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

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