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From what I've heard him say, he seems to swear for humour or effect. But Martin Freeman swears a lot - he does it naturally and can work swear words into pretty much everything he says. I have a friend like that!

I heard a language/speech specialist speaking one time about what happens in the brain when people swear. He said that swear words are controlled by the primitive part of the brain - the part that's responsible for basic survival. When we're under stress, our brain goes into survival mode. So when under stress, some people might resort to violence and some to swearing. He used the example of athletes being interviewed immediately after playing a physically demanding and strenuous sport. Their answers tend to be in one-syllable words and short phrases. But when they're interviewed later, after they've rested, they speak more eloquently and in complete sentences.

His point, though, was that we should strive to rise above that primitive part of the brain and speak more intelligently.

I say bollocks to that! 😀 Swearing or not swearing has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence. 

It’s more to do with where you’re from geographically and the sort of job you’re in. 

I spent a lot of time working with journalists and corporate lawyers, nearly all of them very smart and everyone of them swore like troopers. 

Now I work with lots of engineers and journalists.   No change on the journalists expletive laden language but not so much swearing among the engineers. 

I also work with some Arts organisations - lots of swearing!

And in my own profession (Media/PR) never a day goes by without several “fucks” - so to speak!

Maybe I should write my own Thesis?  

“Is it wrong to fucking swear?.”

I do swear but I know when its not appropriate. I can rise above my primal self when needed. 😀

Like I said, in Ireland swearing is pretty much the norm so that is why I don’t think its a big deal. If I lived in another country I might feel differently.

When my cousin visited from Italy in 2001, he was trying to impress me with the things he knew how to say in English. His vocabulary included every version of the f-word. I stopped him and told him to be careful, and that people don't really use those words in polite company. He told me that he had learned those words in school! I remembered that when I was studying French, it was pointed out to us that just because a word is in the dictionary it doesn't mean we should use it. In fact, there was a little caution symbol beside some words to indicate "vulgar".