Jay ( 2000), Jay and Janschewitz (2008) study swearing depending on a neuro-psycho-social (NPS) theory that looks at the neurological, psychological, and social reasons. The theory shows that people are used to swear depending on certain factors. These factors can be classified under one of three main factors discussed in the theory.
Each of NPS factors takes time to develop the person’s life and each factor depends on maturation and experience.
The first factor is neurological factor. It involves neurobiology which correlates to emotional language use. This factor states that swearing is involved with right cerebral hemisphere and neural substrata underlying a range of speech from non-propositional speech to prepositional speech (Jay and Janschewitz 2008:270-271).
Jay’s research (2000) reveals that Neurological control is represented by a continuum of functions ranging from very little neurological control to high neurological control. Very little control is used in reflex actions. High neuro-control is used in situations in which we can decide what to say.
Jay and Janschewitz (2008:270-271) demonstrate that “Neurological factors influence propositional and nonpropositional swearing, but nonpropositional utterances make it particularly clear that we are not always able to control swearing; emotions arise involuntarily”. Swearing is existing on continuum from thoughtful or purposeful (e.g. persons’ choose a particular swear word) to automatic and uncontrollable. For example, when a person accidentally hurts himself, there will be very little neuro-control or conscious awareness in what the person does. In this situation, the person may yell out a profanity. On the other hand, if the person is in a social setting talking to friends, he or she has high control and conscious awareness of his or her decision of what to say and whether to swear.
Swearing that is intentional or propositional may be produced with a lot of conscious awareness on the part of the speaker. If a person tells a dirty joke to a friend and uses a swear word in the punch line, he is using the swear word to communicate something funny to the audience. So, swearing can occur at different levels of awareness.
The second factor is psychological factor. According to Jay (2000:83-84) this factor specifies that whether or not people swearing depends to a great degree on one’s experiences during development. The psychological factors strongly associated with swearing are: trait, religiosity, verbal aggressiveness, sexual anxiety and type of personality.
Jay (2000:87) divides these motives into strong and weak categories. Weak motives tend to inhibit people from swearing. These can be strong religiosity, high level of sex anxiety, high self-control, history of being punished for cursing, and lack of role models for cursing. For example, if a person has a strong Islamic background, the person may be motivated not to swear because it is considered not very Islamic-like to do that. Strong motives which are related to emotional states help to increase the likelihood of swearing. When people are experiencing an emotional state, they may use a swear word to express what they feel. For example, when people are angry they may go on a swearing tirade to express their anger.
The final factor is sociocultural factor. Jay and Janschewitz (2008: 272) admit that “Sociocultural influences on swearing vary from culture to culture and take some time and experience within a culture to be fully appreciated”. Social and cultural forces can affect a person’s use of swear words. The contextual variables (conversational topic, the speaker- listener relationship) determine the appropriateness and offensiveness of swearing. In why we curse, Jay (2000:19) explains that the speaker’s judgments about when to use swear words depend on his/her beliefs in the appropriateness of swearing language. The words can be in one context but not appropriate in another context with the same group of people. One can tell a dirty joke to his colleagues in a social setting but it would not be appropriate in a meeting at work.