The Ass Camouflage Construction

African American English (AAE) has a cool expression called the Ass Camouflage Construction:

• They done arrested her stupid ass.
• I’m gonna sue her ass.
• Get your triflin’ ass out of here.
• I saw his ass yesterday.
• His ass is gonna get fried.

(Throughout this article, the examples are all actual instances of use recorded by linguists. See the References list for sources.)

Most varieties of American English have now adopted this or similar expressions from AAE, but the construction originated in AAE, where it is still much more widely used, and used in a wider range of contexts than in Standard American English.

Note how ass in this construction stands in for the entire person (which is why it’s called a “camouflage” construction). This is an example of metonymy, a linguistic technique where a concept is referred to by something else which is closely associated with it. Other examples include:

• the White House issued a statement (White House = executive branch)
• the book is coming along (book = progress through the book)
• Hollywood loves sequels (Hollywood = American film industry)

The Ass Camouflage Construction is a specific subtype of metonymy called synecdoche, where a part of something stands in for the entire object. For example:

• all hands on deck (hands = sailors)
• nice wheels (wheels = car)
• they done arrested her stupid ass (ass = woman)

Metonymy and synecdoche are often referred to as “figures of speech”, but I don’t think this characterization does justice to what’s happening cognitively and linguistically when we use them. Calling them “figures of speech” makes it sound like it’s a purely poetic or rhetorical choice, when in fact metonymy arises from how we categorize and conceptualize the world. Metonymy is a cognitive shortcut that allows us to recall a thing by its most salient feature or other things associated with it. It also allows us to highlight those features or associations for others: referring to lawyers as “the suits” imparts a subtly different pragmatic message than simply calling them “lawyers”. Other times, we use metonymy to highlight the feature or association that is most relevant in context: saying “who got the extra large?” is most helpful when there are two different-sized pizzas because it metonymically highlights the most salient difference between them. In the case of the Ass Camouflage Construction, what the choice of ass highlights is the informal, derogatory, or jocular intention behind the expression.

There’s also a related AAE expression called the Attributive Ass Construction:

• We some punk-ass parents, see.
• That raggedy-ass sweater should be thrown out.
• This my cute-ass friend.
• Parents please tell y’all sick-ass children to cover they mouth when they cough!!!
• just another lame-ass sad-ass excuse of a man