Swearing in English

Swearing is an everyday part of the language of most speakers of modern English. This corpus-informed account describes swearing and its social function, with a particular focus on the relationship between swearing and abuse.

Tony McEnery

List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Bad Language, Bad Manners Part I: How Brits Swear 2. "So you recorded swearing": Bad Language in Present-day English Part II: Censors, Zealots and Four-letter Assaults on Authority 3. Early Modern Censorship of Bad Language 4. Modern Attitudes to Bad Language Form: The Reformation of Manners 5. Late-twentieth-century Bad Language: The Moral Majority and Four-Letter assaults on Authority Part III: Discourses of Panic 6. Sea Change: The Society for the Reformation of Manners and Moral Panics About Bad Language 7. Mutations: The National Viewers' and Listeners' Association Moral Panic Postscript Notes Bibliography Index