Subject:
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Re: Language slipping?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.admin.general
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Date:
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Fri, 17 Dec 1999 23:56:19 GMT
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Viewed:
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340 times
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In lugnet.admin.general, Eric Kingsley writes:
> I would tend to agree. One that particuarly annoyied me was the message who's
> subject read "What the F...." that was posted in the lugnet.dear-lego group.
>
> That does not mean I won't accidently offend someone in the future but it is
> easy to at least keep profantiy out of your messages. Please don't think that
> using an "*" or "..." or "#$%*&" is ok either because to many it is just the
> same as if you spelled it out.
>
>
> Eric Kingsley
I disagree. Using symbols to replace the letters of a "profane" word is not
the same as spelling it out. If a young person who does not know such words
reads it, he won't know what it means. basically, it's only profane because
you interpret it as such. For example, if I say "two maggots were fighting in
dead earnest" That could be interpreted as two maggats were really fighting
hard, or it could mean that two maggots were fighting in the body of a dead
guy named Ernest. The sentence is only gross if the listener interprets it as
such.
This all "eye of the beholder" stuff. For example, the English curse word for
excrement, that starts with an "S" would be commonly considered to be
profanity, but what about in other languages? This is an international
website. You can't say that "s" word on TV (well, NOW you can- Chicago Hope
did) but Capt Picard used to say the French equivalent all the time, and THAT
was ok (did they bleep it in France?) What about "bloody"? I have heard that
in the UK this is a profane word. What about "shag"? WE have Toys at TRU that
SAY this word and have it printed on the package (Austin Powers dolls).
I guess what really bothers me about this subject is that no one is really
able to tell you what is profane and isn't. They can just say that it was
profane to them. As a supreme court justice said (paraphrase)- "I can't say
what obscenity is, I just know it when I see it." It's really a very murky
issue. Is hell ok? Damn? these are mostly considered today to be "strong" but
not "profane" words, yet when I was young in the '70s they were "curse words"
and we got in trouble for using them.
I understand that printing a list of disallowed words would sort of defeat the
purpose, because then there would be a list of "bad" words for minors to look
at, and also, there would be the "clever" folks who would find ways to get
around it.
I don't know- just ranting- throwing out food for thought- discuss amongst
yourselves...
Chris "fu*k" Lannan (the "*" is for "n" ;) )
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Language slipping?
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| (...) Oh come on. Please. You know as well as the rest of us that children _do_ know those words. The more you try to hide it, the earlier they know. Besides, the words themselves aren't the problem. It's the intent behind them. (...) Here, have a (...) (25 years ago, 18-Dec-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
| | | Re: Language slipping?
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| Christopher Lannan wrote in message ... (...) for (...) Of course just to be troublesome, the S word is actually a perfectly valid English word. As a verb, it is conjugated similarly to "sit". The only reason it is vulgar is that a rather uppity (...) (25 years ago, 18-Dec-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
| | | Re: Language slipping?
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| Christopher Lannan wrote in message ... (...) Heh heh, when I first started contracting at IBM, I had a Scottish office mate. He was with a contracting firm which had a bunch of other contractors from the UK. He told me about their reaction when (...) (25 years ago, 18-Dec-99, to lugnet.admin.general, lugnet.off-topic.fun)
| | | Re: Language slipping?
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| (...) Interesting to note that Merriam-Webster marks a lot of often-taboo "curse words" as "usually vulgar" or "usually obscene" -- not as "always obscene". And OED doesn't really mention much of anything at all, except to say that certain senses of (...) (25 years ago, 20-Dec-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Language slipping?
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| (...) subject read "What the F...." that was posted in the lugnet.dear-lego group. (URL) realize it was because some thought that the origional Brad Justus post might have been a hoax but I would hope that people would give others the benifit of the (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.admin.general)
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