Language, particularly language in public, is very serious business because the way people talk is an indication of how they feel, where they put the limits, where their culture is. If measuring offensive language in the American culture tells us anything, it is that something elemental has changed since mid-century, leaving us awash in a four-letter-word frenzy...Some contemporary word hunters think the current wave of offensive language was sparked by the sexual revolution of the '60s. After bouncing from bed to bed for years and abandoning all kinds of taboos, is it any surprise that the limits on baby-boomer language would collapse?
—Charles M. Madigan, American journalist, Sun-Sentinel, February 5, 1995

Posted on November 4, 1999 at 8:03 AM

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