Pedants' Paradise

[jean]

Someone had probably read the discussion of got/gotten, and taken to heart the view expressed there that the past participle marker -ten was 'redundant'.

They reasoned that on that basis any marking of the distinction between past simple and past participle was unnecessary, and decided to stop doing it.

[gurnemanz]

Simple past "sprung" seems to be an optional variant in US. It's not too surprising that confusion can be caused since quite a few similar irregular verbs follow the i - u - u pattern. cling, fling, sling, slink, spin, sting, string, swing, win, wring. I haven't tried to research this but over time they must have moved away from the simple past "a" which was there in the Germanic original and is still there in modern German cognates: eg spinnen, spann, gesponnen; schwingen, schwang, gechwungen

[french frank]

Someone had probably read the discussion of got/gotten, and taken to heart the view expressed there that the past participle marker -ten was 'redundant'.

I would not have taken issue (I don't think) with the precise comment that 'the past participle marker -ten' was redundant ': in the sense of being an unneeded addition to the verb form 'got'. The dispute was whether 'gotten' was an Americanism or 'redundant British English (some would say correct British English)'; that didn't seem to refer to the ending but the whole word.

[Lat-Literal]

Someone had probably read the discussion of got/gotten, and taken to heart the view expressed there that the past participle marker -ten was 'redundant'.

They reasoned that on that basis any marking of the distinction between past simple and past participle was unnecessary, and decided to stop doing it.

I would not have taken issue (I don't think) with the precise comment that 'the past participle marker -ten' was redundant ': in the sense of being an unneeded addition to the verb form 'got'. The dispute was whether 'gotten' was an Americanism or 'redundant British English (some would say correct British English)'; that didn't seem to refer to the ending but the whole word.

I have forgotten that discussion but in British English Jesus is God's only begotten son.

[vinteuil]

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... and when did you last use 'begat'?

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[Lat-Literal]

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... and when did you last use 'begat'?

.

When I described a sombrero in what I thought was a Mexican accent.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... and when did you last use 'begat'?

When I described a sombrero in what I thought was a Mexican accent.

[DracoM]

Is it just me with N.London pronunciation on radio?
i.e. berk = book.

[Serial_Apologist]

Is it just me with N.London pronunciation on radio?
i.e. berk = book.

Only if you hail from Berkshire!

[kernelbogey]

Simple past "sprung" seems to be an optional variant in US. It's not too surprising that confusion can be caused since quite a few similar irregular verbs follow the i - u - u pattern. cling, fling, sling, slink, spin, sting, string, swing, win, wring. I haven't tried to research this but over time they must have moved away from the simple past "a" which was there in the Germanic original and is still there in modern German cognates: eg spinnen, spann, gesponnen; schwingen, schwang, gechwungen

I haven't researched, but I think current US usage might be 'the car span out of control'.

I recently came across a discussion of a more common example of this pattern - which is frustratingly remaining just out of my recall: I hope to post an Edit!

[jean]

Simple past "sprung" seems to be an optional variant in US. It's not too surprising that confusion can be caused since quite a few similar irregular verbs follow the i - u - u pattern. cling, fling, sling, slink, spin, sting, string, swing, win, wring. I haven't tried to research this but over time they must have moved away from the simple past "a" which was there in the Germanic original and is still there in modern German cognates: eg spinnen, spann, gesponnen...

When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?

[kernelbogey]

Then there is this new coinage from the US woke, meaning something like 'aware' - but with the crucial added implication of awareness of current affairs and values - the Urban Dictionary has some amusing definitions.

[kernelbogey]

A day or two back I was ordering online from a large international supplier (no, not that one). The town where I live is named with two words, the first of which contains an apostrophe (cf Bishop's Stortford, where I don't live); and so does the name of my house. When registering and therefore recording my address for the first time I found that it would not accept anything other than 'letters, numbers and spaces'. IT folk are responsible for this assault on language and meaning. Ironic, too, considering the ubiquity of @ and the hashtag!

[vinteuil]

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... even sadder presumably for those living here -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_Ho!

.

[jean]

The solution is to translate all place named into Latin, thus obviating the need for the quaintly-named Saxon Genitive.

Think Bognor Regis.