meaningword-usage
I'd always thought that the word "bastard" had a negative and impolite meaning, but when I came across this wine (Fat bastard Chardonnay) I started to doubt my belief.
Can some native speaker explain if this usage of "bastard" is possible in positive sense nowadays? If so, what is the positive sense in this case?
Basically, the positive anymore does not simply have the meaning of nowadays, but rather means simply quite the opposite of negative anymore. The negative anymore implies that what is described by the sentence used to be the case, and asserts that it no longer is, the positive anymore implies or asserts that what is described used to NOT be the case, and asserts that it is now.
Kindle and Sag (1975) provide a slightly more technical explanation. Consider the following:
(1) Anymore, we eat a lot of fish.
According to Kindle and Sag (1975):
The usual hypothesis advanced about the grammars of those, primarily Mid-west, speakers who say sentences like [(1)] is that they have restructured anymore into a free-wheeling lexical item with the meaning of 'nowadays'. [...] This explanation has recently been shown to be unsatisfactory by Labov (1972), who observes that all English speakers balk at items like [(3)] and [(4)].
(Kindle and Sag 1975:89)
(3) When would like to live, 1920 or anymore?
(4) When was the best beer brewed? ... Anymore.
Kindle and Sag continue, quoting Labov (1972):
'In Standard English a sentence of the form: 'I don't do Y anymore' presupposes that 'X used to do Y'. In these 'positive' anymore dialects a complex semantic change has taken place creating a new lexical item anymore-2, which occurs only in positive sentences. Positive sentences of the form: 'X does Y anymore' assert that 'X didn't used to do Y.' Positive anymore speakers still have the old anymore in negative sentences, i.e. as a polarity alternant of still.'
(Labov 1972, cited by Kindle and Sag 1975:89-90)
References
Kindle, D. and I. Sag. (1975). Some more on anymore. In R. W. Fasold and R. W. Shuy (eds.), Analyzing variation in language: Papers from the Second Colloquium on New Ways of Analyzing Variation. Washington, D.C. Georgetown University Press, 89-111.
Labov, W. (1972). Where do grammars stop? In R. Shuy (ed.), *Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1972. Washington, D.C. Georgetown University Press.
Use commas, not commata. The latter is simply not used by native speakers.
Take a look, for example, at Google's Ngram Viewer on commas versus commata:
It's not even close.
Best Answer
Outside of neutral meaning as "out of wedlock child", it can have a slightly positive meaning in context of "very impressive". It is always slightly derogatory but sometimes it carries a load of awe. Like, when the opponent in sports pulls out a truly impressive stunt gaining a lead against the odds, you might hear "that bastard" uttered with humor and respect.
One frequent phrase is "Magnificent bastard", a person who picks morally ambiguous, or outright immoral means to achieve their goals, but are exceptionally efficient and impressive at that, and not ashamed of it in the least, arising more awe than hate, often arrogant but still likable. Most impressive and likable supervillains (and quite a few morally ambiguous heroes) from fiction are often characterized that way.
There's also a strictly humorous positive use for this when a person uses subversive means to force someone for something good against their will. Say, you try to lose weight, but your willpower often wavers. If your partner steals all your sweets, you might say "you bastard", while essentially praising them for aiding you.