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How should one interpret foul language?

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Author Topic:   How should one interpret foul language?
tudwell
Member (Idle past 6008 days)
Posts: 172
From: KCMO
Joined: 08-20-2006

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Message 20 of 87 (403096)
05-31-2007 8:13 PM 		Reply to: Message 16 by susan8800
05-31-2007 7:59 PM

Speak with a purpose and do not use foul language
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Who decides what's foul, susan?
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tudwell
Member (Idle past 6008 days)
Posts: 172
From: KCMO
Joined: 08-20-2006

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Message 26 of 87 (403105)
05-31-2007 8:33 PM 		Reply to: Message 23 by susan8800
05-31-2007 8:23 PM

Re: Websters Dictionary 3rd Edition
susan8800 writes:
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Foul: disgusting to the senses by reason or decay, turpitude, filthiness, hateful, etc... base, vicious, scurrilous
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Foul-mouthed: given to filthy or abusive speech
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I didn't ask what 'foul' means, I asked who decides what's foul. To some, the word "bitch" (eg) may be considered foul; however, others use it daily and see nothing wrong with the word. Which one is right? And how do you tell?
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 Message 30 by susan8800, posted 05-31-2007 8:43 PM tudwell has replied
  
tudwell
Member (Idle past 6008 days)
Posts: 172
From: KCMO
Joined: 08-20-2006

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Message 36 of 87 (403117)
05-31-2007 8:58 PM 		Reply to: Message 30 by susan8800
05-31-2007 8:43 PM

Re: Websters Dictionary 3rd Edition
Those humans who use and study the English Language have supplied the general public with Webster's Dictionaries.
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And the reason they're always updating dictionaries is because words change. The reason they change? The people speaking them use them differently. A hundred years ago 'nigger' was just an everyday word for a black person. Now it's extremely offensive, and not just to black people. It's offensive because the majority of people speaking English believe it to be so; they assign it its meaning.
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And it goes the other way, too. The Catcher in the Rye was banned by many schools because of its use of the word 'fuck', which in the fifties was highly inappropriate. Nowadays, it ain't so bad. It's all over books and movies. You even hear it on TV from time to time, unbleeped.
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It's not old, rich, highbrow "scholars" who control a language. It's everyday people. The "scholars" merely record it.
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tudwell
Member (Idle past 6008 days)
Posts: 172
From: KCMO
Joined: 08-20-2006

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Message 60 of 87 (403327)
06-01-2007 9:11 PM 		Reply to: Message 52 by New Cat's Eye
06-01-2007 9:54 AM

I merely prefer elegant writing, that's all. If someone else doesn't, it isn't that important.
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But still important enough for an off-topic snide comment?
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Pot, meet kettle.
​
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