Yo, Josh!
The ghost of Dr. Freud just told me that your ungrammaticalization may be
your subconscious manifesting its rejection and liberation from your
grammar-nazi past, but we don't have to believe Sigmund just because he's a
ghost.
"Ungrammaticalization" may not be the best term here: it sounds like
you're taking something grammaticalized and then, say, lexifying it. Like
moving from "-s" possessive to having phonologically unrelated words for the
nominative/possessive forms.
BUT SERIOUSLY,
Is it possible that all this loosening up is a result of your explorations
in grammar?
Quite a few people who do a lot of phonetic transcription report that their
spelling has gone downhill as a result. Could something analogous be
happening to your spoken grammar?
Keep posting,
Jim
>I've just recently noticed myself doing something somewhat odd (odd
>because I was a fervent prescriptive grammar nazi for very many years):
>I'm producing constructions that the average English speaker would deem
>incorrect; and what's more, my brain tells me that the way I'm doing it
>*is* correct. Examples:
>"Sang" has dropped out of existence in my speech. My brain insists on
>"sung" for the simple past tense.
>Somewhat similarly, "drunk" and "swum" have almost disappeared, being
>replaced very often by "drank" and "swam." I sometimes do the same with
>"ran" as a past participle.
>Really weird: the other day when my mother asked my how much of something
>I wanted for dinner, I caught myself replying, "Any much would be all
>right."
>And like I said, it isn't as if I don't know proper English grammar: I
>can still write perfectly normally. My brain just seems to be instituting
>a program of very rapid language change for no particular reason. Has
>anyone else run into anything of the kind?
>Josh Brandt-Young <neonwave7@...>
>
http://geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6073/
>"After the tempest, I behold, once more, the weasel."
>(Mispronunciation of Ancient Greek)
>
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