[Ads-l] dead fucking boring - infix diagnostic

[Robin Hamilton]

Could what is happening here be described as the use of a double intensifier?

1. Simple Statement -- "That's boring."

2a. Single Intensifier (1) -- "That's dead boring."

2b. Single Intensifier (2) -- "That's fucking boring."

3a. Double Intensifier (1) -- "That's dead fucking boring."

3b. Double Intensifier (2) -- "That's fucking dead boring."

I'm inclined to think that 3b is invalid -- it rings off to me.  Or at least
that 3a and 3b should be analysed differently, whereby 3a involves an inter-term
in a strongly bound colocation -- "dead [fucking] boring" -- whereas 3b is an
example of an intensifier applied to a phrase rather than to a single word --
"fucking [dead boring]".

Robin.

> 
>     On 23 February 2017 at 06:12 Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> 
> 
>     Sorry, I think you’re saying that “dead boring” is two words.
> 
>     What I’m wondering is whether “fucking” can be used as a diagnostic to
> determine whether two elements such as these are a single word.
> 
>     Benjamin Barrett
>     Formerly of Seattle, WA
> 
>     > On 22 Feb 2017, at 17:54, Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com> wrote:
>     >
>     > It’s not clear to me, either, but it certainly feels and seems that way.
>     > Are there non-infixes that can go there? BB
>     >
>     >> On 22 Feb 2017, at 17:37, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>     >>
>     >> 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
>     >
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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