Fuck has two main uses with two different semantic and syntactic properties

• English sentences require subject and predicate
• Imperatives have covert (“understood”) subjects
  • But not for the word fuck
    • e.g. Fuck you! $\ne$ You fuck you!
  • Close the door
    • Go close the door
    • I order you to close the door
    • Close the door and open the window
  • Fuck you
    • *Go fuck you
    • *I order you to fuck you
    • *Fuck you and open the window
• Fuck has two main uses with two different semantic and syntactic properties
  • $fuc{k}_1$: (verb) to have sexual intercourse
    • Follows usual English grammar
    • Normal verb
  • $fuc{k}_2$: (?) invective, maledictive, emphatic
    • When used as “fucking”, can’t move it elsewhere in sentence
      • Look at those fucking rabbits / Look at those rabbits that are fucking
      • I hate that fucking music / I hate that music that is fucking
    • Not a verb at all
      • James McCawley → quasi-verb, Frigatives