CURSING IN AMERICA -- Title page -- LCC data -- Acknowledgments -- Table of Contents -- Detailed Table of Contents -- Chapter 1. What Are "Dirty" Words? -- Cursing -- Profanity -- Blasphemy -- Taboo -- Obscenity -- Vulgarity -- Slang -- Epithets -- Insults and slurs -- Scatology -- What Is the Value of Classification? -- Connotative and Denotative Usage -- Colorful Metaphors -- Context is critical -- Time perspective -- Summary -- Chapter 2. When Children Use Dirty Words -- Language Development -- The Language of Infancy (Birth to Two Years) -- Anger and Dirty Words in Infancy -- The Origins of Humor -- Pre-School Humor. -- Some Final Thoughts About Infants -- The Language of Childhood (Two to Eleven Years) -- Childhood Humor -- Elementary School Humor. -- Childhood Name Calling and Insulting -- Object Naming -- Childhood Story Telling -- From Childhood to Adolescence: Final Thoughts -- Two General Issues of Sex Talk and Language at School -- The "Etiquette" of Dirty Words and Sex Talk -- Conclusions About Sex Talk -- The Issue of Dirty Language at School -- The Emergence of an Obscene Lexicon -- Field Study One -- Field Study Two: Summer Camp (Hall & Jay, 1988) -- Summary of Field Studies -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3. Anger and Dirty Words -- Anger Expressed Through Cursing or Blasphemy -- Anger Expressed Through Reference to Subnormal Thought -- Anger Expressed Through Obscenity -- Anger Expressed Through Reference to a Sex Organ -- Anger Expressed Through Reference to Deviant Sexual Act -- Anger Expressed Through Reference to Being Sexually Violated -- Anger Expressed Through Reference to Social-Sexual Deviation -- Anger Expressed Through Racial-Ethnic Reference -- Anger Expressed Through Scatology -- Anger Expressed Through Reference to Body Product or Process -- Anger Expressed Through Items Associated with Body Products.

Anger Expressed Through References to Animals -- Anger ExpressedThroughReference to Animal Feces -- The Context of Anger Expression -- Social-Physical Setting -- Speaker-Listener Variable -- Discussion -- The Etiquette of Anger Expression with Taboo Words -- A Five-Stage Model of Anger -- Stage 1: The Offending Event -- Stage 2: The Degree of Anger -- Stage 3: Attempts to Control Anger -- Stage 4: Loss of Control -- Stage 5: Retribution -- The Value of Expressing Anger -- Summary -- Chapter 4. The Frequency of Dirty Word Usage -- Why Word Frequency? -- The Frequency Estimation Problem: Why There Are No Dirty Words -- Counting Oral Frequency: Almost Good Enough -- A Frequency Count of Students' Colloquial English (Jay, 1980a) -- College Sample of Dirty Words -- Elementary School Dirty Words -- Discussion -- Field Studies Versus Laboratory Studies -- A Field Study of Offensive Speech -- The Contextual Approach -- Method -- Results -- Discussion -- Laboratory Studies of Offensive Speech -- Jay 1977 Ratings -- Method -- Results -- The Massachusetts Study (1978) -- Word List -- Method -- Results -- A Matter of Semantics -- Of Words and Deeds -- Conclusion -- Chapter 5. The Offensiveness of Words: Sex and Semantics -- Purpose of the Chapter -- Offensiveness versus Offendedness -- The Massachusetts 1978 Ratings -- Aggressive Content -- Sexual Content -- Body Functions and Body Products -- Racial Slurs -- God is Dead: Have Religious Terms Lost Their Clout? -- Validity of The Ratings -- The Relation Between Frequency and Offensiveness -- Gender, Research and Word Ratings -- Conclusions About the Semantics of Offensiveness -- Offendednes -- Perceptual Defense & Gender -- Physiological Reactions - Pupillary Response -- Personality, Gender & Dirty Word Reactions -- Sexual Repression -- Religion. -- Offendedness: A Few Conclusions -- Gender-Related Insults.

Of Friends and Strangers -- A Short Dictionary of Gender-Specific Insults -- Words That Will Insult Males -- Words That Will Insult Females -- Conclusions -- Other Studies Reporting Gender Differences -- Jokes -- Story Telling -- The Dozens -- Hostile and Aggressive Vocabulary -- Taboo Vocabulary -- Attitudes about Using Taboo Words -- Sex Roles, Sex Differences and Dirty Word Usage -- Procedure -- Results -- Discussion -- Verbal Sexual Harassment -- Harassment and Power -- Harassing the Boss -- Protected Speech -- Unprotected Speech -- Summary and Conclusion -- Chapter 6. Free Speech and Censorship -- First consider the First Amendment: -- Imminent danger. -- Defaming Speech and Libel. -- Fighting Words. -- Obscene Speech. -- A Case of "Fighting Words" -- The Doctrine of Fighting Words -- The Buffkins v. City of Omaha Case -- Previous Federal Court Cases -- The Laws of the City of Omaha and State of Nebraska -- Psychological and Psycholinguistic Background -- Final Notes on the Buffkins Case -- Restrictions on Media -- Cable Television. -- Dial-a-porn. -- The Party Line. -- Obscene Phone Calls. -- Computer Networks. -- Audio Recordings. -- Conclusion -- The Evolution of Cursing in American Film -- Language Restrictions in American Films -- The Church -- The Film Industry -- Video Movies. -- A Study of Cursing in American Films 1939-1989 -- Experimental Hypotheses -- Method -- Results and Discussion -- Analysis Two -- Results -- General Discussion -- Methodological Issues -- Chapter 7. Unfinished Business and Future Research with Dirty Words -- Some Unfinished Business -- Verbal Sexual Harassment. -- Fighting Words and Disorderly Conduct. -- Media Content, Restrictions and Impact. -- Aggression and Deviance. -- Humor and Comic Strips. -- The Relation between Spoken Language and Other Forms of Expression -- Graffiti. -- Nonverbal Gestures.

Race and Ethnicity -- Language of the Elderly -- Neurological and Physiological Issues -- Health and Communication -- Cognitive Psychology and Linguistic Disciplines -- Social Forces -- Improved Methodology -- Sampling. -- Materials. -- Setting. -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8 - Bibliography -- Summary -- References -- Index of Topics.