>John Quijada wrote:
>
> > And a different restriction appears to operate in the
>> following:
>>
>> We trashed the hell out of his house.
Yes.
> > ?? We ate the hell out of those beans.
I wouldn't classify this as necessarily ungrammatical per se, but it
feels weird no matter what the context. (In other words, I understand
the "??")
I wore the hell out of those pants. ?!
I slept the hell out of that bed. ?!
> > *We closed the hell out of that door.
>
>I find these all acceptable if the action was particularly
>intense.
Less weird, but one might anticipate really loud noises or door knobs
or hinges rupturing as a result.
I drove the hell out of that car. (sorta works)
> > The specific phrase 'the hell' (but apparently not 'the heck'
>> or 'the f**k') also appears in the following construction:
>>
>> The hell you're going to any party!
>> The hell he's marrying my daughter!
Ungrammatical in my idiolect. "Like" is mandatory.
>In the English of the Midwestern USA, it is acceptable (well,
>at least grammatically) to say:
>
>The fuck you're going to my party!
>The fuck he's marrying my daughter!
Doesn't work at any level for me, but I'm not from the Midwest.
>Why the dickens don't you call me?
>Where the blazes have you been?
>They trashed the crap out of his house.
>They beat the daylights out of him.
I note that most of these have "out of" as the following preposition
(which works). Too, I'm thinking that in my idiolect maybe that's why
having these expressions fronted sounds ungrammatical. (though "like
fuck" does not work ("like shit", maybe).
Kou