Chapter 3. The syntax of an emotional expletive in English
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J. Lachlan Mackenzie
Abstract
Various linguists have identified linguistic phenomena that express emotions rather than purely ideational or discursive meanings. From the viewpoint of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG) adopted here, emotion is visible above all as an overlay on structures that communicate interpersonal and representational meanings. This is particularly apparent for ‘expletives’, words which are in themselves meaningless but ‘fill out’ the clause with an expression of emotion. This chapter focuses on the expletive use of fuck, fucking, fucking well and the fuck and their precisely delineable complementary syntactic distributions. The positioning of these expletives is identified for all types of syntactic phrase and nine kinds of pronoun, including the phenomenon of tmesis in, for example, im-fucking-possible. The items are identified as grammatical rather than lexical and as functioning as optional pragmatic markers, specifically as realizing an operator of emotional emphasis (EmoEmph) on Focused or Contrasted Subacts at FDG’s Interpersonal Level. This analysis is validated by examining the grammaticality or discourse-acceptability of all possible exceptions, and the repercussions are explored for the Morphosyntactic Level, where the syntactic distribution of the items is actually effected.
Abstract
Various linguists have identified linguistic phenomena that express emotions rather than purely ideational or discursive meanings. From the viewpoint of Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG) adopted here, emotion is visible above all as an overlay on structures that communicate interpersonal and representational meanings. This is particularly apparent for ‘expletives’, words which are in themselves meaningless but ‘fill out’ the clause with an expression of emotion. This chapter focuses on the expletive use of fuck, fucking, fucking well and the fuck and their precisely delineable complementary syntactic distributions. The positioning of these expletives is identified for all types of syntactic phrase and nine kinds of pronoun, including the phenomenon of tmesis in, for example, im-fucking-possible. The items are identified as grammatical rather than lexical and as functioning as optional pragmatic markers, specifically as realizing an operator of emotional emphasis (EmoEmph) on Focused or Contrasted Subacts at FDG’s Interpersonal Level. This analysis is validated by examining the grammaticality or discourse-acceptability of all possible exceptions, and the repercussions are explored for the Morphosyntactic Level, where the syntactic distribution of the items is actually effected.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements xi
-
Introduction
- Chapter 1. Emotion processes in discourse 3
-
Section I. Emotion, syntax and the lexicon
- Chapter 2. The multifunctionality of swear/taboo words in television series 29
- Chapter 3. The syntax of an emotional expletive in English 55
- Chapter 4. Interjections and emotions 87
- Chapter 5. Expressing emotions without emotional lexis 113
- Chapter 6. The value of left and right 139
-
Section II. Pragmatics and emotion
- Chapter 7. A cognitive pragmatics of the phatic Internet 161
- Chapter 8. Humor and mirth 189
- Chapter 9. My anger was justified surely? 213
-
Section III. Interdisciplinary studies
- Chapter 10. Emotion and language ‘at work’ 247
- Chapter 11. The effects of linguistic proficiency, Trait Emotional Intelligence and in-group advantage on emotion recognition by British and American English L1 users 279
- Chapter 12. Rethinking Martin & White’s affect taxonomy 301
-
Section IV. Emotion in different discourse types
- Chapter 13. Victims, heroes and villains in newsbites 335
- Chapter 14. Promoemotional science? 357
- Name index 387
- Subject index 395
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Acknowledgements xi
-
Introduction
- Chapter 1. Emotion processes in discourse 3
-
Section I. Emotion, syntax and the lexicon
- Chapter 2. The multifunctionality of swear/taboo words in television series 29
- Chapter 3. The syntax of an emotional expletive in English 55
- Chapter 4. Interjections and emotions 87
- Chapter 5. Expressing emotions without emotional lexis 113
- Chapter 6. The value of left and right 139
-
Section II. Pragmatics and emotion
- Chapter 7. A cognitive pragmatics of the phatic Internet 161
- Chapter 8. Humor and mirth 189
- Chapter 9. My anger was justified surely? 213
-
Section III. Interdisciplinary studies
- Chapter 10. Emotion and language ‘at work’ 247
- Chapter 11. The effects of linguistic proficiency, Trait Emotional Intelligence and in-group advantage on emotion recognition by British and American English L1 users 279
- Chapter 12. Rethinking Martin & White’s affect taxonomy 301
-
Section IV. Emotion in different discourse types
- Chapter 13. Victims, heroes and villains in newsbites 335
- Chapter 14. Promoemotional science? 357
- Name index 387
- Subject index 395
