囧研究：髒話頻出的人辭彙量大英文牛(雙語)

It might be time to rethink the long-held belief that people with foul mouths have smaller lexicons。 In fact， a study found， the number of a person drops might actually be correlated with greater overall language fluency。

　　一直以來人們都認為滿嘴髒話的人辭彙量較小，現在該重新思量思量這句話了。事實上，一項研究發現，人們口吐髒話的詞頻或許就與其語言整體的流利度更高相關聯。

　　Taking an opposite approach to the view that people who use dirty words do so because they『re linguistically challenged， psychologists Kristin Jay and Timothy Jay of Marist College and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts hypothesized that being fluent in four-letter words might just be a sign of better language skills。

　　都認為說髒話是因為詞窮、語言水平差，來自瑪利斯特學院和馬薩諸塞文科學院的心理學家克里斯廷·傑和提姆斯·傑卻劍走偏鋒，他們假設認為口吐髒字兒或許就標誌著其語言技能更好。

　　The researchers recruited study participants between the ages of 18 and 22， and asked them to do a fun little experiment： First， say as many swear words as they could think of in a minute， followed by another 60 seconds of listing animal names。

　　研究人員召集了18至22歲的參與者來做一項有趣的小實驗。先是一分鐘內能想到幾句罵人的話就說幾句，接下來的60秒里列舉各種動物名稱。

　　With limited variation between genders， people who cursed more also named more animals， leading them to conclude that these people either A） were more likely to be well-versed in zoology， or B） simply had larger vocabularies。

　　實驗顯示男女差異並不大，罵得凶的動物名字報的也多，傑因而得出如下結論：這些人對深諳動物學，或者就是辭彙量偏大。

　　Researchers in the U.K。 have already shown that using profanity can help people become more emotionally resilient； now we know that it might even be a sign they『ll do better on the SAT。
英國的研究人員早已發現，污言穢語更有助人們恢復情感；現在我們得知語言不遜或許意味著他們參加（美國）學業能力傾向測驗能取得更好的成績。

　　The study also found that people who curse a lot seemed to understand the difference between what constitutes an 「appropriate」 curse word and an 「inappropriate」 one。 Racial slurs appeared much less frequently in people『s lists of swear words than 「general pejoratives」 。

　　研究同樣發現，髒字連篇者似乎也明白罵人的話有「合適」與「不當」之別。比之「一般的貶損之辭」，種族污衊之語鮮有出現在人們的髒話之列。

　　So the next time you lose your keys or get stuck in traffic， don『t be afraid to start letting those f-bombs fly freely。

　　所以，下次你鑰匙掉了，或者碰到交通擁堵，就火力全開，讓髒話滿天飛吧。