Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Language Log » Fucking shut the fuck up
Bookmarked on del.icio.us at 23:23.
Tags: genius, languagelog, linguistics, swear
I love the Language Log. Only on the Language Log would you get a sentence like this:
[E]ver since “fuck” became a human-denoting noun (“You've killed my Burmese python, you stupid fuck!”), it has been possible for “the fuck” to occur in NP slots on a fairly broad basis. But not as a semantically inert pleonastic epithet with the affective function of conveying personal irritation.
No. Absolutely not. No fucking way.