Re: OT: Slang, curses and vulgarities

Carsten wrote:
> Interestingly, "f*ck" and "sh*t" have made it into the
> German language although we have of course own words for
> these.
Yeah... I remember at a German summerschool I went to, one
of the participants said she remembered being on a subway
in Germany, and some guy, though otherwise speaking only
German, speaking into his cellphone said "Oh, megafuck!"

> Even more interestingly, "(to) kick ass" means
> something positive in English ("Oh my f*cking god, that's
> kicking loads of ass, man!").
"To kick ass" has both positive and negative connotations.
If there is first or second person, then it's more likely to be
negative:  "If you don't fucking shut up, I'll kick your
fucking ass!".  But if it's inanimate, it's very frequently
positive:  "The band's new album really kicks ass."

Also note the different Aktionsart:  it's <kicks ass>,
not <is kicking ass>.  The latter is generally only acceptible
in the literal case of applying one's foot forcefully
onto someone's posterior.

> And, although they are related to one another,
> cursewords may have a different level of vulgarity in
> different languages. In one of the recent English lessons,
> our teacher told us that "sh*t" is considered to be worse
> than "f*ck" in English. In German, it's just the other way
> round.
I would not say that "shit" or "fuck" are particularly
different in effect for me; both fall into the small category
of "four-letter words".  My impression, though, is that
"shit" is notably more offensive in English than its
German cognate is.  As I think has already been mentioned,
there is only one four-letter word in English that is
so offensive it's taboo even to hear it uttered:  c*nt.
This is so strongly felt that the Catholic University
of North Texas decided to change its name simply to
the University of North Texas to avoid the inevitable
embarrassment.

 =========================================================================
Thomas Wier	       "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics    because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago   half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street     Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637

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