Ph. D. wrote:
>John Quijada wrote:
>> I'm especially curious as to why
>> such phrases carry the highly unusual compositional
>> structure of DEFINITE ARTICLE + NOUN being used
>> adverbially. I can't think of any other types of nouns used
>> this way in English
>
>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.
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Ah! I'll grant you 'dickens' and 'blazes', but I'm wondering whether in
the last two examples, 'the crap' and 'the daylights' are simply
conventionalized synonyms/substitutes for something like 'inside(s)'
or 'innards.'