The present study is a corpus-based approach using both the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Blog Authorship Corpus (BAC) to identify variance in spoken use of fuck between genders, age groups, and social classes. The resulting analysis shows that there is little variance in use between male and female speakers, while use is most prevalent during the teens and early 20s. This study offers further support of the idea that there are two distinct meanings of fuck that can be separated into two distinct words, fuck1 and fuck2, by showing that a non-referential definition of fuck (fuck2) is the dominant use between all genders, ages, and social classes.
","abstract_html":"<p>The present study is a corpus-based approach using both the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Blog Authorship Corpus (BAC) to identify variance in spoken use of <em>fuck</em> between genders, age groups, and social classes. The resulting analysis shows that there is little variance in use between male and female speakers, while use is most prevalent during the teens and early 20s. This study offers further support of the idea that there are two distinct meanings of <em>fuck</em> that can be separated into two distinct words, <em>fuck1</em> and <em>fuck2</em>, by showing that a non-referential definition of <em>fuck</em> (<em>fuck2</em>) is the dominant use between all genders, ages, and social classes.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Howe, Ryan"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts (MA)","degree_level":"Open Access Thesis","degree_discipline":"English Language and Literature","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Veronica Grondona, Ph.D., Chair","Helen Aristar-Dry, Ph.D."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2012-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:16:51Z","subjects":["blog","authorship","swearing","BNC","BAC","Linguistics"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.emich.edu/theses/413","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Veronica Grondona, Ph.D., Chair","Helen Aristar-Dry, Ph.D."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Howe, Ryan"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2012-09-06T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English Language and Literature"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Open Access Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts (MA)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["blog","authorship","swearing","BNC","BAC","Linguistics"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.emich.edu/theses/413"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The present study is a corpus-based approach using both the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Blog Authorship Corpus (BAC) to identify variance in spoken use of fuck between genders, age groups, and social classes. The resulting analysis shows that there is little variance in use between male and female speakers, while use is most prevalent during the teens and early 20s. This study offers further support of the idea that there are two distinct meanings of fuck that can be separated into two distinct words, fuck1 and fuck2, by showing that a non-referential definition of fuck (fuck2) is the dominant use between all genders, ages, and social classes.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The use of fuck: A sociolinguistic approach to the usage of fuck in the BNC and blog authorship corpus"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Veronica Grondona, Ph.D., Chair","Helen Aristar-Dry, Ph.D."],"dc:creator":["Howe, Ryan"],"dc:date.available":["2012-09-06T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The present study is a corpus-based approach using both the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Blog Authorship Corpus (BAC) to identify variance in spoken use of fuck between genders, age groups, and social classes. The resulting analysis shows that there is little variance in use between male and female speakers, while use is most prevalent during the teens and early 20s. This study offers further support of the idea that there are two distinct meanings of fuck that can be separated into two distinct words, fuck1 and fuck2, by showing that a non-referential definition of fuck (fuck2) is the dominant use between all genders, ages, and social classes.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.emich.edu/theses/413"],"dc:subject":["blog","authorship","swearing","BNC","BAC","Linguistics"],"dc:title":["The use of fuck: A sociolinguistic approach to the usage of fuck in the BNC and blog authorship corpus"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English Language and Literature"],"thesis:degree_level":["Open Access Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Arts (MA)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:16:51Z"}