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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Regularising the irregular

0To me, it seems sensible, a logical step, to regularise all English irregular verbs. This has already/is already being done by many English dialect speakers. I support such moves. Do you? 0-
  

Top answer

02br 00Language is not logical and you cannot legislate it. 0-

— Mister Micawber

  • 02br 00Language is not logical and you cannot legislate it.
  • 0-
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26 Answers
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0 .02br
00Language is not logical and you cannot legislate it. And I like the irregular verbs-- they have wonderful sounds.0-
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01cite10Anonymous12cite12br
10To me, it seems sensible, a logical step, to regularise all English irregular verbs. This has already/is already being done by many English dialect speakers. I support such moves. Do you? 12br
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10To me, knowing the past tenses and past participles of irregular verbs i
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01cite10Anonymous12cite10To me, it seems sensible, a logical step, to regularise all English irregular verbs.12br
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10How are you going to accomplish it?02br
00CB 0-
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0Now, this is a coincidence! 05002br
00This morning I was listening to an 05200 and here's what the speaker (teacher?) said:01blockquote
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10I just want to finish by mentioning that there are some regional variations in non-standard grammar. I thought I’d tell you about some features of non-standard grammar from the regional accent
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0In fact, not all movement is towards the regularisation of irregular verbs. 02br
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00Thus "brung" and "thunk" have re-irregularised "brought" and "thought", for some non-standard speakers; and the past tense "text" (for "texted") has become quite common.02br
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00MrP02br
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0<Language is not logical and you cannot legislate it. And I like the irregular verbs-- they have wonderful sounds.>02br
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00But they cause endless problems for many learners. Are there no parts of langauge which are logical? How about the change from British spelling to American spelling of certain words? That seemed a logical/sensible move.0-
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0With your help? 050010id2
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0If this dialect were more widely spoken, we'd have to re-write our grammar books ... 02br
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00 Many grammar books have been re-written. We discover new things, we review our view upon language use, etc. 0-
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0That still seems to be an attempt at regularising, or at least narrowing the options, Mr P.0-
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01cite10Anonymous12cite10 Are there no parts of langauge which are logical? 12blockquote
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00The strict answer to that question is "no", unless we are talking about arguments. I think what you mean is "systematic". No language is completely systematic. What are thought of as irregularities are an essential ingredi
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