Vulgar English -- Teaching Students of English How to Talk Dirty.

Author, Jonathan Chamberlain, has written a book on the grammar of coarse and obscene English as a teaching aid for adult language learners and as an interesting deconstruction of vulgarity for native speakers interested in their own language. It is only available from his website at www.vulgarenglish.com

Brighton, United Kingdom (PRWEB) February 11, 2004 -- Long Island Press announces the publication of Vulgar English & Sex Slang by Jonathan Chamberlain. The book is aimed primarily at adult language learners who need to understand the language they hear in films and on the street. It is attractively designed to appeal also to the native speaker who is interested in the deconstruction of the vocabulary of vulgar English. The book deals with both US and British vulgarisms.

It's easy to imagine. The jovial Australian calls his new friend, the South American student, a 'bastard'. He means it as a sign of friendship. The South American only understands the literal meaning which is a grave insult in his language. A knife appears from nowhere and soon someone is lying bleeding on the floor. All because of a simple everyday verbal misunderstanding.

It is now almost impossible to walk down the streets of any major town or city in the English-speaking world without hearing language of the kind that used to be described as ripe or colourful or, more accurately, coarse and obscene. But as language teacher and author, Jonathan Chamberlain, discovered, vulgar language is not just the use of a dozen or so bad words -- but a complex of phrases and idioms that are an unwary trap for the language learner. The result is his latest book 'Vulgar English & Sex Slang'.

'Twenty years ago we could afford to ignore this area of language but not any more,' Chamberlain argues. 'This vulgar use of language has now become so mainstream, that it should be considered a normal part of everyday speech. The question is no longer: Is it acceptable to teach this vocabulary? Now the question is: Is it acceptable not to teach it?'

To support his argument that it is dangerous not to teach vulgar vocabulary, Chamberlain points to the sad case of Hattori Yoshihiro, a 16-year-old Japanese high-school exchange student in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who, on October 28, 1992, was shot dead because he didn't understand the slang meaning of 'Freeze!'. 'If this can happen with non-vulgar slang, what are the dangers of misunderstanding the increasingly common use of vulgar slang?' he asks.

Our attitude to vulgarity is changing fast. It wasn't until 1970 that the f-word was finally uttered on the big screen -- MASH and Myra Breckenridge sharing the honours - but nowadays it is a rare film where actors don't say the word.

'When I first thought of creating a reference book that looked at the vulgar vocabulary of English, I thought it would consist of maybe a few hundred words and phrases,' recalls author, Jonathan Chamberlain laughing. 'I have since discovered that there are over 2,000 euphemisms for the penis alone, another 1,500 or so for women's breasts and well over a thousand for the vagina.' Lists of these words are available free of charge at Chamberlain's site at www.vulgarenglish.com

But it's not just the individual dirty words that caught his attention. It was the grammar. 'You can 'f*** somebody up' but you can't 'f*** somebody with'. Which phrases are transitive and which are intransitive, and what does that mean in practice? Dictionaries of slang don't help people see how the words are used in real life. This is why a book that provides a detailed deconstruction of the language is needed,' Chamberlain explains.

At 352 pages, Vulgar English & Sex Slang is a solid, serious -- albeit amusingly illustrated - unembarrassed - and unsniggering - look at the idiomatic phrases and verbal structures that make up the vulgar.

Lenka Sedlarova, a Czech language student, who caught a glimpse of the book as it was being prepared, commented: 'Yes. This book is very interesting. It's absolutely necessary. You hear these words everywhere. Where else can we learn these words?'

Chamberlain is hoping that the book will also appeal to native English speakers and has designed the book to be an attractive, amusing gift item.

Vulgar English & Sex Slang is not available in bookshops. It is only available by advance order (price US$24.50 - approximately Euro 19.50; 13.50 - including p&p) from his website at www.vulgarenglish.com. The first edition will be printed on March 15th 2004.

'I am sure that all adult language learners, and many if not most native English speakers will find this book valuable or amusing -- but no major publisher will touch it,' Chamberlain explains. 'The subject is still in some ways too sensitive. This is the only way to get the book out.'

However, Chamberlain has sold one foreign rights to the book -- to Russia. 'I suppose,' he smiles. 'You might say I'm a security risk. Here I am selling our secrets to the Soviets!'