Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: USAGE: NATLANG: I've Gots An English Question

From:Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>
Date:Thursday, June 26, 2003, 4:46
Quoting "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>:

> I will note, though, that I've certainly never heard "gots" > as the participle form. I'm pretty sure the "'ve gots" in > Mraz's song is made up, perhaps an intentional exaggeration > of "street" English or perhaps just an ignorant replica. > Still like the song, though. :)
I am reminded by the fact that this may also arise for phonological rather than morphological reasons. As I'm sure our esteemed friends Ray Brown could tell us (Ray, you here?), there is at least one British dialect, Scouse, which affricates all word-final voiceless stops. This, of course, has the effect of making the singular and plural of many nouns homophonous, as well as leading to such forms as "gots", which may become extended to other forms like "says" by analogy. ========================================================================= Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally, Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of 1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter. Chicago, IL 60637