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grammaticality - How is it we can omit 'what' from 'What the f--k are you doing?' but not 'how/who' from 'How/who the f--k are you doing?'


What is the difference between What (the) from How (the), Who (the), and other question words so that we can omit not only What but also What the from such sentences as



(What the) frick/hell/fuck are you doing?'



but not How (the) from



How the frick/hell/fuck are you doing?



and not When (the) or Why (the) from



When/Why the fuck are you doing that?



Attestation to the omission of What and What the is easy to find.



The hell (The fuck) are you doing?1



Cf The fuck are you talking about? in The Fuse, #8:


enter image description here


and



Hell/Fuck are you doing?2



But I as a native speaker I judge that removing How the and who the from the corresponding questions cannot be done without those sentences becoming ungrammatical. In other words


(The) fuck are you doing?


can stand for


What the fuck are you doing? but not


How the fuck are you doing?


Who the fuck are you doing?


In addition, it seems to me When and where cannot be removed from When/where the fuck are you doing that? Nor Why from Why the fuck are you doing that?



(I have read Lawler's usage of the hell, but he doesn't touch on omitting 'what' in 'What (in)(the) hell are you doing?, just that either but not both 'in' or 'the' can be omitted.)


1 Attested to by common usage such as here, here, here. In addition, the Urban Dictionary confirms that 'The fuck?' is short for 'What the fuck?' and says the corresponding thing about 'The hell?'


2 The even shorter 'the-less' versions are attested by common usage as seen here for example.




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