John Cowan wrote:
> Exactly so. I was rejecting Ed's claim that we'd rather memorize
> than compute in all cases. Per contra, we memorize a modest number
> of irregular forms, but we compute the regular ones, just as you say.
That's where I disagree. I agree with Ed that we probably store even
regular forms of common verbs like "cook". The brain does seem to be
faster at retrieving a form like "cook" than computing "cook" + "s" -->
"cooks".
> But the popularity of the L.R. has imposed "dwarves" as an alternative
> plural, specifically in "fairy-story" contexts.
I don't think I've ever seen "dwarfs" anywhere.
--
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