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Re: USAGE: Language revival

From:Ed Heil <edheil@...>
Date:Thursday, November 25, 1999, 0:56
It is a great pleasure to find myself agreeing with Nik; we often seem
to be at odds over minor things.  BTW, Nik, the most famous use of
"Dwarfs" is after "Snow White and the Seven". :)

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                       edheil@postmark.net
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Nik Taylor wrote:

> 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. > > -- > "Old linguists never die - they just come to voiceless stops." - > anonymous > http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/X-Files > http://members.tripod.com/~Nik_Taylor/Books.html > ICQ: 18656696 > AIM Screen-Name: NikTailor