the meaning of''developed from''

Mark A. Mandel mamandel at LDC.UPENN.EDU
Sun May 1 16:44:27 UTC 2005


Larry, replying to Ron, wrote (as quoted by Jonathan, I think):
   >>>>>
        We're agreed that "(Go) fuck yourself" is a true
imperative, as the reflexive object indicates, and I've made the
additional empirical claim that it does *not* propose an anatomically
impossible activity (and that hence we need not invoke Jon's frig >
fuck chronology), since detached instruments are implicitly (or
explicitly--"Go fuck yourself with a (rusty) X") invoked to
consummate the act. But I think the analysis of "Fuck you" is still
up for grabs (even once we've ruled out the traditional, but
mindless, "Pluck yew" etymythology).
 <<<<<

Although why should impossibility, including anatomical impossibility, be
any bar to a drecative imperative? "Screw you and the horse you rode in on"
doesn't require that the addressee have ridden in on a horse, or we (city
dwellers) would never hear it. Now, IN a bar...

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]



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