Forbidden Words: Taboo and the Censoring of Language

Notes to pages 107–15 263
43 Adjudication No. 479, February 1991 on J. D. Purvey’s complaint against the
Weekend Australian, 4 August 1990. Cited in Police v. Butler, 2003: 4.
44 Legal Court of New South Wales, citation Police v. Butler, 2003: 2–4. In his
summary of the case, Justice Heilpern cites twelve court cases where charges of
offensive language have been dismissed. This case was discussed in Chapter 1.
Allan and Burridge 1991: ch. 10 gives additional cases in Australia from the 1980s.
45 Scutt 2002.
46 Millwood-Hargrave 2000.
47 Rhyming slang: Berk[ely Hunt].
48 Burchfield 1989.
49 Lakoff 2000: 39–40, discussing an article by Torri Minton in the San Francisco
Chronicle, 17 October 1997.
50 Isaacson 1999.
51 Perrin 1992: ch. 11. Hughes also describes various crusades of these selfappointed
arbiters of linguistic goodness (1991: ch. 11).
5 LINGUISTIC PURISM AND VERBAL HYGIENE
1 The comments we make in this chapter have been inspired by published letters to
the editor, and personal letters and emails we have received over the years. They
are also informed by more than twelve years of Kate Burridge’s involvement in
talkback radio. During regular language segments, members of the public phone in
to the radio station and put their observations on language and queries about usage
directly on air. Very often, these calls involve complaints about change and the
language use of others.
2 Preface to Johnson 1755.
3 The first edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1775), identifies it thus: ‘The
genius of a language is “the particular set of ideas which the words . . . either from
their formation or multiplicity, are apt to excite in the mind of anyone who hears it
properly uttered.”’ Quoted in Leonard 1962: 29.
4 Cameron 1995.
5 Truss 2004.
6 ‘Inner sticklers’, as Lynne Truss describes them.
7 Cameron 1995.
8 There are many instances in Allen 1987 of Aboriginal Australians adopting
African American speech and whites with speech mannerisms adopted from
American film, TV and music sources.
9 Cf. discussion Burridge and Mulder 1998: ch. 12; Burridge 2005.
10 Letter to The Age (Melbourne), 9 October 1969.
11 Jones 1948; Jones 2003.
12 See Milroy 2002 on the legitimization of the Standard.
13 See McCrum et al. 1992, also Watts and Trudgill 2002 for alternative histories.
14 Leonard 1962: 13.
15 Preface to Farro 1754.
16 Leonard 1962: 169.
17 Preface to Johnson 1755.
18 Locke 1690.