cluelessresearch.com

There’s a great piece by Steven Pinker on why we curse. I do have a quibble though

He asks:

To take just one example, why do people use the ungrammatical Fuck you? And why does no one have a clear sense of what, exactly, Fuck you means?

and argues that

The most likely explanation is that these grammatically baffling curses originated in more intelligible religious curses during the transition from religious to sexual and scatological swearing in English-speaking countries

Is that so? What about in cursing in non-English-speaking countries? I know for a fact, having used the expression inumerous times, that there is nothing ungrammatical about “vá se fuder” (go fuck yourself) or “foda-se” (fuck yourself). I am willing to believe the religious to scatological swearing hypothesis, but the thesis would get much better support if studied comparatively.

The comparative study of swearing… now this is probably an open fucking field of study! Too bad I am not a linguist…