Evolution Of Profanity Essays - Blasphemy, Censorship, Connotation

Evolution Of Profanity Essays - Blasphemy, Censorship, Connotation Evolution of Profanity The evolution of written profanity began roughly in the sixteenth century, and continues to change with each generation that it sees. Profanity is recognized in many Shakespearean works, and has continually evolved into the profane language used today. Some cuss words have somehow maintained their original meanings throughout hundreds of years, while many others have completely changed meaning or simply fallen out of use. William Shakespeare, though it is not widely taught, was not a very clean writer. In fact, he was somewhat of a potty mouth. His works encompassed a lot of things that some people wish he had not. "That includes a fair helping of sex, violence, crime, horror, politics, religion, anti-authoritarianism, anti-semitism, racism, xenophobia, sexism, jealousy, profanity, satire, and controversy of all kinds" (Macrone 6). In his time, religious and moral curses were more offensive than biological curses. Most all original (before being censored) Shakespearean works contain very offensive profanity, mostly religious, which is probably one of many reasons that his works were and are so popular. "Shakespeare pushed a lot of buttons in his day- which is one reason he was so phenomenally popular. Despite what they tell you, people like having their buttons pushed" (Macrone 6). Because his works contained so many of these profane words or phrases, they were censored to protect the innocent minds o f the teenagers who are required to read them, and also because they were blasphemous and offensive. Almost all of the profanity was removed, and that that was not had just reason for being there. Some of the Bard's censored oaths are; "God's blessing on your beard" Love's Labors Lost, II.i.203 This was a very rude curse because a man's facial hair was a point of pride for him. and "to play with someone's beard" was to insult him. "God's body" 1 Henry IV,II.i.26 Swearing by Christ's body, (or any part thereof,) was off limits in civil discourse. "God's Bod(y)kins, man" Hamlet, II.ii.529 The word bod(y)kin means "little body" or "dear body," but adding the cute little suffix does not make this curse any more acceptable. "By God's [blest] mother!" 2 Henry VI, II.i; 3 Henry VI, III.ii; Henry VIII, V.i Swearing by the virgin was almost as rude as swearing by her son, especially when addressing a catholic cathedral as Gloucester did in 2 Henry VI, II.i Perhaps the two worst of these Shakespearean swears were "'zounds" and "'sblood." "'Zounds" had twenty-three occurrences. Ten of them were in 1 Henry IV. The rest appear in Titus (once), Richard III (four times), Romeo and Juliet (twice), and Othello ( six times). Iago and Falstaff were the worst offenders. 'Zounds has evolved into somewhat of a silly and meaningless word, but was originally horribly offensive. This oath, short for "God's wounds," was extremely offensive because references to the wounds or blood of Christ were thought especially outrageous, as they touched directly on the crucifixion. "'Sblood" had twelve occurrences in all. There were eight times in 1 Henry IV (with Falstaff accounting for six), plus once in Henry V, twice in Hamlet, and once in Othello. 'Sblood occurs less than 'zounds, but is equally offensive and means basically the same thing. Several other words came from Great Britain, but were not included in Shakespeare's works. Today the expression "Gadzooks!" is not particularly offensive to most. Of course, most don't know what it originally meant. Gadzooks was originally slang for "God's hooks," and was equally offensive to 'zounds and 'sblood as it also referred to the crucifixion. An interesting note is that there is a store called Gadzooks which everyone thinks of as a pop-culture vendor to America's youth. Some (but not many) of Gadzooks' shoppers would be very offended if they knew the true meaning of the store's name. Another word from this region is a Cockney expression, "Gorblimey," which is a word used to swear to the truth, and is a shortened form of "God blind me." Also, in England, words such as "bloody," "blimey," "blinkin'," beginning with the letters "BL" are taken offense to because they, once again, refer to the blood of Christ and the crucifixion. The military has an interesting technique for swearing their brains out without offending anyone. "They use the phonetic alphabet (A= Alpha, B= Bravo, C= Charlie, etc.) as a code

How to Write a Research Paper Example

How to Write a Research Paper Example If you have ever come across the quote of Gene Fowler on writing, you would discover that writing is indeed serious business. However, there are some things about writing that make it actually fun. Some might say that starting to write is the hard part. However, there are some aspects of writing that can actually be painful if you do not go through the right routes. For example, writing a research paper can be extremely painful for someone who doesn’t know how to. However if you can, from the start, improve your technical writing skills, then it would be cake for you. Essentially, the writing of a research paper example lies in the ability for you to accurately report on the findings you have in your laboratory. However, a research paper example should not be mistaken for an ordinary run of the mill lab report, no. This is more concise, and the student has to do a lot for it to actually look like a research paper. For example, a normal lab report consists essentially of nothing more than a couple of rudimental answers to questions that were encountered in the lab. If you would agree, this is hardly helpful, since this is not how it would be in the real world – in your career path, and a research paper example is what you need to give you the beneficial guidelines. Without doubt, you would agree that no other quality of a student is more desired than an effective and admirable writing and communication skill, and it is every student’s duty to work towards these so that the student can excel in any career path in the professional hemisphere. Of course, no employer ever turned down an applicant because ‘he was a good communicator’ which is saying something. Therefore, to build your career and ensure that you are a success, here are a couple of things you should do. This article seeks toe get you acquainted with a couple of resources that would help you, and a research paper example is ideal for such a study. The reason you might want to have a research paper done would be to have people selectively read your work. What is meant by this is: in a given field, some people might be interested in a sole technique amidst others, and this is what they would be on the lookout for in your work. Therefore, if your research paper is based on these qualities alone, then you would be on the right track. This is why some journals require that your research paper be written in such a way that each section begins at the top of a new page on your research paper. Of course, this is not s strict rule, as some journals do not request for thins requirement to be met. For example, some journals have been known to simply call for a combination of your reviews and discussions and your methodology in one mixture. For example again, if you look at the research paper example of the journal called Science, you would discover that they simply eliminate the separate sections and leave only the abstract. However, if you want toe write a journal in the life science field, then you might want to make use of any research paper example in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, as this is usually the format followed by most journals from the field of life sciences. Now, for a brief rundown of the various styles available for the research paper example; if you want your paper to pass the readability test, then there are some requirements it must meet. One of these is the fact that your font size should be twelve in size. Also, you are not permitted to use fancy fonts, abut are allowed to employ the standard fonts, for example times new roman, Geneva, Bookman, Helvetica, and others. Your text would also be required to have a double spacing and the dimension of your paper would be suitable at 8  ½Ã¢â‚¬  with an inch worth of margins. Your pages should be numbered in the order in which they appear, and this means that they should follow, as one, two, three in that order. Like it was mentioned earlier, your sections should have their beginnings in a new page for better cross referencing. Make sure you know the page limits of the journal and stick within this limit. Avoid having the heading of a new topic at the bottom of a pager and then having the subject matter of the heading in the next page. Finally, whatever you do, do not submit your research paper example out of order. Make sure that everything is in an orderly fashion. Also when writing, ensure that your paper proceeds in a normally prosaic manner.