Re: USAGE: Survey

Thomas Wier <trwier@...> wrote:
> Okay, I know I'm not supposed to do this, but need some
> data.  I was attending Richie Kayne's class today at the LSA
> institute on comparative syntax.  A question arose as to
> whether in English there are any present participles that
> are irregular.  I mentioned the verb "to lightning", which
> in my dialect can only have the participle "lightning",
> not "lightninging".  So which is better:
>
>   (1)  It was lightning out last night.  OR
>   (2)  It was lightninging out last night.
>
> In my dialect, I can only get (1).
Hmm, as far as I know 'lightning' is irregular as a participle
of the (otherwise rare in this sense) verb 'to lighten', not as a
verb in its own right... i.e., It was thundering and lightning out
last night, from 'thunder and lighten'.

> (Kayne has this rather controversial theory that there are in
> fact only a very limited number of verbs in English, such as
> "do", "make", etc. which are all light verbs.  Anything else
> that looks like a verb is actually a noun which has been
> incorporated with a null light verb.
Hmm, I wouldn't even incorporate 'make' in that class.


	*Muke!
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