Expletive infixation is a process by which an
expletive or
profanity
Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...
is inserted into a word, usually for intensification. It is similar to
tmesis
In its strictest sense, tmesis (; plural tmeses ; Ancient Greek: ''tmēsis'' "a cutting" < ''temnō'', "I cut") is a word compound that ...
, but not all instances are covered by the usual definition of ''tmesis'' because the words are not necessarily
compounds.
The most commonly inserted English expletives are adjectival: either participles (''
fucking'', ''mother-fucking'', ''freaking'', ''blooming'', ''
bleeding
Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vag ...
'', ''
damned'', ''wretched'') or adjectives (''
bloody
''Bloody'', as an adjective or adverb, is a commonly used expletive attributive in British English, Australian English, Irish English, Indian English and a number of other Commonwealth nations. It has been used as an intensive since at lea ...
'').
Rules of formation in English
Judgments of which formations of expletive infixation are acceptable are remarkably consistent.
This suggests that the rules for the placement of the expletive are not arbitrary, but instead derive from fundamental aspects of
English phonology
Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system. Amon ...
.
A simple rule is that the insertion occurs at a
syllable boundary, usually just before the primary
stressed syllable
In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as i ...
.
Thus, one hears ''abso-fuckin'-lutely'' rather than *''ab-fuckin'-solutely''. This rule is insufficient to describe examples such as ''un-fuckin'-believable'', however, so that some modifications to this rule are proposed, such as
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
boundaries taking precedence over stress. Counterexamples to this exception do exist: ''unbe-fuckin'-lievable''.
A more fundamental theory due to
John McCarthy is based on
prosody.
Its basic principle is that "the metrical stress tree of the host is minimally restructured to accommodate the stress tree of the infix". For example, although ''unbelievable'' and ''irresponsible'' have identical stress patterns and the first syllable of each is a separate morpheme, the preferred insertion points are different: ''un-fuckin'-believable'', but ''irre-fuckin'-sponsible''. McCarthy explains this by saying they have different prosodic structures: un(be((lieva)ble)) but (irre)((sponsi)ble). The infix cannot fall between the syllables ''ir'' and ''re'' because they form a single
prosodic foot.
Examples in popular culture
* "abso-bloomin'-lutely" in "
Wouldn't It Be Loverly
"Wouldn't It Be Loverly" is a popular song by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, written for the 1956 Broadway play ''My Fair Lady''.
The song is sung by Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle and her street friends. It expresses Eliza's wish fo ...
", a song from ''
My Fair Lady
''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play '' Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons ...
''
* "Viet-fuckin'-nam!" from
Abbie Hoffman (portrayed by
Richard D'Alessandro) in ''
Forrest Gump''
* "Out-bloody-rageous", the title of a track in the album ''
Third'' by the band
Soft Machine
* "un-bloody-hinged" from the movie ''
Chasing Liberty
''Chasing Liberty'' is a 2004 romantic comedy film directed by Andy Cadiff and starring Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode. Written by Derek Guiley and David Schneiderman, the film is about the 18-year-old daughter of the President of the United Stat ...
''
See also
*
Affix
References
External links
Discussion of where to properly insert the expletive*
{{Profanity
Infixes
Profanity