4 Letter Word Usage

[Umberto Rossi]

I submitted the Navy Grammar Lesson to a friend of mine whose father
is American (New England) and whose mother is more than Italian
(she's Neapolitan).  He teaches English in an Italian university, and
is the person I usually trust when it comes to English grammar.  Here
are his comments on the abovementioned lesson.  This could be a
precious contribution if we wish to "settle the fuck business".

Umberto Rossi

>A NAVY GRAMMAR LESSON... 
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
>
>Perhaps one of the most interesting and colorful words in the English
>language today is the word "fuck". It is the one magical word which,
>just by its sound, can describe pain, pleasure, love, and hate.  In
>language, "fuck" falls into many grammatical categories. It can be
>used as a verb, both transitive (John fucked Mary/Mary fucked John)
>and intransitive (Mary was fucked by John).  

In "Mary was fucked by John" fuck is not intransitive. It is a passive
construction of a transitive verb. A transitive verb is one that can have a
direct object (I eat the apple), whereas an intransitive verb does not (I
sleep).

> It can be an action
> verb (John really gives a fuck), a passive verb (Mary really doesn't
> give a fuck), 

In both the above examples "fuck" is a noun. What is given? a fuck. It's
like saying John gives an apple (of course fuck is not a real object, yet it
remains gramatically a noun). Incidentally "Mary doesn't give..." isn't
passive, it's active. "Mary is not given..." would have been passive.

> It can even be
> used as a conjunction (Mary is nice but, fuck she's stupid).  

Here fuck is not a conjunction, but an interjection. The proof is that it
could be taken away without altering the meaning of the sentence. The
conjunction here is "but" which serves to conjuct the two clauses in a
single sentence, whereas without but they would have to be separated by a
period.


Gabriele Poole
Via Borgo Missori, 1
00040 Montecompatri (RM)
ITALY
poole at microelettra.it