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Re: irregularities

From:J Matthew Pearson <pearson@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 13, 2001, 16:39
Andreas Johansson wrote:

> Elliott Lash wrote: > >Actually, I've grouped these verbs into a "class" something like this: > > > >sleep > slept > >leave > left > >dream > dreamt > >*learn > learnt (learned) > >meet > met > >keep > kept > >read > read > > > >basically the requirement is that they be weak and have the vowel /i/ in > >the present and /E/ in the past. I don't know if this is a valid category > >for most linguists...but I certainly classify them like that. > > I say "learnt", but otherwise that's the forms I learnt(!) in school, and > the one I normally use too. > > Now, what about "burnt"/"burned"? Both spellings are considered correct, > right? For some reason, /b@(r)nd/ sounds wrong to my (non-native) ears - I > say /b@(r)nt/. What about you natives?
To me, some of these irregular forms sound best as adjectival participles. Thus I have contrasts like the following: I burned/*burnt the cake. The cake is burned/burnt. Similarly, "dreamed" is fine only as a past tense verb ("I dreamed that I was rich"), whereas "dreamt" works either as a past tense verb or as an adjectival participle ("I dreamt that I was rich", "He has undreamt-of wealth"). Matt.

Replies

Douglas Koller, Latin & French <latinfrench@...>
Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>