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Bad Language$
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Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others?

Edwin L. Battistella

Print publication date: 2005

Print ISBN-13: 9780195172485

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2007

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172485.001.0001

Bad Words

Chapter:
(p. 67 ) Four. Bad Words
Source:
Bad Language
Author(s):

Edwin L. Battistella (Contributor Webpage)

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172485.003.0004

This chapter explores the relativity of vocabulary choice. Its main goals are both to examine how some words are bad, and to reinforce the view that effective usage is less a matter of permanent fixed traditions than it is a matter of flexible and contextual conventions. Topics discussed include cursing in the media and the arts, offensive language, bad words as social construction, slang as bad language, and political correctness.

Keywords:   vocabulary choice, cursing, offensive language, bad words, slang, bad language, political correctness

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