6 Taboo Topics (for Words)
Posted: October 29, 2010 Filed under: Appealing to the Individual Leave a comment »
- sex
- excretion
- religion
- death
- infirmity
- disfavored groups
“Taboo speech is part of a larger phenomenon known as word magic…Incantations, spells, prayers, and curses are ways that people try to affect the world through words, and taboos and euphemisms are ways people try not to affect it.”
-Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought, p. 331
