當美國總統(tǒng)巴拉克·奧巴馬在不理國政的空檔同杰瑞·宋飛開著游艇喝著咖啡的時候,他的言談舉止并不像一般的總統(tǒng)那樣。而且,奧巴馬自己也承認自己有時說話并不像一個總統(tǒng)。貌似這位美國領導人喜歡咒罵。他這樣對宋飛說:
“I curse. I curse. …Bad stuff, or stupid stuff, is happening constantly, right? valuable.”
“我就罵了!就罵了!但生活中常會有些糟糕的、愚蠢的事情發(fā)生,不是嗎?值呀!”
Though the prim and proper may frown upon this language from a head of state, profanities are a healthy part of our lexicon. And plenty of studies have found that the odd bit of swearing can in fact be very good for you.
可能這話從一國元首口中說出來有失妥帖,但臟話是我們?nèi)粘S谜Z中司空見慣正常的一部分。而且,多項研究也發(fā)現(xiàn):罵人實際上非常有益身心健康。
In 2009, psychologists from Keele University in the UK found that swearing can even help relieve pain. Some 67 participants were asked to keep their hands submerged in ice cold water as along as possible, either repeating a swear word or a neutral word over and over. Those who were swearing were able to keep their hand submerged for longer, and also reported feeling less pain.
2009年,一群英國基爾大學的心理學家發(fā)現(xiàn):罵人甚至有助于減緩疼痛。研究中,67名調(diào)研者被要求在盡可能長的時間里將自己的手浸泡在冰水中,有些人要求一直重復罵人的話而另一部分人則要求重復平實的話語。研究結(jié)果顯示,說臟話的人把手泡在水里的時間更長,且更不覺得痛。
Timothy Jay, a psychologist at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts who has studied cursing for 35 years, says profanities are an irreplaceable form of expression.
麻省理工學院心理學家蒂莫西·杰研究說臟話35年,他稱:臟話是一種不可替代的表達形式。
Monika Bednarek, senior lecturer in linguistics at the University of Sydney, has catalogued the number of profanities in the most popular US TV (there are a lot), and agrees that swearing is important in social situations.
悉尼大學語言學高級講師莫妮卡·貝德納雷克在一檔美國最受歡迎的電視節(jié)目中將臟話分類(多到想不到),并同意說臟話在社交中起重要作用這一觀點。