Re: OT: Slang, curses and vulgarities

On 30 Jan 2005, at 5.01 pm, Thomas R. Wier wrote:

> 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.
I'm not sure what Aktionsart is in spite of the many attempts at
explanations I've read, but 'he's kicking ass' is more than perfectly
acceptible when one isn't literally applying one's foot forcefully onto
someone's posterior. It however certainly refers to a person doing
something, so 'that's kicking loads of ass' is wrong; that is either
kickass (or kickarse), or he's kicking some ass...

('Ass' is frequently used in Australia as a mild swear word, or as
parts of mild swearings, but generally references to literal posteriors
would prefer 'arse'; this might influence my interpretation. Some
compounds ('tight arse') I'm only familiar with using 'arse', others
('jack ass') I much prefer to hear using 'ass'. General depends on the
vowel in the first half, but this just might be a personal rather than
cultural aesthetic.)

>
>> 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.
I cannot believe you're likening 'shit' to 'fuck'. In my use and
experience, it's not much worse than 'stuff'. Obviously it varies in
intensity...

--
Tristan.

Reply