Bunganga’y Kanal na dapat sana’y Banal :

An Adolescent’s Swearing Habit

12 - Earth
 Shean Kurth I. Tanteo

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Profane words have a direct line to our emotions. They are a spontaneous reflection of strong
emotional states, like anger, fear or passion. They are also unequaled in their capacity to inflict
emotional pain and incite violent disagreement. They’re the words that provoke the most
repressive regulatory reactions from the state in the form of censorship and legislation. In short,
bad words are powerful—emotionally, physiologically, psychologically and socially. And
because profanity is powerful, it behaves differently from other types of language. It gets
encoded differently in the brain. It’s learned differently. It’s articulated differently. It changes
differently over time. And that lends it the unique potential to reveal facts about our language
and ourselves that we’d otherwise never imagine.
Yet throughout its several-thousand-year history, the scientific study of language has, if
anything, mostly tried to sidestep profanity. This is due in no small part to institutional
apprehension that academics have about potential reprisal. And with good reason. Last year,
LSU professor Teresa Buchanan was fired—despite having tenure—for swearing in lectures.
But things have started to change, in large part because of changes in public language norms.
The highly regulated public airwaves don’t carry the bulk of mass communication as they once
did. First cable television and then the Internet have created a Wild West for words, where the
true will of the people has its way. And if social media are any indication, the people want to be
able to swear. And to hear swearing. And to read swearing. As the public has become more
accustomed to profanity, taboo words have started to make their way more prominently into
mainstream science and brought with them a wealth of new insights.
One of the most important things we’ve learned from profanity pertains to how the brain
generates language. The traditional view still taught in introductory psychology textbooks is that
specific, dedicated neural circuitry performs specific language functions in humans but not in
other animals. Here’s a little technical primer: Wernicke’s Area is thought to compute word
meaning. Broca’s Area is thought to coordinate speech sounds. These regions are found in the
left hemisphere of the brain in most people (this is the basis for the popular but mostly
overblown notion that logical, rational and verbal people are “left brained”). This well-studied
language system is part of the evolutionarily new (and in humans, enlarged) cerebral cortex—
that most recent and most human embellishment of the primate brain that makes us so much
smarter, in the ways we are, than other animals.
This is a nice, clean story. But it’s only partially right, as we now know from neuropsychiatric
work on profanity—studies of people with damage to their brains or who developed atypically.
This field began with a case study from a French physician named Jacques Lordat in 1843. He
wrote about a parish priest, a man of God, who had suffered a serious stroke. And as a
consequence of the stroke, the priest retained little ability to speak. He had what we now know as
aphasia, which more than a million Americans currently suffer from. His vocabulary was
reduced to just two words. The first was je, the French word for “I.” And as for the other word,
Lordat wrote that it was “the most forceful oath of the tongue, which begins with an ‘f’ and
which our Dictionaries have never dared to print.” That was the French word foutre, whose
English translation, a familiar four-letter word, coincidentally also starts with “f.” And with two
centuries of accumulated observations, we now know that many people with aphasia exhibit the
very same syndrome that Lordat observed in his priest. They find it difficult or impossible to
intentionally articulate words or string them together. But some spontaneous language is still
preserved—including some of the most vulgar verbal ejaculations in the language.
What this discovery means is that different ways you use language—speaking rationally versus
swearing spontaneously, for example—must be generated by different parts of the brain. The
famous language circuits I described earlier are only one of two pathways in the brain that
produce language. Spontaneous swears are generated somewhere else. But where?
We know that this somewhere else must be on the right side of the brain, not on the left like the
traditional language centers. And the evidence comes from a pretty amazing source. There are
people—like a patient pseudonymized as E.C—who have their entire left hemisphere removed,
usually in order to disrupt otherwise fatal seizure conditions. E.C. had a brain tumor, and when
his doctors removed the entire left hemisphere of his brain, he lost all capacity for intentional
language. But he still spontaneously and articulately uttered expletives out of frustration.
So spontaneous swearing doesn’t need the language centers of the left hemisphere. Instead, it’s
driven by evolutionarily old structures known as the limbic system, buried deep in the brain, that
we share with primates and other mammals where they are responsible for emotional calls,
shrieks, cries, and growls. Changes to these very same brain structures—the basal ganglia in
particular—are observed in people with coprolalia, the uncontrollable use of taboo language
often observed in Tourette Syndrome.
This means that when you swear out of frustration, fear, anger or passion, the words you utter
offer privileged access to your emotions, laying bare your covert internal experiences,
unmediated by rational and deliberate planning.
And this is just one of dozens of insights we’re now able to garner from taking profanity
seriously. The time is right to capitalize on profanity to learn about language, not just as the
rational product of deliberate reflection, but as part of the impulsive, emotional, hot cognition
that is pervasively, if not uniquely, human.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/health/swearing-benefits-wellness/index.html

COUNSELEE’S PERSONAL HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

A. Biographical Data
Name : Stephanie Kei I. Tanteo
Gender : Female
Place of Birth : Caniag, Camilling, Tarlac
Adress : Caniag, Camiling, Tarlac
Father : Rene L. Tanteo Age : 4
Mother : Teresa I. Inocencio Age : 46
Siblings : Saniel Karl I. Tanteo Age : 16
Shean Kurth I. Tanteo Age : 17

B. Physical Characteristics of the Counselee

Height : 4’9”

Weight : 45 kls.

Skin Color : Light brown

Hair Color : Straight black

History of illness/Disease : Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)

C. School Data
Elementary :
Records of achievement : She’s a consistent honor student in her whole elementary years.
 Unlikable records : N/A
Highschool : She’s a honored student in her first year of highschool and currently at
second year highschool.
Unlikable records : She has records of late being in her r few subjects.

D. Family Data

She grew up in a huge family with a simple way of living in care of her mother with a bit
of strictness.
She’s spending most of her time with her mother due to the absence of her father on a
distant work, and so she became the family’s spoiled rebellious child.
Unpleasant arguments among family members are a daily issue inside their home, that’s
often resolved by tyranny or silent treatment.

E. School Data

She was raised in a conservative background. A liberal and harsh lifestyle intended to
teach independency at a very young age and forcing the child to rush its maturity, making
the childhood less experienced and enjoyed.

F. Social Data

She’s an extroverted person who’s not having difficulties on socializing with elderlies
and individuals at her same age. Always Outgoing and a funny but noticeably insensitive
and selfish.

G. Religious Data

She’s not regularly attending the church and wasn’t interested of religious matters but she
acknowledges god, yet she’s not having any hesitations to commit small and trivial sins.

FINDINGS

She slowly developed her swearing habit as she grow older in the home where she
acquired control. There are four factors that contributed to her developed swearing habit,
first was the spoiling treatment she gained from her family that made her think she
always has the previlege inside their house, giving her the courage to do and say
whatever she want.
Second was her underdeveloped connection to god resulted by the not broad introduction
of religion. Acknowledging god and not fully engaging herself into it wasn’t enough to
generate the fear of God, which resulted to her intentional sin of swearing.

Third was the cussing from the daily family arguments she have been used to, that she
soon adopted and practiced whenever thrown in an argument or tempered situations

Fourth was the influence of other people’s swearing trait she got for being outgoing.
She learned that a conversation with swearing was a more fun and appealing talk,
which completed the four factors of her swearing habit.

PROPOSED THEORY

Why we curse : A neuro – psycho – social theory of speech

By Timothy Jay, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2000 Pp. 328.

Psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, linguists and speech pathologists currently

have no coherent theory to explain why we curse and why we choose the words we do
when we curse. The Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory of Speech draws together information
about cursing from different disciplines and unites them to explain and describe the
psychological, neurological, cultural and linguistic factors that underlie this startling
phenomenon.
Why We Curse is divided into five parts. Part 1 introduces the dimensions and scope of
cursing and outlines the NPS Theory, while Part 2 covers neurological variables and
offers evidence for right brain dominance during emotional speech events. Part 3 then
focuses on psychological development including language acquisition, personality
development, cognition and so forth, while Part 4 covers the wide variety of social and
cultural forces that define curse words and restrict their usage. Finally, Part 5 concludes
by examining the social and legal implications of cursing, treating misconceptions about
cursing, and setting the agenda for future research.
The work draws on new research by Dr. Jay and others and continues the research
reported in his groundbreaking 1992 volume Cursing in America. A psycholinguistic
study of dirty language in the courts, in the movies, in the schoolyards and on the streets.

https://benjamins.com/catalog/z.91

CONCLUSION

The expression of emotions was the main purpose of swearing, especially frustrations and
angers. Swear words are well suited to express emotion as their meanings are
connotative. People are commonly developing their swearing habit because of their
 environment’s influence, but the habit can also be developed when an individual’s
constantly put through emotional collapses.

RECOMMENDATION

Quickly coping with the swearing habit’s a difficult task and requires great discipline,
but accomplishable through willingness and slow effective progress.
Since the habit became a normal part of the counselee’s daily routine, it needs plenty of
time and effort to remove the habit.

Personal recommendation :
1. Beginning her journey into the holy bible was a good step to strengthen her faith to
god and gave her awareness of her sin’s consequences.

2. Learning to have great control of her temper was also crucial step in removing her
swearing habit, since swearing is most often done when she’s out of patience.
She must harness her emotions so she can conquer her habit of cussing.

Experts recommendations :
https://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Swearing

1. Enlist the help of a friend. Sharing a difficult experience or task with a friend or
partner will make the whole experience more tolerable, even enjoyable. Enlisting a
friend to help you in your endeavor to stop swearing can work in one of two ways:
 You can either rope in a friend who also has a swearing problem and work towards
cutting out the bad language together, or you can ask a clean-mouthed comrade to
monitor your language and give you a gentle reminder whenever you slip up.
Either way, having someone to hold you accountable for your swearing slip-ups will
force you to stick to your guns and kick this bad habit once and for all.

2. Identify your triggers and learn to avoid them. Everyone has their own individual
triggers which set them off, leading to the intense desire to swear. For some people
it’s traffic, for others it’s the queue at the grocery store and for others still, it’s when
yet another character dies on “Game of Thrones”. If you can pinpoint what your
exact triggers are, you may be able to avoid them – by leaving work 30 minutes later
to avoid rush hour, by shopping online, or by watching reruns of “Friends” instead.
Remove yourself from any situations which cause negative emotions to rise and
you’ll be better able to control what comes out of your mouth.

3. Ping your wrist with a rubber band. This method is the human equivalent of putting
an electric shock collar on a dog to eliminate bad behaviors – unsavory but effective.
Basically, all you need to do is wear a rubber band or a hair tie around your wrist and
give it a firm snap every time you catch yourself swearing. The thinking behind this
is that your brain will come to associate swearing with pain and, over time, will
cause you to mentally shy away from using bad words. If you’re really serious about
this method, you could give permission to a friend (preferably one prone to a little
schadenfreude) to snap the band for you. Just try to remember that you agreed to it.

4. Use a swear jar. The swear jar is a tried-and-tested method which has helped many
people to kick their swearing habit. It usually involves taking a large jar or money
box (something you can’t easily break into) to which you will add a dollar (or some
other arbitrary amount of money) every time you utter a swear word. You can view
the swear jar in two ways, as a punishment or as a delayed reward:

It’s a punishment because you have to say goodbye to a dollar every time you slip
up. But it’s also a reward, because once the jar is full (or you’ve successfully stopped
swearing – whichever comes first) you get to spend the money on whatever you like
– whether you want to buy yourself some new threads, or donate the money to
charity.
Keeping the swear jar in your office is a good idea if you have roped several people
into giving up swearing. Everyone will hold each other accountable and make sure
 that nobody tries to sneakily avoid sacrificing their dollar. Once the jar is full, you
can celebrate by buying a new coffee machine for your entire floor.

5. Pretend your grandmother is always within earshot. Another way to train yourself to
bite your tongue whenever you feel a swear word coming on is to imagine that
someone is listening. All the time. It could be your grandmother, your boss or your
innocent little son or daughter, just as long as it’s someone you’d be ashamed to
swear in front of. Whenever you swear, visualize them standing beside you with a
shocked or horrified expression on their face. That should help deter you.

6. Avoid explicit music and other swear-happy media. Many people’s swearing habits,
especially those of teenagers, are influenced by the explicit content of much of their
favorite music, movies or T.V. instead. ] If you feel like this is the case, and you’re
swearing to sound like your favorite rapper, you may need a reality check to remind
yourself that this is not how people speak in the real world. Try switching your radio
station to squeaky-clean pop music, or at least download the clean versions of your
favorite songs instead.

7. Convince yourself that swearing is a negative thing. Swearing is used in a lot of

different contexts – you might swear when you are angry or frustrated, when you are
trying to emphasize a point or when you are trying to be funny. Swearing is an
unpleasant habit for a variety of reasons. It gives the impression of stupidity or a lack
of education, even if this is not the case. It can be intimidating or viewed as a form of
bullying if directed at another person. It can also be extremely offensive or off-
putting to listeners, thus limiting your job prospects or ruining your potential for
romantic engagements. Your ring habit may have developed as a child, if you were
exposed to bad language in your family home. Or it might have started as a teenager,
when you used curse words to look cool in front of your friends. Whatever the
reason, there’s no point in looking back and blaming people. The most important
thing is that you recognize that you have a problem and commit to working through
it.

8. Positive thinking is essential to giving up swearing. This is because people are

generally much more inclined to swear when they are complaining about something,
in a bad mood or just being negative in general. By thinking positively, you are
removing the need to swear altogether. Admittedly, learning how to think positively
 can be difficult. If you find yourself leaning towards negative thoughts or emotions;
just stop, take a deep breath, and ask yourself “does it really matter?”

For example, ask yourself “does it really matter if I’m a few minutes late for my
meeting?” or “does it really matter if I can’t find the remote control and have to
switch the channels on the television set instead?” Putting a situation into the right
perspective can help you to calm down and overcome negative emotions.

In addition, you will need to think positively about your ability to stop swearing. If
you have a negative outlook and have doubts about your ability to succeed, you are
setting yourself up for failure from the get-go. Remind yourself that if people can
give up smoking or lose hundreds of pounds of weight through dieting, you will
definitely be able to give up swearing!

9. Be patient with yourself. Swearing is habit that you’ve probably picked up over a
number of years and which you’ve come to rely on as part of your daily speech. Like
any ingrained habit, it will be impossible to stop doing it overnight. Training yourself
to stop swearing is a process, you’ll have good days and bad days, but it’s important
to keep at it. Remind yourself why you’re doing it and visualize how good you’ll feel
when you’ve finally kicked the habit.
Really think about why you want to stop swearing. Maybe you’re afraid of giving off
the wrong impression at a new job or you don’t want to set a bad example for your
kids. Use this as motivation to keep trying.
Whatever you do, don’t give up. Exercise your self-control and remind yourself that
you can do anything you set your mind to!

10. Replace swear words with harmless substitutes. Once you have identified your major
swearing habits, you can set about eliminating swear words from your casual speech.
This is when you curse for no real reason – you’re not angry, it didn’t just slip out –
you are just using the curse word as a figure of speech. You can correct this problem
by replacing the curse word with a harmless substitute, perhaps something beginning
with the same letter or with a similar sound, which doesn’t cause offense.

For example, try replacing “sh**” with “sugar”, “turd”, “shoot” or “sheep” or “f***”
with “duck”, or “fudge”. You’ll feel silly saying these words at first, but you’ll get
used to it after a while. Using such meaningless words may even eliminate your need
to express yourself negatively at all.
Even if you slip up and say the forbidden curse word, follow it immediately with
your chosen alternative. Over time, your brain will come to associate the two and
you will be able to actively choose one over the other.
11. Swear words are often used “for want of a better word.” The problem with this
excuse is that there are plenty of better words out there, any of which will allow you
to express yourself much more eloquently and succinctly than a curse word ever will.
By expanding your vocabulary and replacing your most commonly used swear words
with an array of alternative options, you will come across as being more intelligent,
pleasant and laid-back than ever before.

Make a list of your favorite swear words, then use a dictionary or thesaurus to come
up with a range of alternative options. For example, instead of using the word “B.S.”
morning, noon and night, try replacing it with infinitely more descriptive and
humorous words such as balderdash, hogwash, drivel and baloney.

You can also expand your vocabulary by reading more books and newspapers. Jot
down any descriptive words that tickle your fancy and make an effort to use them in
a sentence. Also make an effort to really listen to other people and make a mental
note of the words and phrases that they use to express themselves, rather than
resorting to swearing.