-ing vs. -in' in expletives

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

Well, since -ing/-in' is variable, and since -ing tends to be used in formal 
situations, and since receiving an award is a rather formal situation, why 
couldn't -ing have been "spontaneous"? Also, doesn't -ing tend to get used in 
emphatic utterances, especially maybe expletives (e.g, "Arnold are you shitting 
me or what?"?) I'm not sure what AZ intends to convey by "spontaneous" here, 
but if he means that Bono's word choice was a premeditated publicity stunt, I'd 
argue that the choice of -ing rather than -in is too thin a bit of evidence to 
count for much.

In a message dated 6/25/04 12:07:33 PM, zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU writes:

> 
> has anyone actually listened to this?  if bono said "fucking" rather
> than "fuckin'", that would suggest that the expletive wasn't really
> spontaneous.
>