Maledictology

As Malediktologie (from Latin maledicere, " scold ", engl. Maledictology ) is a branch of psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and psychology called, which deals with the cursing and swearing. Established and marked the Malediktologie was established in 1973 by the German -born philologist and insult researcher Reinhold Aman ( California).

The American psychologist Timothy Jay ( Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts ) is a successor of Aman, which continues its work and is limited to the Psychological and the American language, while Aman all academic areas and about 220 languages ​​and dialects of the last 5000 years explored.

Other notable Malediktologen are the Frenchwoman Dominique Lagorgette ( Université de Savoie in Chambéry ) and the Ukrainian Oksana Havryliv (born Holod ), with the latter particularly focused on swear words in German and Austrian literature.

They assume that the swearing, curses and swear words belong to human life and an important part of language. Swear words may therefore represent even a self- protective function by preventing palpable conflict (but cause in certain situations also ).