[Ads-l] dead fucking boring - infix diagnostic

[Laurence Horn]

I think the occurrence of “bloody”, “fuckin(g)”, “damn”, etc. within a phonological/morphological word, as in “Massa[fuckin]chusetts”, “fan[damn]tastic” or “abso[bloody]lutely” are better candidates for infix status than “dead fucking boring”, since it’s not clear to me that “fucking” is an affix at all in the latter case. 

LH

> On Feb 22, 2017, at 6:05 PM, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> “Fucking” and variations (blooming, bloody) are the few options for infixing in English. 
> 
> (Comic: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8463 <http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=8463>)
> 
> Although it’s possible to parse “dead fucking boring” as “dead boring and fucking boring”, I’m inclined to parse “fucking” as an infix between the two. It, as well as “dead bloody boring”, comes up on Google.
> 
> Here are some tests that don’t come up on Google:
> 
> dead terribly boring (dead, terribly boring meaning dead and terribly boring is on Google)
> dead frighteningly boring
> dead jacked boring =? dead-jacked boring
> 
> Benjamin Barrett
> Formerly of Seattle, WA
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org