Spring Arbor University Crusader

Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Features

Dan Vander Hill on SAU's profanity policy

Where there is language there are always words considered taboo, offensive or off-limits. Profanity is an extremely powerful component of language. Most people know vulgarity is powerful but few know how words become offensive and where this power comes from.

"To me there are two specific types of vulgar language," said Brent Cline, a Spring Arbor University English professor. "There are those that are vulgar because they necessarily, by cultural connotation, demean someone. The other type of vulgarity is the one that's just historically a no-no word. The key is that it practically has to be scatological or sexual. It's nearly always one of the two."

Many demeaning vulgarities occur when a society devalues a certain grouping of people. Sometimes these words are used so frequently that they are uttered without the slightest intention of offending the people behind the word. Saying something is "retarded" is demeaning to the handicapped whether the speaker is attempting to accomplish that or not. These words are used in an arrogant, hierarchal fashion that steps on people.

The second type Cline mentions, the "no-no words," usually have their roots in slang used by the poor classes. Many of the etymologies of swear words that spring up in high schools and are traded in email forwards are urban legends. The belief a certain four-letter word is an acronym for "ship high in transit" is as untrue as another certain four-letter word standing for "fortification under the consent of the king."

The truth is both of these words, along with the majority of profanity, originally meant what they mean today. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the four-letter "s" word was first used around 1000 A.D. to mean "diarrhea in cattle" and the "f" word appeared in 1568 when W. Dunbar used the word to mean "sexual intercourse." There is nothing mystical about these words: they mean what they claim to mean. What makes them vulgar is they were used by the poor. The higher-class scoffed at the use of such "dirty language" and, over time, they became offensive.

SAU has its own policy on profanity. The 2007-2008 SAU Student Handbook states on page four "…profanity, crude, vulgar or offensive language…are also viewed as inappropriate behavior for all students."

Dan VanderHill, assistant vice president of SAU, gave the reasoning behind the university's policy on profane language.

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