This is excellent I don't know where to begin. Thank you very much 'degrawj', 'Stompy' and 'Food Reef' for giving examples. An expletive is generally a word used for the simple value of attention. It allows someone to poor emotions into the vocalic nature of the word. I do not know, has anyone hear the fuck song. It actually gives a good definition of how fuck is a multitask word. This is handy, however I believe 'Redlemon' hit it on the head when he explains that profanity is used to the point of it being meaningless.
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Originally Posted by degrawj
For example, if one of my buddies asks me to get him a pop, and he's been a dick all day, I won't just say "No," I'd be more likely to say "Hell no!" or "Fuck no!"... "it's not explaining themselves," because I chose to use a curse word instead of saying "No, you have been a jerk all day, so I won't get you a pop."...if I gave that long explanation around any of my friends, they would look at me wierdly and it would create all sorts of awkward tension
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Why would explaining youself and telling teh truth make it awkward. Would it not absolve the situation better if you told him what was offending you when they did it. Possibly you migth have gotten that soda, and done a nice things for them then.
I think that cursing (which is only one of the ways to use an expletive) has a place. I believe it is for aggression since it adds that kind of aggresive edge. Also what defines these curses if they are used for everything and anything. I agree that the beauty of the english language is it's openness and ability to evolve (there I go using a dirty word) and grow with the times. However if we use only words which have massivly extensive meanings then we are basically speaking in the eloquence of Sign Language where you are expected to catch the gist of the signals and make a statement out of it for yourself.
Another example besides cursing would be when someone hears a noise or slips a little and says "Ouch!" reflexively. Also when people graze eachother and one yelps, these are other instances of expletives used in awkward cases.
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Originally Posted by dictionary.com
ex·ple·tive Pronunciation Key (ĕk'splĭ-tĭv)n.
1. An exclamation or oath, especially one that is profane, vulgar, or bscene.
2. 1. A word or phrase that does not contribute any meaning but is added only to fill out a sentence or a metrical line. 2. Linguistics. A word or other grammatical element that has no meaning but is needed to fill a syntactic position, such as the words it and there in the sentences It's raining and There are many books on the table. |