Note that I haven't actually seen Deadwood, so I don't know
specifically how they are actually using language, so my comments
below about Deadwood really do mean those "if"s...
At 1:35 PM -0600 9/24/06, Sylvia Rognstad wrote:
Well, as I said, I wondered about the frequency of it too. I doubt
your grandfather hung around in the same company as the guys on
Deadwood. Since we never (I don't think) see that word in writing
before the late twentieth century, how do we know how they really
talked? Do the writers have references to back up the usage (or
overusage) of foul language?
Note that it isn't just the age of the _word_ used, but also whether
that word was used in that _way_ in the relevant period.
For example, if Deadwood has characters talking about men and women
having sexual intercourse and these characters use a certain word in
place of "have sexual intercourse" in their sentences, then that may
be historically reasonable. However, if they have their characters
using that same word as an expletive (e.g., "****!" exclaimed when
they hit their thumb with a hammer), or as an intensifying
adjective/adverb (e.g., "I hit my thumb with a ****ing hammer!"),
that is an entirely different kettle of fish, and it is less likely
that real people --even real "foul-mouthed" people-- of that time
used those words in that way.
Just as words themselves change over time, so to do how words are
used. "Bad language" has grammar as well as vocabulary, and just like
all other aspects of language, is time and (sub)culture dependant.
Also, it is worth noting that we have experienced something of a "bad
word" devaluation in recent decades. Even mid-century, "damn" was
still a really scandalous word to say in polite company (as an
expletive) -- only recently has that become G (or at least PG) rated,
and previous generations of the "foul-mouthed" could have achieved
the same effects exclaiming "Damn!" and complaining about a "damned
hammer" as are now served (though with less and less effect) by using
the modern sexual offensive words in the same manner.
I have just remembered that I actually have a book relevant to this
discussion _Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and
Profanity in English_ by Geoffrey Hughes
(<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140267077/ref=nosim/medievalscotland>
<http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140267077/ref=nosim/medievalscotla02>)
Interestingly, and not very surprisingly, Hughes notes that the
insulting use of sexual terms (calling someone a ****er, a pr***,
etc.) are first recorded only within the last century or so, with
some (such as calling someone a "t*t") only showing up in record from
around mid-century. Even with an assumption that the first written
record post-dates by some time the first spoken usages, there is
clearly a time difference in using such sexual terms vs. using
excremental terms as insults (many of which were used in this way in
the Middle Ages).
Hughes also lists eight different categories of usage for a word, and
has a table illustrating how (modernly) different words get used in
different combinations of ways (with only one on his list, "bugger",
being used in all 8 categories modernly). And, of course, which
categories any given word gets used in is just as time dependent as
anything else. For the curious, his 8 categories are:
1. personal: 'You ---!'
2. personal by reference: 'The ---!'
3. destinational: '--- off!'
4. cursing: '--- you!'
5. general expletive of anger, annoyance, frustration: '---!'
6. explicit expletive of anger, annoyance, frustration: '--- it!'
7. capacity for adjectival extension: '---ing' or '---y'
8. verbal usage: 'to --- about'
Unfortunately, he doesn't give as detailed a time analysis for the
words he examines the modern grammatical range of...
Anyway, all of which is to say, if the swearing sounds modern -- that
is, if the characters are swearing in essentially the same ways (in
aggregate) as modern early 21st century people do, such that they
sound like modern 21st century people swearing -- chances are that
they are then _not_ using foul language as it would have been used in
the real historical period, even by that era's most foulmouthed
people. There are undoubtedly things done now that were not done then
(and things done then that modernly we would not consider as
offensive as it was considered then). To what degree they are off,
however, would depend on exactly when Deadwood is set, and, of
course, how they are using language in the program...
Sharon, who would really like to find a book that more clearly
presents both the time and grammar developments of various words...
--
Sharon Krossa, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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