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

Tristan McLeay wrote at 2003-12-27 19:51:42 (-0500)
 > On Sun, 28 Dec 2003, Tim May wrote:
 >
 > > Andreas Johansson wrote at 2003-12-28 01:14:50 (+0100)
 > >  > Quoting Tim May <butsuri@...>:
 > >  >
 > >  > > It occurs to me that in at least some dialects there is at least one
 > >  > > word which may fall between "a" and "lot of".  While the phrase "a
 > >  > > whole lot of" may not be standard English, exactly, it is well known
 > >  > > and generally understood.  I would be interested to hear how this is
 > >  > > accounted for by those who consider "alot" to be a single word.
 > >  >
 > >  > Presumably by "alot" not occuring in that phrase.
 > >  >
 > >
 > > But "lot" in "a whole lot of" is clearly the same lexical item as in
 > > "a lot of", whether or not it's the same as any other use of "lot".
 >
 > And 'other' (or 'nother') in 'a whole (n)other story' is clearly the same
 > lexical item as in 'another'.
 >
Yes, that's a good point.  "Another" is in many ways quite similar to
"alot".  Frankly I'm not sure either of them needs to exist*, but if we
have "another", it does seem like a relevant precedent.

I wonder, though, why "afew" and "alittle" aren't being suggested,
when "few" and "little" are even less nounlike than "lot".

* The spellings, that is, not the constructions themselves.

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