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5 teosta 179 jäsentä 9 arvostelua

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Emma Byrne has written on science, language, and society for the BBC, Science, the BMJ, the Financial Times, and Forbes. She lives in London.

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Если, споткнувшись, вы произносите что-то из категории «0 », то эта книга не для вас. Всем остальным наверняка будут интересны последние новости науки по теме, которая, прямо скажем, среди ученых мало престижна. И тем не менее нейролингвисты сквернословие исследуют, потому что попавшие себе по пальцу молотком во всех странах орут что-то непечатное, а это что-то о нас да и говорит. Например, то, что ругательства действительно неплохое обезболивающее, а коллективы, где коллеги позволяют себе некоторые вольности, скажем так, с чистотой коммуникаций, обычно более эффективны и тесно сплочены, нежели те, где боевой дух и работоспособность поддерживаются исключительно по правилам тимбилдинга. Синдром Туретта уже притча во языцех, но вот как ругаются глухонемые?

Ответ: это надо видеть. Тем более что и у них существуют примечательные национальные особенности. Местная табуированная лексика вообще уникальна. Так в Голландии одним из самых злых считается оскорбление «переживший рак» (Kankerlijer). Ругательства на других языках могут так же ранить, лишь если чужой язык освоен до определенного возраста. А еще ученые считают, что не ругаться невозможно.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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Den85 | 8 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jan 3, 2024 |
I wanted to love this book. I enjoy swearing, I love the cover, but the science writing in this is weak, padded and in some sections so weirdly spurious it casts into doubt other sections that aren’t. After reading Kat Arney’s Herding Hemingway’s Cats, I think I’ve been spoiled for good science writing, and it shows. I feel like I picked up a New Scientist feature, but in a really bad way. :/
 
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PiaRavenari | 8 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Aug 4, 2023 |
I've been waiting months for this to come out; I swear like a sailor and my love of etymology and words in general draw me to books like these. This one was excellent.

In the introduction Byrne sets the expectations for the reader; not all the chapters are focused on swearing specifically - or how swearing is good for you, but all the topics she discusses are topical to swearing, and all of them contribute to our understanding of why swearing can be fun, powerful, and offensive - often all at once!

There is a lot of science here, written by a woman who is a scientist first and a writer second, and a lot of studies make up a good portion of the narrative, with humor to keep the reading easy. Even when the chapters aren't geared directly at the benefits of swearing, they are fascinating. In a slim volume of under 200 pages, she covers the interrelationship of pain and swearing, Tourette's Syndrome (a tragic, eye-opening chapter that she describes as 'the chapter that should not be in this book'), swearing in the workplace, other primates that swear (so good!), gender and swearing, and finally, swearing for the multi-lingual. All fully cited and fascinating. With citations/notes, a bibliography, and an index in the back.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and should have saved it as a suggestion for The Flat Book Society, dammit! Though I was never going to be able to wait that long to start reading it; luckily it was good enough to re-read someday soon, so perhaps it will find it's way to the voting list anyway.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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murderbydeath | 8 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jan 29, 2022 |
This is a lively, funny, informative book about foul language.

Emma Byrne, a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence, has always loved a good swear. In this book, she lays out, using peer-reviewed science, why swearing and foul language is really good for you, for work teams, and society as a whole.

A key "news you can use" bit is that swearing is a very effective pain reliever. Whether you've hit your thumb with a hammer, or are sticking your hand in a bucket of ice (part of a real study to test this effect), or being treated for cancer, swearing really, measurably, helps your ability to handle the pain. The bad news? If you're a woman, even if you're being treated for cancer, even your female friends will judge you for this, and may drift away.

Swearing also figures prominently in building and maintaining good teams in a work environment. It's used as banter, as a a form of in-group bonding, in expressing frustrations and irritations in a form that, despite conventional ideas about swearing, in actual use is often not seen as hostile or aggressive.

Gender differences show up in how women swear compared to men, what swear words they use, and in how people react to their swearing, but not really in how much women vs. men swear.

Byrne also discusses swearing in other languages, changes in swearing over time, and, most fascinatingly, at least to me, swearing in chimpanzees, our closest relatives.

Chimpanzees, of course, don't use language on their own, but some chimpanzees, including Washoe and others raised among humans as part of the same project, have learned sign language. They learn it, they use it, they create new words, and they teach sign to younger chimps.

But to be raised with humans, they have to be potty trained. In the process of potty training, they learn that feces anywhere else is taboo--and the word they use for feces, in Washoe's case "dirty," comes to function for the chimpanzees the way a much larger variety of taboo-based swear words function for humans. This suggests, among other things, that swearing may go back to the origins of human language.

This is, unquestionably, a book that is better to read or listen to, than to just read my review. My account of it is not nearly as good.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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LisCarey | 8 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Mar 2, 2021 |

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Teokset
5
Jäseniä
179
Suosituimmuussija
#120,383
Arvio (tähdet)
½ 3.4
Kirja-arvosteluja
9
ISBN:t
20
Kielet
2

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