verbal fluency” - demonstrated in the study by people's ability to come up with a long list of words starting with the letters “a”, “f,” and “s” - correlated with their ability to list “taboo words,” or common curses and slurs. As a control, they also had the test-takers list as many words related to animals as possible.
In the first study, they had participants speak all these words. In the second, they had them write them down. And in the third study, they had them write out the words again, but also take a personality test. Overall, they found that people generally had the easiest time thinking of animal words, followed by the “a, f, s” test. People tended to think of far fewer taboo words overall, and there wasn’t a significant difference between men and women, as the chart below shows.
But their findings also revealed that those who were able to think of more animal words and more words beginning with “a”, “f,” or “s” were also able to think of more taboo words. And those who thought of fewer words in the first two categories also thought of fewer in the third.
These findings suggest the idea that “fluency is fluency,” as the researchers write. People who could recall a lot of bad words also tended to be more eloquent in general. In other words, swearing is not necessarily a sign that a person has a limited vocabulary or can’t think of anything better to say.
“A voluminous taboo lexicon may better be considered an indicator of healthy verbal abilities rather than a cover for their deficiencies,” the researchers write.
www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1894102/good-swearers-have-better-general-vocabulary-scientists-say
A bigger vocabulary is a bigger vocabulary - no matter whether you are quoting Shakespeare or cursing like a sailor. This is the takeaway from a study recently published in the journal Language Sciences, which finds that fluency in “taboo words” is correlated with having a larger vocabulary in general.
The finding goes against some prior research and much popular thinking that sees cursing as a defect. Researchers and authors have argued that people who curse a lot are lazy, have a more limited vocabulary, and lack education and self-control. But the study by psychologists Kristin Jay of Marist College and Timothy Jay of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts suggests that at least one of these assumptions is wrong.
The researchers carried out three different studies to test how “general verbal fluency” - demonstrated in the study by people's ability to come up with a long list of words starting with the letters “a”, “f,” and “s” - correlated with their ability to list “taboo words,” or common curses and slurs. As a control, they also had the test-takers list as many words related to animals as possible.
In the first study, they had participants speak all these words. In the second, they had them write them down. And in the third study, they had them write out the words again, but also take a personality test. Overall, they found that people generally had the easiest time thinking of animal words, followed by the “a, f, s” test. People tended to think of far fewer taboo words overall, and there wasn’t a significant difference between men and women, as the chart below shows.
But their findings also revealed that those who were able to think of more animal words and more words beginning with “a”, “f,” or “s” were also able to think of more taboo words. And those who thought of fewer words in the first two categories also thought of fewer in the third.
These findings suggest the idea that “fluency is fluency,” as the researchers write. People who could recall a lot of bad words also tended to be more eloquent in general. In other words, swearing is not necessarily a sign that a person has a limited vocabulary or can’t think of anything better to say.
“A voluminous taboo lexicon may better be considered an indicator of healthy verbal abilities rather than a cover for their deficiencies,” the researchers write.
www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1894102/good-swearers-have-better-general-vocabulary-scientists-say