Expletives: neurolinguistic and neurobehavioral perspectives on swearing

Severe aphasia, adult left hemispherectomy, Gilles de la Tourette syndrome (GTS), and other neurological disorders have in common an increased use of swearwords. There are shared linguistic features in common across these lan guage behaviors, as well as important differences. We explore the nature of swearing in normal human communication, and then compare the clinical pres entations of selectively preserved, impaired and augmented swearing. These neurolinguistic observations, considered along with related neuroanatomical and neurochemical information, provide the basis for considering the neuro biological foundation of various types of swearing behaviors, (C) 1999 Else vier Science B.V. All rights reserved.