Swearing has become more widely acceptable over the past two decades because it is increasingly used for other purposes than to insult people, linguistics experts have said.
“Fuck” and “shit”, the two most commonly used swearwords in the UK, are frequently used to emphasise a point in conversation or to build social bonds, rather than with the specific intent to cause offence, according to academic researchers.
They made the comments after the BBC presenter Mishal Husain swore seven times in under a minute during an interview with the home secretary, James Cleverly.
The broadcaster questioned him on Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday about things he had recently been accused of saying, which included whether he had described a person or a place as a “shit-hole”.
Dr Robbie Love, a lecturer in English Language at Aston University, Birmingham, said: “Swearing, as with all language use, is entirely context dependent and context specific. It’s what you do with the word and the various functions, as far as performed, that informs the perception of how acceptable it is.”
Love said research had found that people commonly swore in casual conversation to express surprise, to create humour, to show solidarity with their peers, or to abuse someone.
But Husain was not doing any of these, he said. “Rather, she’s referring to the word that [Cleverly allegedly] used and asking whether he said it. In that context, I would argue that it’s more likely to be considered acceptable, than if she suddenly said at the end of the story, ‘Well, that was a load of shit, wasn’t it?’
“The choice to say it might be part of a strategy to rattle James Cleverly, and not to euphemistically replace that term to force him to acknowledge the reality of that word. But I’m not sure if anybody would genuinely be offended by hearing that word in that context.”
Love, who has published studies on swearing trends in informal conversation between the 1990s and 2010s, and the use of the F-word among British teenagers, said most swearwords were becoming less taboo due to the ways in which people were using them.
For example, the F-word was increasingly being used in generic phrases such as “oh, for fuck sake”, or “what the fuck?”, which had lessened its impact to offend, he added.
“If you break it down and think, if I say, ‘who the fuck did that?’, as opposed to ‘who did that?’, what does ‘fuck’ actually mean? It’s just emphasising the general sentiment,” he said.
The academic added that this use of the word was happening a lot more now than a few decades ago. “That’s good evidence that the specific meaning of that word is falling away, because when people use it, they’re using it in these kind of generic ways.”
Love said swearing performed other functions in casual conversation, such as forming social bonds between friends or work colleagues, where its usage signalled a degree of solidarity or social intimacy with the group.
Yehuda Baruch, a professor of management at the University of Southampton’s business school, said his research with professionals such as lawyers, doctors and senior managers found swearing was used to create team cohesion, relieve stress and emphasise a point.
Baruch said swearing was also used in a calculated attempt to gain attention, for example, he believed, when the billionaire Elon Musk used the F-word in an interview at the New York Times DealBook summit.
He added: “I’m sure Mishal did it because she wanted to emphasise the point, so that everybody will listen. Forty years ago, she would never do it. But unfortunately, it is effective. This is the new language and we have to live with it.”
