http://moreintelligentlife.com/taxonomy/term/275 The taxonomy view with a depth of 0. en http://moreintelligentlife.com/node/277 <p><!--paging_filter--><br /> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span lang="EN-GB">WHY do we say &quot;fuck you&quot;, and not &quot;fuck<br /> yourself&quot;? What exactly makes certain excretions more linguistically<br /> taboo (shit) than others (snot)? Is &quot;fucking&quot; really an adverb<br /> in the phrase &quot;fucking brilliant&quot;? Steven Pinker, a linguist<br /> and cognitive scientist and one of the most masterful popularisers of science<br /> writing today, answers all in a long <a href="http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20071008&amp;s=pinker100807">article</a><br /> on profanity in the <i>New Republic</i>. <span class='read-more'><a href="http://moreintelligentlife.com/node/277"><font size="-2"><b>&nbsp;read&nbsp;more&nbsp;&raquo;</b></font></a></span></p> http://moreintelligentlife.com/node/277#comments Moreover politics language culture profanity Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:21:57 +0000 Robert Lane Greene 277 at http://moreintelligentlife.com