USAGE: boughten [was: Re: Ungrammaticalization?]

On Fri, 16 Jul 1999, Nik Taylor wrote:

> Josh Brandt-Young wrote:
> > Has anyone else run into anything of the kind?
>
> >From time to time.  Especially when I'm tired, I'll sometimes produce
> ungrammatical (and not just prescriptivisitically [is that a word?]
> ungrammatical) sentences, plus I have some odd forms in my speech, like
> "boughten" for the past participle of "buy".  I don't produce "have
> bought" very often, and virtually never a form like "would have
> bought".  Why that "boughten" should be more common in the more complex
> verb form is a mystery to me, but nevertheless it exists.
My wife uses 'boughten' all of the time, but only adjectivally; "a
boughten cake" (as opposed to one made in our own kitchen). I think that
the usage is common in the Midwest United States, since both my wife
(from Minnesota) and my sister-in-law (from Illinois) have this usage. I
tease Laura all the time about it (and other Minnesota-isms); she's a
good sport and teases me right back about all of my Utah-isms.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu                   "All grammars leak."
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~elzinga/                 -Edward Sapir