“Expletive infixation”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

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Expletive infixation

释义

Rules of formation
Commonly inserted phrases English Other languages
Examples in popular culture
See also
References
External links

{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}{{Short description|Process in word formation}}Expletive infixation is a process by which an expletive or profanity is inserted into a word, usually for intensification. It is similar to tmesis, but not all instances are covered by the usual definition of tmesis because the words are not necessarily compounds.^[1]

The most commonly inserted English expletives are adjectival: either participles (fucking, mother-fucking, freaking, blooming, bleeding, damned) or adjectives (bloody).

Rules of formation

Although most speakers are not exposed to these formations until after childhood,{{fact|date=November 2013}} they can form new examples readily once introduced to the process, and their judgments of which formations are acceptable are remarkably consistent.^[2] This suggests that the rules for the placement of the expletive are not arbitrary, but instead derive from fundamental aspects of English phonology.{{explain|reason=Why only English phonology? Does it occur in other languages?|date=January 2017}}

A simple rule is that the insertion occurs at a syllable boundary, usually just before the primary stressed syllable.^[1] Thus, one hears abso-fuckin'-lutely rather than *ab-fuckin'-solutely. This rule is insufficient to describe examples such as un-fuckin'-believable, however, so modifications to this rule are proposed such as morpheme boundaries taking precedence over stress. Counterexamples to this exception do exist: unbe-fuckin'-lievable.^[3]

A more fundamental theory due to John McCarthy is based on prosody.^[2] Its basic principle is that "the metrical stress tree of the host is minimally restructured to accommodate the stress tree of the infix". For example, although unbelievable and irresponsible have identical stress patterns, and the first syllable of each is a separate morpheme, the preferred insertion points are different: un-fuckin'-believable, but irre-fuckin'-sponsible. McCarthy explains this by saying they have different prosodic structures: un(be((lieva)ble)), but (irre)((sponsi)ble). The infix cannot fall between the syllables ir and re because they form a single prosodic foot.

Commonly inserted phrases

English

The most commonly inserted English expletives are adjectival: either participles (fucking, mother-fucking, freaking, blooming, bleeding, damned) or adjectives (bloody).{{cn|date=January 2017}}

Other languages

Examples in popular culture

"abso-bloomin'-lutely" in "Wouldn't It Be Loverly", a song from My Fair Lady.
"Viet-fuckin'-nam!" Abbie Hoffman (portrayed by Richard D'Alessandro) in Forrest Gump.
"Out-bloody-rageous", the title of a track in the album Third by the band Soft Machine.

References

1. ^¹{{cite journal | last = McMillan | first = James B. | year = 1980 | title = Infixing and Interposing in English | journal = American Speech | volume = 55 | issue = 3 | pages = 163–183 | doi = 10.2307/455082 | publisher = American Speech, Vol. 55, No. 3 | jstor = 455082}}
2. ^¹{{cite journal | last = McCarthy | first = John J. | authorlink = John McCarthy (linguist) | year = 1982 | title = Prosodic Structure and Expletive Infixation | journal = Language | volume = 58 | issue = 3 | pages = 574–590 | doi = 10.2307/413849 | publisher = Language, Vol. 58, No. 3 | jstor = 413849}}
3. ^{{cite web|url=http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Citations:unbefuckinglievable#English|title=Citations:unbefuckinglievable – Wiktionary|work=wiktionary.org}}{{Better source needed|reason=CIRCULAR|date=January 2017}}

External links

Discussion of where to properly insert the expletive

2 : Infixes|Profanity

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