Penguin Books - Steven Pinker - The Stuff of Thought

http://www.penguin.co.uk/
Why is it that we often don't say what we mean? Why don't we make grammatical sense when we swear? What does our language tell us about ourselves? Find out in The Stuff of Thought, the new book by Steven Pinker

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[Davey1977]

My only problem with Pinker's explanation of swearing has to do with its potential positive connotations.

For example, if I say "That movie was fucking awesome!", or "Holy shit Dave, you rock!", obviously I'm not transmitting negative emotions. It would be interesting if he explained this further.

[Merlinij]

Pinker explains that swearing is used in five different ways. I quote from chapter 7 : descriptively (let's F, idiomatically (It's F-ed up), abusively (F you !), emphatically (This is F-ing amazing !), and cathartically (F !!!).

[likethewater]

@Davey1977 youtube The Language of Swearing (part 1) he explains it there

[mrkeys1111]

People, places, things...they are, they have been and they will be. Steven fascinates on the actions that change and transform them. The verbs and the changers of our reality. He looks at our actions to how we perceive them, how we correlate them and how we predicate on them. Pure genius.

[rabbitwho]

@zakiechan I was just going to write those exact words! It keeps zooming in and out, changing focus, zipping around.. the cameraman could work for MTV

[OddBank]

yeppers

[zakiechan]

Fascinating topic. The content makes up for the terrible camera work and editing.

[PeeGeeBeeDee]

Yes exactly. For instance, Natalie Thiem (since day 1; April 15, 2004) has been following me on the internet. As time has passed her perception of me has fluctuated (she's thought one thing and then reversed that thought and then re-reversed it back to her original thought). However, one thing has remained constant and that is, she has not taken me seriously not one bit. This may eventually come back to haunt her, however.

[magicbibledotcom]

Yeah what he says is, well I think he quotes someone.

He says

"Science is interesting and if you don't agree, you can fuck off"

lmao, very funny.

[joesoap81]

There is a video of Dawkins on u tube saying something along the lines of ''Oh do fuck off'' to a question he recieves from an audience member in a lecture its very funny.