[Lingtyp] Swearwords as a negator and/or minimizer: a cross-linguistic perspective
Elena Skribnik
skribnik at lmu.de
Sun Jun 18 11:22:22 UTC 2023
An addition to the Russian data: there is a 'politically correct'
replacement to the 'penis' word, namely, /xren/ (lit. 'horseradish');
similarly to the original /xui,/ it can be used both as a negation
intensifier (/ni xui-a /∼ /ni xren-a/ neg 'penis'-gen), and as an
emphatic negator:
/Xren ego znaet/
penis him/it know.prs.3sg
'No one knows / Who knows / I don't know' (lit. 'horseradish knows it')
/Xren on tebe den'gi dast/
penis he you.sg.dat money give.fut.3sg
'He will not / would never give you money'
The first expression is so common that horseradish is sometimes jokingly
called 'the most knowledgeable vegetable in the world'.
Regards,
Elena Skribnik
Am 13.06.23 um 15:50 schrieb Michael Daniel:
> This is true.
>
> But I think my second Russian example, where 'penis' means nothing,
> can qualify; and also examples are possible like 'penis it knows' for
> 'I don't / no one knows', where no regular negative particle is used.
> This is pretty common in collquial communication, so much so that it
> made it to a rare phenomenon of acronym in spoken language - хз [хəze]
> 'I don't know; this is unclear' from lit. penis knows.
>
> Michael
>
> вт, 13 июн. 2023 г. в 15:44, Ian Joo <ian_joo at nucba.ac.jp>:
>
> Dear all,
>
> technically speaking, I think Pun Ho Lui’s original question was
> swear words acting as negators, not just intensifiers.
> So phrases like “I don’t know shit” wouldn’t apply, only those
> like “I know shit” (intended meaning: I don’t know anything).
>
> Regards,
> Ian
>
>> 13/6/2023 오후 3:37, Eitan Grossman
>> <eitan.grossman at mail.huji.ac.il> 작성:
>>
>> I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, but Jespersen already
>> discussed this phenomenon to some extent in his 1917 monograph on
>> negation, and it was extended by many including Ross & Postal,
>> Horn, and others (e.g., 'squatitive negation' as in 'You don't
>> know doodly-squat.')
>>
>> For the sake of typology, some of the Hebrew terms for penis
>> (mainly /zayin/ and /zibbi/, the latter a loanword) also show the
>> behavior mentioned by Pun Ho Lui, Misha, and others.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 13, 2023 at 4:23 PM Lewis C Howe <chowe at uga.edu> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Pun Ho Lui and all,
>>
>> These patterns are relatively common in Romance Languages.
>> For instance, in Spanish you can find the following:
>>
>> (No) me importa un(a)
>> coño|pedo|chingada|polla|etc.
>>
>> NEG 1sg.ACC matter.3sg a vagina|fart|fuck|dick|etc.
>>
>> ‘I don’t care at all.’
>>
>> There are a number of lexical options, which, not
>> surprisingly, are quite dialectally diverse. The preverbal
>> negation is optional, and, for some speakers in some
>> collocations, may in fact be dispreferred.
>>
>> Following up on the comment about /đavola /("devil") in
>> BCMS/Serbo-Croation, there’s a similar construction in
>> Romance (illustrated below in Spanish) that (typically)
>> involves wh-words. This construction also includes similarly
>> taboo lexical options—e.g., /carajo /‘shit’, /cojones
>> /‘testicles’. These types of constructions, at least for
>> English, are described by Pesetsky (1987) as “Aggressively
>> Non-D-Linked” wh-phrases.
>>
>> ¿Qué demonios quieres?
>>
>> What devils want.2sg
>>
>> ‘What the hell do you want?’
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Chad Howe
>>
>> Pesetsky, D. 1987. Wh-in-situ: Movement and unselective
>> binding. In /The representation of (in)definiteness/, ed. by
>> Eric Reuland and Alice G. B. ter Meulen, 98-130. Cambridge,
>> MA: MIT Press.
>>
>> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> on behalf of Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com>
>> *Date: *Tuesday, June 13, 2023 at 9:01 AM
>> *To: *Stefan Savić <stefansavicz at gmail.com>
>> *Cc: *lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>> *Subject: *Re: [Lingtyp] Swearwords as a negator and/or
>> minimizer: a cross-linguistic perspective
>>
>> [EXTERNAL SENDER - PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY]
>>
>> Dear Pun Ho Lui,
>>
>> In Russian strong speech, 'penis' is used as a
>> non-referential NP in different type of emphatic negation;
>> including constructions very similar to what you quote. See
>> for examples, some way below. Note that "ни" is a negative
>> particle distinct from regular negative "не" and commonly
>> (though not exclusively) used under the scope of clausal
>> negation; I am not sure how to gloss it.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Michael Daniel
>>
>> он ни хуя не знает
>>
>> he.nom not penis-Sg.Gen not knows
>>
>> 'he does not know anything at all'
>>
>> хуй тебе, а не деньги
>>
>> penis.Sg.Nom you.sg-Dat, and not money
>>
>> 'You are not getting anything, you are not (instead of)
>> getting any money'
>>
>> ни хуя (подобн-ого)
>>
>> not penis-Sg.Gen (similar-N.Sg.Gen)
>>
>> 'Nothing like that at all!'
>>
>> вт, 13 июн. 2023 г. в 14:45, Stefan Savić
>> <stefansavicz at gmail.com>:
>>
>> Dear Pun Ho Lui, Dear All,
>>
>> In BCMS/Serbocroatian one can also use the genitive
>> singular form /đavola /("devil") in the same function,
>> now hardly considered a swear word per se, but once it
>> definitely was (along with other religious terms). As a
>> matter of fact, in numerous such instances, the
>> nominative singular /kurac/ is often replaceable with the
>> genitive singular /đavola /(whereby the latter sounds
>> considerably milder than the former).
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Stefan
>>
>> On Tue, 13 Jun 2023 at 14:35, Pun Ho Lui
>> <luiph001 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear linguists,
>>
>> Swearwords/taboo words can function as a negator (1)
>> or minimizer/“squatitive” (2):
>>
>> (1) Cantonese
>>
>> 我 撚 知
>>
>> 1sg dick know
>>
>> ‘I don’t know.’
>>
>> (2) I learn fuck all/ shit.
>>
>> ‘I learn nothing.’
>>
>> Other languages with these pattens include:
>>
>> - Russian
>>
>> - German /einen Teufel /‘a devil’
>>
>> - Swedish /så fan Heller/
>>
>> /- /French /mon cul/ ‘my ass’ (?)
>>
>> - Polish /chuj /‘dick’; /gówno /’shit’
>>
>> - Serbian /kurac /‘penis'
>>
>> - Croatian /kurac ‘penis’/
>>
>> - Colloquail Finnish “aggressive mood”
>>
>> These examples are provided in:
>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/lingtyp/permalink/6751622964867235/
>>
>> I am wondering if there are other languages
>> performing similar constructions. If so, is the any
>> requirement for using them.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>> Warmest,
>>
>> Pun Ho Lui
>>
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