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

On Fri, 26 Dec 2003, Costentin Cornomorus wrote:

> --- Gary Shannon <fiziwig@...> [complained about alot]:
>
> Well, a- is an old intensive particle in English (as well as a present
> participal marker).
Any examples? (historic or current). (A- has alota meanings in English,
most dead or restrictet non-productively to ahandfula words.)

> I doubt that people are aware of this, but it
> seems that they're simply recomposing single words that look to have
> been decomposed at some time apast.
>
> When you think about it, "a" in such phrases really can't be the
> indefinite article, because the noun that follows is always plural.
> (Can anyone think of any exceptions?)
Well, in 'a lot of money', the 'a' doesn't apply to the 'money': it
applies to the 'lot', cf. 'a person's house' may be *the* house of *a*
person (though it also might be a house of a person, dependen on whether
we have a house to live in, or have hice to make money).

> > Just a nother
>
> Ah! Tha does that too! Nother is an interesting
> word. It can be, as it is here, a transferrence
> of the N of "an" to "other"; so it is a nother <
> another < an other. Nother can also be < ne
> other, and means neither of two.
Neither, like either, is already of two (at least historically and in the
speech/writing of pedants).

--
Tristan

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