As anyone who knows me knows, I am extremely fond of swearing. I have never understood whyt some words are considered bad (aside from racial slurs that is); I don’t see anything morally wrong with using ‘foul’ language in any context…but that is another story…
One of the best swear words is ‘fuck,’ in part because it is considered one of the worst swears, but also because of its versatility. In fact I have long thought that it can be used as any part of speech, as the title of the post suggests (this is actually from a T-shirt I own 🙂 )…I haven’t ever really thought about this seriously, but recently when I mentioned this to someone they said that it couldn’t be used as a preposition. But that is clearly not the case. Consider (in response to ‘where’s the book’)
1. The book is right fucking there
this can be said quite naturally after one has already said “the book is right over there” a couple of times to no avail. Since ‘fucking’ is here taking the place of ‘over’ it is a preposition.
In fact I noticed the other night that the “fucking there!” locution is used a lot by chef Gordon Ramsey.
I also recently discovered that it can be used as a quantifier/determiner, as in “he knows fuck-all about philosophy”
Fuckin’ A!
Richard Brown 
You’re fucking right !
Just watch the HBO series “Deadwood” to be convinced that one can use “fuck” and compounded as a one-word language !
There’s an old song about the versatility of the word “fuck”; I’ll always remember it because it’s one of the first mp3’s i ever downloaded.
http://thetravisty.com/Just_Funny/wma/Uses_of_the_Word_Fuck.htm
you might want to check out this documentary:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486585/
Hi Zombidave,
Thanks for the comment!
Yeah, but we might have to add ‘cocksucker’ as a second word!! 🙂
Hi Ararat,
Thanks for the link!
‘Fuck the fucking fuckers’ was a close second for the title of this post! Notice, though, that ‘fuck’ as a preposition is not mentioned in the song!
Hey Jake,
Thanks for the link as well!
Is that the documentry you were talking about at lunch the other day?
Hey, has anyone thought of the way a feminist may interpret these swear words? It’s not too much of a stretch to see they are actually derogatory towards women, especially cock-sucker (in that case, also to homosexuals). Motherfucker is also a prime example. To fuck someone is a negative thing, and generally it is considered the male who fucks the passive female (particularly the view when the word was being established).
Which brings me to the question “why is it ok to use swear words which insult people of a particular sex, but not ok to use swear words which insult people of a particular race?” It seems to me that it is socially acceptable to be sexist, but not racist.
Hi Emily,
Thanks for the comment!!!! I think I didn’t quite get what your point was the first response that I made, so let me try again.
You raise a good point. I don’t think that it is o.k. to be racist or sexist, but I guess I don’t see how ‘cocksucker’ is derrogatory towards women or homosexuals. It can be, and no doubt has been, used by people to express derrogatory sentiments about woman and homosexuals (in this case, though, I was referring to the HBO series Deadwood, where the word is used a lot to refer to anyone the person is talking to/about) but I don’t see why the word itself is derrogatory towards women. It is vulgar, but it’s just descriptive…so also with ‘fuck’…so, for instance, it is perfectly common and an acceptable use of the word ‘fuck’ for a woman to say she fucked her girlfriend. The word is just a vulgar way to say ‘engaged in sexual intercourse’…So what I should have said is that I include sexual slurs with racial slurs. But there are plenty of speech acts that one can perform with ‘fuck’ that is not a sexual slur, as in the example I gave in the post (“The book is right fucking there!”).
I just stumbled on this piece by Pinker – What the F***?
Here’s a video that I’ve always liked illustrating the diversity of the word: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/play/750
wow.. whats wrong with your blog?
Hi EJ and Tanasije thanks for the links! I’ll check them out when I get the chance…oh, and nothing is wrong with the blog…it’s just that if you post a comment that has a link in it the spam filter tends to think that it is spam…
lol, that video is funny EJ…but notice how they did not mention the two uses I point out (as a preposition and a quantifier/determiner)….
Oh, hmm.. good point. Perhaps you should make a video that illustrates the diversity of the word “fuck” and include the two uses 🙂
I have tried to tell my friends that using the F word and all the other words that I may create in a fit of anger is not really appreciated by males or significant others. Is there something about swearing that is considered to be an acceptable men only function? I personally think that I can emphasize my anger without swearing but somehow using words that are considered to be bad words somehow adds oomph to the sentiments being expressed. Am I fucking right or am I fucking right? are you stufuckingpid or what? I usually feel less than after doing this but what the f_ _ k
THATWAS SO FREEING! TEE HEE!
“Is there something about swearing that is considered to be an acceptable men only function?”
Fuck, that is a damn good fuckin’ question.
Because I have to ask that, too. (If I’m comprehending the question correctly), why is it that when a woman uses “bad words”, especially “fuck”, people go “oh- that’s not very ladylike.” But when men say “fuck” or whatever, the same people will go “oh well, thats okay- he’s a boy.”
exactly! why is that? Any women out there that can expound and explain? I’m a lady dammit!
oops don’t want to get too pro feministic I am not a true feminist in the true sense of the word.
Hey CHRISSYNOW, I’m not a true feminist, either. Honestly, it’s fucked up but I never care about that- the way I see it, if you don’t like the way I *fucking* swear, that’s your *fucking* problem, you know?
But I think I can take a guess as to why its like that. maybe it’s because cussing is really crude and lewd, and men are crude and lewd. Hmm- okay, how about swearing is usually based on anger, right?, like someone would start cussing because they’re angry. Men have more testosterone, that causes them to be more competitive and really macho and aggressive. So men would get more angrier more often and when that happens, they become really crude and they would cuss more- and over time, that came to be considered okay..???
I don’t know.. I just woke up. Its just something I came up with. Damn it Professor, I gotta do your final exam.
So, get to work and stop fucking around! 🙂
CHRISSYSNOW and EJ, those are good questions you raise about the acceptability/double standard that is still inplay in our society…check out the Steven Pinker article if you have time. he has some interesting things to say about that…That article is super interesting and has inspired me to post some more about this stuff…(thanks again Tanasije!)
Hey, it’s Marlon your favorite student from last semester! I just thought you might be interested in knowing that a few weeks ago I was helping to clean out a synagogue/religious school because they were changing buildings. Anyways I got to clean out the library and keep any books I wanted to. I came across a few interesting choices, including a few religious artifacts. More importantly I came across a book by Sartre “Anti-Semite and Jew” in which he uses the 1940’s French Jew and Anti-Semite counterparts as they appear in all levels of society. The most amazing thing about Sartre’s writing is that he gives a detailed account of the inner workings of both Anti-Semite and Jew in such broad terms that he really gives the pure idea of the bigot and an oppressed people. He even says that the French Jew can be replaced with the Negro or the Asian depending on the country and I feel that he is really accurate and I could replace many instances of Jew with Black and it would still be an accurate portrayal of being Black in America. You would probably be interested in the next of my salvaged books; “a theology of auschwitz: The Christian Faith and the Problem of Evil” by Ulrich Simon. I’m hoping it will be a lighthearted upbeat summer read! Anyway, according to all the TV movies moments like this are what teachers live for, knowing they had some lasting effect on a former student’s quest for knowledge. Or some shit like that. E-mail me back or respond here if you can’t see my e-mail address, I’d love to hear back from you.
Hi Marlon, thanks for the comment.
Those sound like some interesting books! I have always been a fan of Sartre and his writing. Glad to hear you are persuing your interests in philosophy!! Feel free to stop by my office, or here, anytime.
It can’t be a conjunctive, unfortunately, but every other part of a sentence.