– I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. –
Published by Valley Press on 05 Jan 2016
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A Field Guide to the F Word explores its history from the fifteenth century, its blossoming in World War II, and its evolution into contemporary acceptance. Its linguistic and syntactic peculiarities are explained, alternative words evaluated, its etiquette and misuse clearly defined, and its nuances exposed—without The Word appearing in print. Charming, thought-provoking, playful, subtle, and all in good clean fun. A Field Guide to the F Word is your ticket to social success.
I chose this book because…
It’s always fun to read something a little vulgar. As a computer science and linguistics double major, the use of language interests me. I remember while we were discussing syllables in my Intro to Linguistics class, my professor was giving examples of correct and incorrect ways to insert words of emphasis into other words, i.e. fan-fucking-tastic as opposed to *fantas-fucking-tic. I also recall a mean conversation from my middle school days when a friend was saying about another friend that she tries too hard to be cool and uses swears incorrectly like… idk, maybe something along the lines of what the shit or wtf the fuck. Anyways, I thought it’d be interesting to learn about the observations that someone who researched this topic has made. We use language every day, yet there’s so much about language we don’t think about.
Upon reading it…
It was hard for me to take the book seriously when it never once used the word “fuck,” instead referring to it as “The Word” or just leaving a blank where the word should be. To be fair, the book isn’t meant to be taken seriously and is supposed to be lighthearted, but I wondered if I was reading a satire because the narrative was so cavalier, too cavalier, and read almost as if it were being told by a teen boy who was bullshitting you but with conviction, confidence, and an air of theatrical pompousness. Though I don’t doubt the truth to his observations, I think it would benefit from cited sources, not necessarily parenthetical citations–because really, what do those even mean–but perhaps some insight into his method of research so that the information doesn’t come off as hot air.
I think the idea behind the book is very interesting and that it serves as a good basis to jump off from, but it never went there for me. Parker made some valid social observations, but I was more interested to learn about the word through the lens of logical linguistic analysis, like perhaps through semantics for instance.
I had my own expectation for what the book would encompass and the book didn’t turn out to be what I was looking for, so halfway through it I started skimming the rest. However, I do think this book could potentially be enjoyable by a reader who has never thought about the linguistics of the word “fuck” before and would be curious to have a glimpse of it. It was cool to learn that “snafu” is actually an acronym for “Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.”
★★☆☆☆
But perhaps even more demonstrative of versatility is its use by itself, simply as an ejaculation (in the verbal sense). So it can express
Anger
” !”
Suprise
” !”
Delight
” !”
Awe… Disappointment… Fear… Contempt… Exasperation
” !”