5 ms·

I'm with Stephen Fry on this one: "There used to be mad, silly, prissy people who used to say swearing was a sign of a poor vocabulary. Such utter nonsense."

I'm with Stephen Fry on this one: "There used to be mad, silly, prissy people who used to say swearing was a sign of a poor vocabulary. Such utter nonsense." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM

daleharvey 15y ago
Agreed, his alternative phrasing may be more fitting though "The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or verbal interest is just fucking lunatic"
- stevelosh 15y ago
  Yeah, there are so many fantastic lines in that video. The part where he calls out the "swearing is unnecessary" argument is probably my favorite.
dorian-graph 15y ago
Perhaps not a poor vocabulary but at least a poor effort. I don't believe the poster was making the point that people who swear have a poor vocabulary anyway and in one of his examples he simply used the word 'gorgeous' instead of swearing. Gorgeous is hardly an advanced word.
jamesbritt 15y ago
Sure, but it could be a sign of poor taste. Not for the supposed vulgarity, but for the lack of use of more interesting words. It's like the rampant over-use of the word "awesome". Fine word, nothing wrong with using it, but using it as the adjective for everything indicates a lack of critical thinking skills.
- vacri 15y ago
  If I have to deal with people using marketroid-style 'impact' when the correct word is 'affect', then others should just suck it up and not worry about 'fuck' being used as 'lack of verbiage'. 'Impact' in presentations needs to die (well, perhaps it can stay in physics or medicine presentations...)
  - jamesbritt 15y ago
    I don't disagree about the use of "impact". In fact, I'd be happier if people went hardcore by saying "fucking impact". :)
  - joe24pack 15y ago
    How about the use of "impactful" ? (I swear by The Fates, the FSM's Noodly Appendage, and the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch that actual English speaking human beings used that word) On the few occasions that I hear someone using the word "impactful", I'm tempted to ask "Do you mean 'effective'?"
- thenduks 15y ago
  I find the word 'fuck' plenty interesting. Also I hardly think, in the context of giving presentations/talks at conferences, that it is overused like 'awesome'. In fact the presentation seemingly in question (the documentation one) only uses the word 'fuck' once (and 'shit' once) that I saw. Honestly from my perspective the excessive talk of drinking and booze is much more worrying than some perceived overuse of a random English word.
vacri 15y ago
As I said in a recent post on exactly the same topic, if you think swearing is a sign of a poor vocabulary or linguistic skills, then you obviously haven't spent much time around linguists, speech pathologists, or english lit fans. These folk show just as much profanity, if not more, than the rest of the population. As you show Fry says, 'loving language' and 'caring about what you say' has nothing to do with profanity. I think it's particularly funny that the author spends an entire article deriding the use of 'fuck' and then intentionally uses it as a punchline. But hang on - even though you're going all 'meta' here - haven't you just spent a thousand words telling us that there are more professional ways to communicate, and you've just gone for your own self-defined cheap, lazy trick here? Whatever happened to leading by example?
ticks 15y ago
Swearing is more a sign of laziness, than a sign of poor education. Speakers should consider the culture of their audiences and the atmosphere of the event before swearing. It just gives off an image that the speaker is self absorbed and not willing to adapt to a situation.
- krig 15y ago
  Honestly. If you stop listening because someone said a word you find distasteful, who is being lazy? There's a point in your second sentence, but even that is a problematic statement. It's a very conformist attitude. Everyone generally wears a tie, so everyone should wear a tie, and anyone who doesn't wear a tie should be ignored. Willingness to adapt is closely related to a fear of standing out. I'd say: don't be afraid to stand out. It's okay to be different.

daleharvey 15y ago

Agreed, his alternative phrasing may be more fitting though "The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or verbal interest is just fucking lunatic"

stevelosh 15y ago
Yeah, there are so many fantastic lines in that video. The part where he calls out the "swearing is unnecessary" argument is probably my favorite.

dorian-graph 15y ago

Perhaps not a poor vocabulary but at least a poor effort. I don't believe the poster was making the point that people who swear have a poor vocabulary anyway and in one of his examples he simply used the word 'gorgeous' instead of swearing. Gorgeous is hardly an advanced word.

jamesbritt 15y ago

Sure, but it could be a sign of poor taste. Not for the supposed vulgarity, but for the lack of use of more interesting words. It's like the rampant over-use of the word "awesome". Fine word, nothing wrong with using it, but using it as the adjective for everything indicates a lack of critical thinking skills.

vacri 15y ago
If I have to deal with people using marketroid-style 'impact' when the correct word is 'affect', then others should just suck it up and not worry about 'fuck' being used as 'lack of verbiage'. 'Impact' in presentations needs to die (well, perhaps it can stay in physics or medicine presentations...)
- jamesbritt 15y ago
  I don't disagree about the use of "impact". In fact, I'd be happier if people went hardcore by saying "fucking impact". :)
- joe24pack 15y ago
  How about the use of "impactful" ? (I swear by The Fates, the FSM's Noodly Appendage, and the Holy Handgrenade of Antioch that actual English speaking human beings used that word) On the few occasions that I hear someone using the word "impactful", I'm tempted to ask "Do you mean 'effective'?"
thenduks 15y ago
I find the word 'fuck' plenty interesting. Also I hardly think, in the context of giving presentations/talks at conferences, that it is overused like 'awesome'. In fact the presentation seemingly in question (the documentation one) only uses the word 'fuck' once (and 'shit' once) that I saw. Honestly from my perspective the excessive talk of drinking and booze is much more worrying than some perceived overuse of a random English word.

vacri 15y ago

As I said in a recent post on exactly the same topic, if you think swearing is a sign of a poor vocabulary or linguistic skills, then you obviously haven't spent much time around linguists, speech pathologists, or english lit fans. These folk show just as much profanity, if not more, than the rest of the population. As you show Fry says, 'loving language' and 'caring about what you say' has nothing to do with profanity. I think it's particularly funny that the author spends an entire article deriding the use of 'fuck' and then intentionally uses it as a punchline. But hang on - even though you're going all 'meta' here - haven't you just spent a thousand words telling us that there are more professional ways to communicate, and you've just gone for your own self-defined cheap, lazy trick here? Whatever happened to leading by example?

ticks 15y ago

Swearing is more a sign of laziness, than a sign of poor education. Speakers should consider the culture of their audiences and the atmosphere of the event before swearing. It just gives off an image that the speaker is self absorbed and not willing to adapt to a situation.

krig 15y ago
Honestly. If you stop listening because someone said a word you find distasteful, who is being lazy? There's a point in your second sentence, but even that is a problematic statement. It's a very conformist attitude. Everyone generally wears a tie, so everyone should wear a tie, and anyone who doesn't wear a tie should be ignored. Willingness to adapt is closely related to a fear of standing out. I'd say: don't be afraid to stand out. It's okay to be different.