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Why it's "Abso-fuckin'-lutely", not "Ab-fuckin'-solutely"
From DexterousTongue
The English Expletive Infix
If you’re a native speaker of English you’ve probably heard (and maybe used) what linguists call the “expletive infix”—that’s when you insert an emphasizing “fuckin'” right inside of another word. For example:
Since it’s “just” swearing, you might think that this process would be linguistically crude, and maybe kind of random—but in fact, expletive infixation is systematic, and requires a very precise calculation of where to put the infix (i.e. the inserted “fuckin'”). Observe, as evidence of this, how weird it sounds if you put the infix the “wrong” position, even by one syllable:
There must be some kind of pattern that we all unconsciously learn and follow. But obviously no-one taught us this rule in grammar school. And most of us don’t even get to hear that many examples. Yet somehow, we all have strong, clear, and subtle, judgements about where the infix properly fits.
All of which leads to the questions for this post: (i) what the heck is this pattern that we follow? And (ii) how the heck did we learn it?
...
If you’re a native speaker of English you’ve probably heard (and maybe used) what linguists call the “expletive infix”—that’s when you insert an emphasizing “fuckin'” right inside of another word. For example:
Since it’s “just” swearing, you might think that this process would be linguistically crude, and maybe kind of random—but in fact, expletive infixation is systematic, and requires a very precise calculation of where to put the infix (i.e. the inserted “fuckin'”). Observe, as evidence of this, how weird it sounds if you put the infix the “wrong” position, even by one syllable:
There must be some kind of pattern that we all unconsciously learn and follow. But obviously no-one taught us this rule in grammar school. And most of us don’t even get to hear that many examples. Yet somehow, we all have strong, clear, and subtle, judgements about where the infix properly fits.
All of which leads to the questions for this post: (i) what the heck is this pattern that we follow? And (ii) how the heck did we learn it?
...
More at link.
10 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
this is edu-fuckln-cational!
Thanks for that.
I did come across this article this morning, whilst reading about the expletive infix:
The language rules we know – but don’t know we know
Mark Forsyth tasted internet fame this week when a passage from a book he wrote went viral. He explains more language secrets that native speakers know without knowing
By Mark Forsyth
8 September 2016
Over the weekend, I happened to go viral. Or rather a single paragraph from a book I wrote called The Elements of Eloquence went viral. The guilty paragraph went like this:
BBC Culture’s editor Matthew Anderson tweeted a passage from Mark Forsyth’s The Elements of Eloquence and it went viral (Credit: Matthew Anderson)
English speakers love to learn this sort of thing for two reasons. First, it astonishes us that there are rules that we didn’t know that we knew. That’s rather peculiar, and rather exciting. We’re all quite a lot cleverer than we think we are. And there’s the shock of realising that there’s a reason there may be little green men on Mars, but there certainly aren’t green little men. Second, you can spend the next hour of your life trying to think of exceptions, which is useful as it keeps you from doing something foolish like working.
...
Mark Forsyth tasted internet fame this week when a passage from a book he wrote went viral. He explains more language secrets that native speakers know without knowing
By Mark Forsyth
8 September 2016
Over the weekend, I happened to go viral. Or rather a single paragraph from a book I wrote called The Elements of Eloquence went viral. The guilty paragraph went like this:
“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”
BBC Culture’s editor Matthew Anderson tweeted a passage from Mark Forsyth’s The Elements of Eloquence and it went viral (Credit: Matthew Anderson)
English speakers love to learn this sort of thing for two reasons. First, it astonishes us that there are rules that we didn’t know that we knew. That’s rather peculiar, and rather exciting. We’re all quite a lot cleverer than we think we are. And there’s the shock of realising that there’s a reason there may be little green men on Mars, but there certainly aren’t green little men. Second, you can spend the next hour of your life trying to think of exceptions, which is useful as it keeps you from doing something foolish like working.
...
More at http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160908-the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know
Sounds like a good book.
Nicely done!
