Re: A language change question (longish)

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 06:55, Eric Christopherson <rakko@...> wrote:
> Hi, all. I've been wondering for a while about a kind of language change
> I've read about and noticed, where a form (or class of forms) which is
> inflected for a certain category gets reanalyzed in such a way that it no
> longer falls into that category.
>
> Examples:
> - People who interpret _drowned_ as a present tense instead of past (and
> hence form a new past tense, _drownded_)
I'm reminded of the people who interpret intransitive _lay_ as a
present tense instead of past (and hence form a new past tense,
_laid_). As in, "I told him, 'go and lay on the bed', so he went and
laid on the bed" vs. "I told him, 'go and lie on the bed', so he went
and lay on the bed".

Another thing that came to mind is extrapolating a present tense
"misle" (pronounced /maIz@l/ or thereabouts) from the past tense
"misled" which they've only seen in print. But that's more
back-formation than what you're asking about.

Cheers,
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>

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