tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1021450099193451157.post1403011246694673698..comments2024-03-13T14:50:33.210-05:00Comments on Words Going Wild: I Love MeJim Bernhardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02002078047052060275noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1021450099193451157.post-69868427655422646472010-09-14T14:18:51.977-05:002010-09-14T14:18:51.977-05:00To: frogprof
Your objection to "sprung up&qu...To: frogprof<br /><br />Your objection to "sprung up" is noted, but explained as follows:<br /><br />"Although sprung [as a past tense] is labeled "American" by NODE [New Oxford Dictionary of English] in CIC [Cambridge International Corpus] it is used in British texts in 45 percent of the instances and in American texts in 47 percent, so there is only a small, probably insignificant difference."--John Algeo, British or American? A Handbook of Word and Grammar Patterns, Cambridge University Press, 2006.<br /><br />The OED (as well as Merriam-Webster's reliable New International 2nd edition) also list sprung as an alternate past tense to sprang, with no indication that it is sub-standard, so it may not be that there is any difference between US and UK usage. Both of these reliable lexicons also list other vowel-shifting verbs such as sung and, yes, even sunk, as acceptable alternative past tenses. I must confess, however, that sung and sunk do not ride well on my ears, as sprung easily does.<br /><br />The reason for such usage I think must be analogous to verbs like sting and sling, for which the past tenses stang and slang are obsolete, and would not be used by any educated English speaker. Sprang, sang, and sank may be on the same path to oblivion. <br /><br />Thank you for your comment.Jim Bernhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02002078047052060275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1021450099193451157.post-46482975211432756892010-09-08T15:00:07.391-05:002010-09-08T15:00:07.391-05:00"A flower ... 'sprung' up .."???..."A flower ... 'sprung' up .."???? Oy veh!<br />I tried to get Safire to explain to me why Americans are "suddenly" using the past participle of verbs [the one that I keep seeing is "the boat sunk" and variations thereon]instead of the perfect tense, but he never replied -- and this was several years before he died, too. But et tu, Brute?! [Or as Daddy used to insist that Julius woulda said, "καὶ σὺ τέκνον ?"][He was in good company, I discovered -- he cribbed from Suetonius. And here all this time I thought he was so smart.]frogprofnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1021450099193451157.post-24194761899711216622010-07-22T16:04:14.142-05:002010-07-22T16:04:14.142-05:00What a hiss! But, oh, such witty bliss
in the Bar...What a hiss! But, oh, such witty bliss <br />in the Bard of Buffalo Bayou's verses.Geoff M. Popehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13152413400104853539noreply@blogger.com