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

I'm surprised - though I guess I oughtn't be by now - that this is
at all debatable.  The word "alot" is quite clearly a contraction of
"a lot" which is the indefinite article plus the noun "lot", which
can be replaced by synonyms such as "bunch" (often "whole bunch"),
"_____load" with many options for the blank, both obscene and not,
"great deal", etc.  This is true in both the adjectival ("There sure
are a whole bunch of those things, aren't there?") and adverbial
("I love you a whole bunch!") senses.

Where does any doubt about this come from??

-Mark

Replies