Re: OT: English and schizophrenia

John Cowan wrote:

> Thomas R. Wier scripsit:
>
> > Oh, I wouldn't say it's that irregular.  Of those 9 different patterns,
> > only three or four are very productive (-(e)n, -e, null and -s for foreign
> > loans).
>
> Pinker (in _Words and Rules_) claims that only -s is productive;
> in tests of both German-sounding and foreign-sounding nonsense nouns,
> most German-speakers are comfortable only with -s endings.
Perhaps, but somehow I find what Pinker says unbelievable.  I mean,
don't agentives like "der Spieler", "der Führer", etc predictably take
the null plural morpheme? I know that's not the measure of productivity,
but it jars with my sense of the language.  (I am of course not a native
speaker.)

===================================
Thomas Wier | AIM: trwier

"Aspidi men Saiôn tis agalletai, hên para thamnôi
  entos amômêton kallipon ouk ethelôn;
autos d' exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeinê
  erretô; exautês ktêsomai ou kakiô" - Arkhilokhos

Reply