Re: USAGE : English past tense and participle in -et

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003, John Cowan wrote:

> Tristan McLeay scripsit:
>
> > You funny people, everyone knows a whine is an annoying high-pitched
> > noise :)
>
> Too right, even when it's made by a person.  But I take "whinge" to
> be a general synonym for "complain", whereas "whine" is specific to
> complaints in a certain tone of voice.
Oh, okay. [How could I possibly be saying that this is 'all correct' when
I didn't know that it was true till you told me? 'Twould be an amazing
presumption. It is, after all, your opinion/observation/understanding.]

> > Is 'all right' in the dictionary separately then? Because 'alright'
> > doesn't mean 'everything is correct', but 'okay'.
>
> Umm, "O.K." is an acronym (deliberately misspelled) for "all correct",
> so I don't understand the distinction you're making between the two.
> It's true that "O.K." can mean "Yes" in answer to a question, as can
> "all right", but that's not the basic meaning of either.
Umm, 'okay' or 'OK' or 'O.K.' or 'ok' or however you want to spell it is a
word which might _derive_ from a misspelt acronym, initialism or whatever
of 'all correct', but it doesn't *mean* 'all correct'. If you'd written an
essay and were told it was 'OK', it would be equivalent to saying you'd
got maybe a B, B+ for it; it wasn't brilliant, but it was acceptible. On
the other hand, if you were told it was 'all correct', it would be the
same as saying it was factually accurate, and wouldn't make any mention of
the quality of writing, argument, whatever, and you'd be left to work that
out based on the tone of voice it was said in (or other communications).


At least, this is what I hear and say and what I expect. I would be
surprised to hear 'okay' as perfect or all correct.

------------------------

Mark J. Reed also wrote:

> "Alright" is an alternate spelling for SOME OF THE MEANINGS of "all
> right".
Exactly what I said, or had intended when I said that 'alright' doesn't
mean 'everything is correct'.

> They are pronounced identically, although "all right" has other
> meanings, and may be pronounced differently in some of them (e.g.
> emphasis on the second syllable instead of the first).  The dropping
> of the [l] (and even of the [r], as in the recent development
> "a'ight") can occur with either spelling.
Speak for your own dialect. In mine, 'all right' (meaning 'everything is
correct' in frex. your exam answers scenario) has an /l/, though 'all
right' sometimes occurs meaning 'alright' (in which case it doesn't have
an /l/). My intention was to draw a distinction between the two and say
that having differing spellings for them was appropirate.

I personally am unfamiliar with 'a'ight'.

--
Tristan