20150605.0652

As I was writing in my journal last night after a day of freelancing (6,000 words for the job), I stumbled onto or into an idea for a classroom activity. It's not one I'll likely ever pursue, until and unless I find my way to tenure (which is less likely than I'd like it to be), but it is a fun idea to consider. To do so, I offer the following passages:

1. After having kicked Jim in the face, Bob walked back into the bowling alley. He promptly tripped over a stray bowling shoe, falling and striking his head on a ball return. As he picked himself up, he said "That was somewhat painful."
2. After having kicked Jim in the face, Bob walked back into the bowling alley. He promptly tripped over a stray bowling shoe, falling and striking his head on a ball return. As he picked himself up, he said "That was awfully painful."
3. After having kicked Jim in the face, Bob walked back into the bowling alley. He promptly tripped over a stray bowling shoe, falling and striking his head on a ball return. As he picked himself up, he said "That was damned painful."
4. After having kicked Jim in the face, Bob walked back into the bowling alley. He promptly tripped over a stray bowling shoe, falling and striking his head on a ball return. As he picked himself up, he said "That was damnably painful."
5. After having kicked Jim in the face, Bob walked back into the bowling alley. He promptly tripped over a stray bowling shoe, falling and striking his head on a ball return. As he picked himself up, he said "That was blasted painful."
6. After having kicked Jim in the face, Bob walked back into the bowling alley. He promptly tripped over a stray bowling shoe, falling and striking his head on a ball return. As he picked himself up, he said "That was fucking painful."

Other examples could be developed easily, to be sure, but the six above will demonstrate the point nicely. In each, the basic content is the same; the same basic situation is described, and the report Bob makes in each can be assumed to be more or less accurate. The only difference is in a single word changed across each example, an adverbial descriptor of the adjective in a copular relationship with the subject pronoun. And in that single changed word, much is revealed.

That revelation would be the thing to be discussed in the class. Connotations of the vulgarisms used would need explication. Comparative levels of obscenity would, too, as would the reasons behind those levels. I can guess that many who read this will call "fucking" more obscene than "damned," and that more obscene than "damnably," and that more so than "blasted," but why it would be would take a bit more untangling (as I have seen from some lively online discussions friends of mine have had). Each seems something worth looking into in a class that focuses on the uses of language--although I acknowledge that the current instructional climate would not look well on my teaching such a lesson. As I note above, it is a thing to plumb when and if I ever have tenure--and that seems a thing far off if still indeed present in the world...