expletive attributive

Expletive comes from the Latin verb {{lang|la|explere}}, meaning "to fill", via {{lang|la|expletivus}}, "filling out". It was introduced into English in the 17th century for various kinds of padding—the padding out of a book with peripheral material, the addition of syllables to a line of poetry for metrical purposes, and so forth. The use of expletive for such a meaning is now rare. Rather, expletive is a linguistics term for a meaningless word filling a syntactic vacancy. Outside linguistics, the word is commonly used to refer to "bad language" or profanity. Some linguists use it as shorthand for "expletive attributive".

{{broaden|section|date=January 2017|reason=Focused on English language}}

There are many attributive adjectives and adverbs in English that function to indicate a speaker's anger, irritation or (in some cases) strong approval without otherwise modifying the meaning of the phrase in which they occur.{{Cite book |first1=Rodney |last1=Huddleston |first2=Geoffrey |last2=Pullum|title=The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-521-43146-8}} An example is the word bloody as used in the following sentences:

• "You'd better pray for a {{em|bloody}} miracle if you want to avoid bankruptcy."
• "That was a {{em|bloody}} good meal."
• "You'd better {{em|bloody well}} make it happen!"

An expletive attributive is a type of intensifier. Unlike other adjective or adverb usage, bloody or bloody well in these sentences do not modify the meaning of miracle, good meal, or make it happen. The expletive attributives here suggest that the speaker feels strongly about the proposition being expressed. Other vulgar words may also be used in this way:

• "The {{em|goddamn}} policeman tailed me all the {{em|goddamn}} way home."
• "I {{em|fucking}} hope he {{em|fucking}} chokes on his {{em|motherfucking}} peanuts."

Words that are never thought of as offensive can be used in similar ways. For example:

• "I forgot to pay the phone bill twice running, so the {{em|wretched}} line was cut off."

The phone line discussed may have, before it was cut off, been just as good as any other, so would not have been wretched in the literal senses of "extremely shoddy", "devoid of hope" or similar. Rather, wretched serves here as a politer equivalent of expletive bloody and the like.

{{Main|Expletive infixation}}

Besides usual positioning for adverbs and attributive adjectives, expletive attributives can be found in unusual positions where others rarely are (including other intensifiers). Although considered colloquial at best, they are inserted:James B. McMillan, "[http://www.jstor.org/stable/455082 Infixing & Interposing in English]," American Speech 55, 3 (Autumn 1980): 163–183 at 163–164, 168.

• inside morphemes
• between bases and affixes
• inside compounds
• inside letter and numeral words
• inside names
• between an adverb, negative or intensifier and an adjective
• between an adjectival or determiner and a noun
• between a preposition and a noun
• between a verb and a particle or adverb
• between an auxiliary and a verb
• preceding the post-modifier else
• inside idioms
• between a wh- form and a predicate

Depending on the precise definition (and the grammarian's general approach), these insertions may be classed as infixation,{{NoteTag|Infixation is rare in the English language.}} tmesis, diacope, interposition or unrecognized.

• Affect (linguistics)

{{NoteFoot}}

{{reflist}}

{{Profanity}}

Category:Lexical semantics

Category:Profanity

{{semantics-stub}}