33 lines
4.2 KiB
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33 lines
4.2 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>Verb Doubling</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="construction.html" title="Chapter 4. Jargon Construction"/><link rel="previous" href="construction.html" title="Chapter 4. Jargon Construction"/><link rel="next" href="soundalike-slang.html" title="Soundalike Slang"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Verb Doubling</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="construction.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 4. Jargon Construction</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="soundalike-slang.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="verb-doubling"/>Verb Doubling</h2></div></div><div/></div><p>A standard construction in English is to double a verb and use it as an
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exclamation, such as “<span class="quote">Bang, bang!</span>” or “<span class="quote">Quack,
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quack!</span>”. Most of these are names for noises. Hackers also double
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verbs as a concise, sometimes sarcastic comment on what the implied subject
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does. Also, a doubled verb is often used to terminate a conversation, in the
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process remarking on the current state of affairs or what the speaker intends
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to do next. Typical examples involve <a href="W/win.html"><i class="glossterm">win</i></a>,
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<a href="L/lose.html"><i class="glossterm">lose</i></a>, <a href="H/hack.html"><i class="glossterm">hack</i></a>,
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<a href="F/flame.html"><i class="glossterm">flame</i></a>, <a href="B/barf.html"><i class="glossterm">barf</i></a>,
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<a href="C/chomp.html"><i class="glossterm">chomp</i></a>:</p><div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>“<span class="quote">The disk heads just crashed.</span>” “<span class="quote">Lose,
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lose.</span>”</p><p>“<span class="quote">Mostly he talked about his latest crock. Flame,
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flame.</span>”</p><p>“Boy, what a bagbiter! Chomp, chomp!</p></blockquote></div><p>Some verb-doubled constructions have special meanings not immediately
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obvious from the verb. These have their own listings in the lexicon.</p><p>The <a href="U/Usenet.html"><i class="glossterm">Usenet</i></a> culture has one
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<span class="emphasis"><em>tripling</em></span> convention unrelated to this; the names of
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‘joke’ topic groups often have a tripled last element. The first
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and paradigmatic example was <tt class="systemitem">alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork</tt> (a
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<i class="citetitle">Muppet Show</i> reference); other infamous examples have
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included:</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>
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<tt class="systemitem">alt.french.captain.borg.borg.borg</tt>
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</p></li><li><p>
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<tt class="systemitem">alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die</tt>
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</p></li><li><p>
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<tt class="systemitem">comp.unix.internals.system.calls.brk.brk.brk</tt>
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</p></li><li><p>
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<tt class="systemitem">sci.physics.edward.teller.boom.boom.boom</tt>
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</p></li><li><p>
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<tt class="systemitem">alt.sadistic.dentists.drill.drill.drill</tt>
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</p></li></ul></div><p>These two traditions fuse in the newsgroup <tt class="systemitem">alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb</tt>, devoted to
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humor based on deliberately confounding parts of speech. Several observers
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have noted that the contents of this group is excellently representative of
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the peculiarities of hacker humor.</p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="construction.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="construction.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="soundalike-slang.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 4. Jargon Construction </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Soundalike Slang</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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