That's weird...

[conuly]

If I fucked Darth Maul, that means sexual activity happened.
And if I had sex with Darth Maul, same deal.
But if I fucked with Darth Maul, sex MAY have happened, but only for a manipulative purpose.

Why is that?

Comments

[siderea]

Now, see, this is why I get so anxious about prepositions when learning other languages.

[snakeling]

*nods* Prepositions are evil. Aside from the position ones, they're random and arbitrary and nearly never the same as in your native language.

[steorra]

And even the position ones are often not the same as in your native language. For example, in German, 'auf' is mostly equivalent to English 'on'. But while in English you'd likely talk about a picture 'on the wall', if you used 'auf' in that context in German, it'd have to be interpreted as a picture sitting *on top of* the wall, not hanging on it; the correct preposition would be 'an'.

[conuly]

And is "an" cognate with English "on"? Either way, it looks more like it than auf (which looks more like off, joy of joys), so - confusion ahoy!

[steorra]

It does look suspiciously like 'an' and 'on' could be cognate... let me check. Yes, the OED says they're cognate.

However, the OED connects English 'off' (and 'of', which is etymologically the same) with German 'ab', and doesn't mention 'auf'.

Trying to guess what 'auf' could be related to, I checked 'up', and sure enough, it seems like they're connected (though with a twist or two along the way, so it's not a simple case of cognacy).

In any case, though, even if 'off' and 'auf' aren't related, they do look alike, which can lead to confusion regardless of the source of the alike-looking.

[conuly]

Incidentally, there's a nifty diagram about this, but heck if I know where it is. Saw it on linguaphiles once.

[pne]

On a related note, "An apostrophe is the difference between a company that knows its shit and a company that knows it's shit".

[conuly]

Nice.

[l33tminion]

1. The combination of a slang term and a preposition often indicates a non-literal meaning.
2. "Have sex with" is used in our culture as an analogy for "do something bad to someone for one's own benefit".

Hence: "Fucked with", "fucked around", "fucked up", "fucked over", and the same phrases for "screwed".

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I hazard a guess that if you had sex with Darth Maul, it would probably be him fucking you, not you fucking him. If you fucked with Darth Maul, you'd probably be dead - unless of course you'd also fucked with his head, and thus managed to escape.

[conuly]

I'm not asking about practicality or survival rates, I'm asking about grammar :P

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

ROFL, good answer!

[wednes.livejournal.com]

Because "fucked with" is a euphemism for some sort of chicanery, rather than actual fucking.

[conuly]

Well, yes, but why?

[pewter-wings.livejournal.com]

Are you asking grammar or etymology of the term?

[conuly]

I'm asking why language is messed up and not logical.

[pewter-wings.livejournal.com]

I'd have to ask why people don't ever just say what they mean and mena what they say.

If you messed with someone's head, did you give them a bad hair cut?

This leads me to question why telling someone 'Fuck you' is such a bad thing if fucking is so wonderful.

[pewter-wings.livejournal.com]

Wait, I have a serious response.

Humans love things of beauty, right? Maybe euphamisis began when someone wanted to say something, but make it sound different. Maybe they wanted their words to have more impact than the words that up until that moment had held.

Like an artist trying to express themselves.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Because humans are messed up and not logical, duh. English is particularly messed-up and illogical because it's patched together out of about six different language-groups, plus random odd inclusions from other languages.

A book I think you'd love is The Mother Tongue: English And How It Got That Way (http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Tongue-Bill-Bryson/dp/0380715430) by Bill Bryson.

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

And yet you're not bothered by the fact that when you have sex with Darth Maul, you're engaging in intercourse with him, but when you sex Darth Maul, you're determining whether he's physically male or female.

You're an odd one, Connie.

[conuly]

Me? I'm not the one worried about the shape of Darth Maul's dangly parts!