Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ    Attic   

Re: "Theory informs practice" - OK?

From:caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...>
Date:Thursday, November 13, 2008, 14:34
> "David J. Peterson" <dedalvs@...> wrote:
> To me, the fact that, as a joke, an English speaker can make > up "blunk" for the past tense of "blink" says something important > about language that theorists need to pay attention to.
Au contraire. The past tense of "blink" is "blank": blink, blank, blunk. You have made the same mistake as was made in the movie title "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." :-) I think we all know that English is losing its strong verbs. What a shame! Strong pasts and participles are going the way of "holp" and "holpen." But you're right it is fun to invent strong verbs: think, thank, thunk; wink, wank, wunk; trim, tram, trum; spell, spold, spold; fold, feld, feld. We could even have: blink, blought, blought. Charlie

Replies

Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>
David J. Peterson <dedalvs@...>