Accomplishments
Cleaning up speech
- Abstract
The article examines the increasing normalisation of taboo and abusive language among adolescents within educational and social contexts. Using a vignette depicting a conversation between a mother and her teenage child, the discussion highlights how such language has shifted from being an expression of anger or rebellion to a tool for social bonding and everyday communication. The article argues that children acquire offensive vocabulary early through informal and modelled learning, long before formal schooling begins, making attempts at censorship ineffective.