Re: why the -s in English verbs?

"Peter" == Peter T Daniels <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Peter> The simple present (where the -s form occurs) isn't all
Peter> that common in ordinary English -- how often do we make
Peter> generic statements in the singular (The lion sleeps in the
Peter> daytime, vs. lions sleep in the daytime), and how often do
Peter> we ofer narratives in the "historical present"? It's used
Peter> for a sense of immediacy, but narratives are more likely to
Peter> be in the simple past (and, in strong verbs, the simple
Peter> past -ed form loses ground to the -en "past participle"
Peter> form -- "I seen them").

Because the pp often doesn't involve a change of the stem vowel, even
for strong verbs? That means the pp are formed with simpler rules?

e.g. "seen", "given", "taken", "risen", "gone", "done", "been"
.... these can be formed from the infinitely + /-n/.

For verbs like "come", "run", there is even no change from infinitive
-> pp!!!


--
Lee Sau Dan 李守敦 ~{@nJX6X~}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~danlee
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