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INFIXING AND INTERPOSING IN ENGLISH: A NEW DIRECTION

INFIXING AND INTERPOSING IN ENGLISH: A NEW DIRECTION American Speech, Vol. 76 No. 3, Fall 2001 Copyright © 2001 by the American Dialect Society news, compared to newspapers of record. Fucking-A is well-attested in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1994–) and The F Word (Sheidlower 1999, 173–76), but not as meaning ‘obviously, undoubtedly, absolutely’ (where ‘obviously’ can be mildly derisive, roughly equivalent to ‘No shit!’), though the use has been around a long time and is current. Consider the following passages of dialogue from the film Office Space (1999): Lawrence: When a boss wants you to work on Saturday, he generally asks you at the end of the day, right? . . . So all you’ve got to do is avoid him . . . the last few hours on Friday, duck out early, turn off your answering machine; you should be home free, man. Peter: That’s a really good idea. Lawrence: Fuckin’-A, buddy Peter: This isn’t so bad, huh? Makin’ bucks, gettin’ exercise, workin’ outside? Lawrence: Fuckin’-A. Peter: Fuckin’-A. US-fucking A-Today dismissively attributes a meaningful quality, conveyed by the insert, to USA Today, though inserts in infixes, according to McMillan’s Rule, are not supposed to carry lexical meaning.1 McMillan’s Rule extends not http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic Usage Duke University Press

INFIXING AND INTERPOSING IN ENGLISH: A NEW DIRECTION

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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2001 by American Dialect Society
ISSN
0003-1283
eISSN
1527-2133
DOI
10.1215/00031283-76-3-327
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

American Speech, Vol. 76 No. 3, Fall 2001 Copyright © 2001 by the American Dialect Society news, compared to newspapers of record. Fucking-A is well-attested in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1994–) and The F Word (Sheidlower 1999, 173–76), but not as meaning ‘obviously, undoubtedly, absolutely’ (where ‘obviously’ can be mildly derisive, roughly equivalent to ‘No shit!’), though the use has been around a long time and is current. Consider the following passages of dialogue from the film Office Space (1999): Lawrence: When a boss wants you to work on Saturday, he generally asks you at the end of the day, right? . . . So all you’ve got to do is avoid him . . . the last few hours on Friday, duck out early, turn off your answering machine; you should be home free, man. Peter: That’s a really good idea. Lawrence: Fuckin’-A, buddy Peter: This isn’t so bad, huh? Makin’ bucks, gettin’ exercise, workin’ outside? Lawrence: Fuckin’-A. Peter: Fuckin’-A. US-fucking A-Today dismissively attributes a meaningful quality, conveyed by the insert, to USA Today, though inserts in infixes, according to McMillan’s Rule, are not supposed to carry lexical meaning.1 McMillan’s Rule extends not

Journal

American Speech: A Quarterly of Linguistic UsageDuke University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2001

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